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34:49
Company
Slate Auto
A new American car company that wants to make electric cars much cheaper by selling a basic vehicle that owners can customize themselves with simple add-on parts.
Car
Truck Slate Auto
This refers to a concept for a customizable electric utility vehicle designed by a company called Slate Auto. Instead of a traditional fixed design, it uses a flat base that allows different types of truck bodies to be attached depending on what the owner needs to carry. It is aimed at businesses looking for flexible, electric work vehicles.
Person
Chris Barman
The boss of Slate Auto, who has many years of experience building cars for major brands like Chrysler.
Car
Slate Blank Slate
A very simple, cheap electric pickup truck that doesn't come with fancy screens or paint, allowing you to add your own parts and colors like Lego blocks.
Car
Toyota Hilux
A famous, extremely tough Toyota pickup truck sold around the world that is known for being almost impossible to break.
Car
Toyota Tacoma
The Toyota Tacoma is a medium-sized pickup truck made by the Japanese automaker Toyota. It is designed for people who want the utility of a truck bed but in a smaller, easier-to-drive size than a massive full-size truck. It is very popular for outdoor activities like camping and off-roading.
Car
Ford Maverick
A popular, smaller pickup truck made by Ford that is easy to drive in cities and gets great gas mileage.
Car
Land Rover Defender
A famous British luxury SUV designed to climb mountains and cross rivers while keeping passengers comfortable.
Car
Ford Bronco
A tough, retro-styled SUV from Ford built for driving on dirt trails, which lets you take the doors and roof off.
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
An old-school, boxy SUV from Chevy that was famous in the 1980s for having a removable back roof.
Car
Cupra Born
The Cupra Born is a small, sporty electric hatchback made by a Spanish car brand called Cupra. It runs entirely on battery power and is designed to be fun to drive while remaining practical for daily city driving. It is primarily sold in Europe and other international markets outside of North America.
Term
composite body panels
Car body parts made of tough, high-tech plastics instead of metal, meaning they won't rust or dent easily.
Concept
franchise dealership model
The traditional way of buying a car where you go to a local dealership (like a local Ford or Toyota dealer) that is independently owned, rather than buying directly from the car company online.
Part
electric drive unit
The main power package of an electric car, which combines the electric motor, the computer that controls it, and the gears into one compact unit.
Concept
right to repair
A movement and set of laws that protect your right to fix your own car or take it to a cheap local mechanic, instead of being forced to go to an expensive official dealership.
Car
Toyota Crown
A high-end, luxury-focused model line from Toyota that has been famous in Japan for decades and was recently brought to America.
Car
Fisker Ocean
A stylish electric SUV that went on sale in 2023, but the company went bankrupt shortly after, leaving owners with cars that cannot be easily fixed or updated.
LIVE
Hey everyone and welcome back to the straight shift.
Fourth of July is coming up and I've been reflecting a bit on the 250th birthday of America,
the principles this country was founded on like freedom, creativity, ingenuity,
and how that leads to creatively solving problems.
Well of course also making money because capitalism is a foundation of this country
and time at the American dream. But I've also been reflecting on a lot of the challenges that
face our country, mainly affordability especially when it comes to cars.
Electric vehicles specifically were supposed to make cars more affordable yet most cost over
$60,000. So what the heck is going on? Well one group of disgruntled former auto executives
from Michigan Big Three asked that very question and they banded together along with employees
from other EV startups and even Harley Davidson and they said, fuck this,
oh I forgot to give the disclaimer at the beginning of this podcast.
Blanket disclaimer for the straight shift there could always be cussing.
But these folks asked how can we do this better and make cars especially electric cars more
affordable. So today we're going to talk about a new EV startup that is truly different and
genuinely trying to solve the car affordability problem in a really unique and fun way. We're
going to do a deep dive and go further than just all the hype and ask the hard questions because
hello that's what I do and I want you to be better prepared to answer the question,
should your next car be a blank slate? Let's find out.
The hottest thing to hit the automotive industry this year is an EV startup company called Slate
Auto, headquartered in Troy, Michigan. The company was originally founded in 2022 under the working
name ReColonCar like a memo like this is regarding a car. So obviously they just took the subject
line of an email and named the company after it to start with. Okay that's cool. Their purpose was
to develop an affordable EV platform and actually truly affordable EV platform. It was originally
founded by MIT grad entrepreneur and manufacturing guru Mike Arnone along with former Amazon executive
Jeff Wilkie. These two guys had previously started a company called ReColon Build Manufacturing in
2020 because hey what else was there to do except start a company in the middle of a global pandemic
but they did it for the purpose of strengthening American manufacturing capabilities by building
this network of engineering and manufacturing businesses and expertise. Basically they saw
what the pandemic was doing to the supply chain across every industry and just how reliant we
had become on China and they thought yeah we should probably do something about that. So they built
this network and said hey let's use this to build affordable cars. China's doing it so can we.
So while they were developing that EV platform they were also out there raising a boatload of
and they purchased a defunct printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana and then they began hiring
experienced executives from the automotive industry. Remember those disgruntled guys I mentioned?
So in 2025 they publicly launched a company called Slate Auto and they revealed the blank slate
concept. I'm going to give them bonus points for some cool branding here but before we go any further
there are some rumors flying around the internet that this is a Jeff Bezos company that he's running
this startup. He is not that's a bunch of internet clickbait bullshittery. Some investment entities
connected to him which are there any that are not connected to him these days have contributed to
various rounds of funding for this startup so he's technically an investor but he is not involved in
the operations of the business but it does tell you how deep some of the pockets go that have
invested in Slate Auto. The great news is that the company is not run by the founders it's run by
CEO Chris Barman and she is a former Stellantis i.e. Chrysler exec with years of experience
in engineering operations and manufacturing. Yes it's being run by a woman I'm so happy
and she loves cars and she understands not just the hype and the marketing but the nitty gritties
of manufacturing and operations and logistics. So what I love is this company isn't built on
just the ego of one visionary technology nerd who woke up one day and said hey let's build cars
instead it's built on a solid experienced engineering manufacturing and economic practices and
principles and run by a group of people who actually know cars they know the auto industry
they're just rethinking how cars are built and sold. So you're probably asking if these executives
all came from the traditional auto industry why didn't they just build affordable cars while
they were at Ford and GM or Stellantis. Well because those are huge companies that have to
answer to shareholders who care more about turning quick profits than long-term economics and you
know I have complained about this before. So think about it though if you're running a company
like Ford or GM and you have two options build a 25000 dollar EV and only make
maybe 1500 dollars profit or build a 65000 dollar EV and make an eight or
9000 dollar profit. Guess which project gets approved because guess what the shareholders
want. You know I have complained about the very short term thinking of the shareholders they just
want quick profits and they're not looking at the long game which is why
we're losing this game to China but this company decided to do it differently they decided to break
the mold and the reality is to do that you have to start your own company. I mean that's what I did
because I wanted to break the mold on how people bought cars. So let's talk about what these people
have done what does slate auto build. Well nothing yet they're still in the pre-production process
they're finalizing their designs their manufacturing processes and procedures
and they're continuing to prep that factory in Indiana that they bought from the paper company
they're getting everyone excited to build one vehicle just one well maybe one and a half. So
let me explain one vehicle with a price tag of just 25 grand and it's called the blank
slate it's one EV platform that is technically a two-seat compact pickup truck about the size
of the old mid 80s Toyota SR5 or the old Toyota Hilux for those of you who like to look at the
international market and it is about as bare bones as a vehicle can get. It has steel wheels it has
manual crank windows manual air conditioning and heating controls yes it does have heat in AC
it's got physical knobs and switches no gigantic infotainment screen in fact it doesn't have an
infotainment system at all it doesn't even come with the radio it does come with a backup camera
because that's required by law and they give you USB ports and a phone mount so instead of a
navigation system you can just navigate using your phone which a lot of us do anyway because it's
more accurate and it's the only thing you should be doing with your phone while you're driving
anyway so yes it's an analog car as much as an electric vehicle can be one and it's stripped
down not because they're being cheap well okay technically they are being cheap because they're
trying to build an affordable car but they are being economical about it and they believe that
you should not have to buy a whole bunch of fancy features that you don't want and arguably
don't need just to get one or two things that you do want so it's not really even a truck it's just
a platform I think these people got drunk one night and started looking through the IKEA catalog
and looking at playing with some Legos and said hey you know let's make a car like that
think about how we buy cars today you pick your make a model then you pick the trim level depending
on what options you want you might get to pick the engine and whether it's two-wheel drive or
all-wheel drive you might pick some different options that are usually bundled into packages
that the manufacturer decides how to bundle based on how they want to force you into buying a more
expensive i.e. more profitable car for them just to get the one damn feature that you want
Slate is saying nope nope nope buy the foundation first and then decide what you want later
and build it the way you want and you can always add on to it later while you actually own it
so here's how it works the platform is a single motor rear-wheel drive pickup truck little tiny
pickup truck with an estimated range of about 205 miles and about 2000 pounds of towing capacity so
this is a small vehicle you're not going to be towing your boat or your camper with this nor are
you going to be going on a lot of road trips with it this is designed to be an in-town run-around
little vehicle it is small it is smaller than the Tacoma it's even two feet shorter than the little
Ford Maverick but you still get a five foot bed so it's still useful as a small truck more useful
than certain other so-called electric trucks that we will not name anyway and of course it wouldn't
be an EV without a little trunk you know that little trunk in the front and it charges on either a
level one regular AC charger that plugs into your normal 110 volt wall outlet just like your cell
phone that takes about 20 hours and that's fairly standard in the industry or if you go with a level
two charger to plug into that 240 volt like the one for your dryer don't plug it into the same
one as your dryer it takes about eight hours on that or it can use the Tesla fast chargers and
charge up at about 30 minutes so that is pretty standard in the industry so they are keeping up
with the other EVs they're just doing it less expensively it also comes with good basic safety
features which you have to have in the US but it comes with things like trash control front side
curtain a million different airbags front seat airbags all the airbags emergency auto braking
for that forward collision warning and mitigation if you're not paying attention it can even identify
pedestrians it gives you auto high beams like I said you got that backup camera you got keyless entry
but don't expect the overly fancy things like the lane keeping even blind spot monitoring and it
sure as heck isn't self-driving this vehicle expects you to drive like you know in the old days
when we actually drove cars instead of these roving computers with all these distractions
you still have some decisions you have to make upfront you get to decide on the body style the
basic blank slate is a two-seater pickup truck but they also give you an option for a five seat
like square back SUV it's kind of looks like a blend between the Rivian a Bronco the Hyundai
Santa Fe and the older Land Rover Defenders and that still starts just under $30,000 or you can get
it in a fastback SUV that has kind of that sloped back and think about the Chevy Blazers from the
mid 80s you know all this kind of makes sense you know Chris Barman is my age we were actually born
the same year which I am not going to mention but we are Gen Xers we're children of the 80s we were
raised on the breakfast club and hair bands you know I knew I liked this woman she's my people
and I bet she grew up playing with Legos just like I did so they give you these kind of retro body
styles and boxy is very in right now anyway so it will totally fit in while still standing out of
something different there's also going to be this open air body kit for the SUV version that will
let you remove the top over the back seats like you can with the Jeeps and the Broncos they haven't
priced that out yet but it looks really cool it's a DIY kit that you and a buddy because it'll probably
take two people can install yourself that's the great thing about this is you order just the
basic bare bones vehicle from the factory and then you have all these different accessories that you
can get that you would install yourself but here's the cool thing almost all these accessories
are under 500 bucks they can be installed with basic tools if you can assemble Ikea furniture
you can do this and it will probably actually be easier because they have what's called Slate
use Slate University it's a series of detailed how-to videos and manuals to teach you how to
do this you're not just going to have you know that little funny picture book that Ikea gives you
in hopes that you can follow along although I love those I find them very easy but they actually
give you the videos and the manuals and everything it's like they actually want you to learn how to
do this yourself and that not only makes it affordable but it allows you to customize the
vehicle to make it truly unique to you because they literally have hundreds of different accessories
and colors this is what the whole 15 billion dollar aftermarket accessory industry for Jeeps and
trucks is all about except for the affordability part so you can choose and install your own
headlight and tail light plates to give the lights different looks you can even add off-road lights
bed lights there's a couple dozen different types of roof racks and carriers and baskets for carrying
any type of outdoor toy you can think of from bikes to kayaks to snowboards there are truck bed
accessories including an aircraft grade aluminum bed cover with solar panels that let you protect
your stuff while also generating off the grid electricity to power your camping gear or small
tools it's crazy that one's more than 500 but it's still very affordable for what it is you can
choose to upgrade to different wheels and tires there's a ton of different choices there you get
to customize the interior with different dash panels buttons knobs center consoles armrests
seat covers door panels all in a whole bunch of fun different colors my favorite part is these
things don't even come with paint nope no paint there's not even an option to get it painted at
because paint is crazy expensive and so instead this vehicle is designed to be wrapped but wrapped
way cheaper than if you get a vehicle wrap after marketing a vehicle wraps can run anywhere from
like 5000 to over 20000 dollars it's kind of crazy i think maggie's wrap was maybe
around 3000 and that was ten years ago i dread if i have to get her re-wrapped ever it's
going to cost me a fortune and these aren't the custom wraps like for a business with your logos
but you get all these cool different colors and it's just 500 bucks for a basic color wrap with
lots of different colors to choose from or 700 for a specialty wrap and that includes some like
gradient colors to a full custom wrap with just about any color that you want for 1600 which is
still way cheaper than an aftermarket wrap or certainly cheaper than a paint job you can even
choose a partial wrap for even less money or pick these cool decals like stripes or sunbursts or
these retro themed decals these really can be fun and personalized and i know you're thinking wait a
minute it doesn't have paint therefore aren't the body panels going to be exposed if you don't wrap
the whole thing well yes that is in fact true and it's okay because the body panels aren't metal
they're not steel they're not aluminum they're certainly not stainless steel they are an injection
molded polypropylene composite and they mount that to a high strength steel structure but
unlike certain other so-called electric trucks it won't rust the body panels will not rust yes
the steel chassis can't but that's true with any traditional vehicle and they do treat those parts
but the body panels won't rust we'll talk a little bit later about what these composite body
panels mean for maintenance and repairs but it means that you can truly customize this vehicle
that's unique to you for not an arm and a leg yes the price can go up pretty quickly when you
start loading it up with every little thing but with each accessory being reasonably priced
and it's your choice i went out there and i built one on their website and yes of course i wrapped
it in hot pink because you know on the car check i have to do that if you're watching this podcast
on the youtube version i'm going to put a little picture up here somewhere so that you can see it
and even with a lot of things that i loaded it up with it still came out to about 36 000
which is still about 15 000 less than just the average new car price of any kind of car whether
it's gas hybrid or electric in the us sounds like a pretty good deal right so if you're wondering
hey when can i order one of these well you can build and pre-order one now on their website and
i will put a link to the slate website in the description and no they are not sponsoring this
podcast they don't even know that i'm doing this podcast i just thought it was really cool because
you know i like things that are unique different innovative
business models but specifically when they are designed to solve this affordability problem
because i think the last thing that we need right now in this economy and with people struggling
is another luxury 100000 dollar electric vehicle we don't care we need something affordable
that we can tool around town and yay bonus if it keeps us from having to buy expensive gas if you
want to order one of these they are targeting probably the end of this year 2026 for the first
models to come off the production line no specific dates have been announced yet and the pre-order
requires a 300 deposit which is much lower than most cars and you get 30 days to lock in an assigned
delivery window but you don't have to have the truck configured when you pre-order you're just
basically saying hey i want one don't know yet what i want it to look like because you guys are
still deciding on all of your pricing and your accessories but get me in line i want one of
these things and similar to a lot of other startup companies especially the eb startups
they're not following that traditional franchise dealership model so i'm sure there will be lawsuits
about this but they will have regional delivery centers eventually and partner facilities so
these details are still being worked out so it's not certain even when or where your new slate
would be delivered but that is not stopping people over 180 000 people have already reserved one as of
here we are like i'm recording this the last day of june but before you jump on the bandwagon
in order one let's ask the hard questions because i wouldn't be doing you the service that i do on
the straight shift if i didn't ask the hard questions so first of all how american is this
thing really because remember the company was founded by people whose mission in life was to
increase american manufacturing capability and expertise so that we weren't so painfully dependent
on international supply chains well it's not a hundred percent american nothing is these days
because we do live in a global economy the eb batteries are technically made by the chinese
battery company goshen high tech but they're made at goshen's new battery factory in illinois we
don't know for all the components like the raw materials and the minerals and all the things that
go into the batteries are coming from that hasn't been disclosed publicly yet but they're at least
assembled in america and fun fact goshen is owned 24 percent i believe it is by voxwagen groups so
little german dna in there as well the electric motor which is really called the electric drive
unit or edu because it's comprised of the electric motor the inverter that converts the
direct current power from the battery to the alternating current that the motor uses as well
as the single speed reduction gearbox if you want to get really nerdy this is all an integrated
unit from a company called jje technologies and that is another american company that is
headquartered in michigan the edu seemed to be assembled in michigan we haven't gotten
exact information on that yet but they still are reliant on a chinese supply chain unfortunately
there's just still no avoiding that right now since china is leading the world like literally
by leaps and bounds in electric motor and battery technology for eb's and they're doing it really
well so we shouldn't ignore them completely and the fact that these folks seem to be trying to find
a balance between being able to use this technology that's coming out of china and this isn't your
cheap crappy stuff that's on amazon this is really leading technology for batteries and electric
vehicles so they're leveraging that and leveraging those relationships but pulling it into america
so that it's a little bit more balanced and we get the opportunity to learn from what china has
created so the next question is okay well these things be reliable no clue new company
new platform first model new factory new manufacturing processes innovative concept
there are just so many ways that this could possibly go wrong and have problems however
at least it's being led by very experienced automotive industry and manufacturing people
not just a bunch of tech nerds who said let's build cars so this gives me hope these people know
how to build cars and the fact that they're not putting really any technology into the cars
means that there's less points of failure from a service of maintenance standpoint
maintenance should at least be less than with a gas-powered car that it is one of the benefits
of evs and owners are experiencing that already if you own any type of ev but if and when there
are problems because there will be it's inevitable what do you do since there aren't traditional
dealerships people who have owned rivians or a lot of these other startup evs have had to go
long distances to get their cars serviced when it's something that can't be done over the air
slate is working with a company called repair pal which is an online resource and network that
helps car owners get fair priced estimates for auto repairs and they also prevent trustworthy
mechanics so slate said there's no reason we should reinvent the wheel or invent a new wheel
there's already an existing network out there and remember the original founders were all about
building networks of companies and expertise and engineering the approach is both financially smart
for slate auto and it's also a win-win for consumers and these independent repair shops
because most car brands especially the evs are really trying to force you to go only to their
dealerships or their limited service centers which remember I said could be eight hours away
slate is training existing independent service shops to service their vehicles because it should
not be that complicated there's not much to them and again through slate you they're teaching you
to do a lot of these things yourself this ties into a larger industry issue that is known as the
right to repair giving car owners the information the resources the right to get their vehicle
serviced and repaired without being forced to go to the franchise dealership or the manufacturer
controlled service center we should have choices remember this is america freedom right but it's
a whole legal and ethical issue in the automotive industry right now especially when it comes to
electric vehicles and i'm going to dedicate an entire podcast to this in the very near future
i'm actually coordinating with a group that is fighting these legal battles for us and i will
have them as a guest on this podcast but i love that slate is not only making a smart financial
decision for themselves but they're really thinking about the consumers but also these
independent small businesses that are very afraid of the future they're seeing you know what are we
going to do if regular combustion engines are gone and everything's electric and very little
maintenance needs to be done and the manufacturers are forcing customers to go to their monopoly
a lot of these independent shops could go out of business and slate saying no we want to support
them too so again they're really racking up those brownie points with me but how are they backing
their vehicles with a warranty that was a little fuzzy at first and a lot of people were putting
down their deposits before they even knew how this car would be backed by slate they're planning on a
four-year 50 000 mile limited warranty which is consistent with other luxury brands and tesla
and the battery and powertrain warranties are going to be for 10 years and 110 000 miles which
is longer than the industry standard this even goes beyond the requirements in the state of
california and they're always the strictest so again slate is thinking about the consumer and
they are thinking about you know we're going to stand behind this we're really going to invest
in making this a long-term viable sustainable product and company now all those accessories
that you want those are only warrantied for 12 months or 12 000 miles and i'm not sure about
whether you know when you install these things yourself how is that exactly going to work
because one of the things that traditional automakers love to do is if you install anything
yourself if you do any of your own maintenance if you do anything after market they're like whoop
you just voided your warranty we're not standing behind that and i understand that but with slate
providing these accessories through their network of partners they're going to stand
behind them to a certain extent and especially with slate you we just don't know exactly how
this is going to shake out so the first people who try this may be the ones that it gets tested
out on so definitely watch their videos first several times before you install your accessories
on your blank slate now remember when i said they had these composite body panels so how are we going
to fix those if reality when you get into a wreck well because they're not metal like on normal cars
in theory it should make physical repairs easier because you don't have to do traditional body
work of banging out the dance and using bondo and fixing all those dings and then repainting
remember the repainting thing and how expensive that is slate certified body shops should be able
to simply remove the damaged panels inspect the steel structure make sure there's no damage there
and if there is that would have to be repaired or the vehicle will be totaled out and then they
would simply replace the body panels and redo the wrap or whatever stickers so this sounds easy
but would they get it from the factory with the body panels already wrapped for what you had already
chosen or would they have to rely on a local wrap company because those guys tend to be more
expensive so those details aren't real clear yet so they're working them out i'm definitely
going to be paying attention to how they plan to do that and then who's going to pay for it well
insurance companies are just going to have a lot to figure out with this stuff like the repair costs
what are the salvage values going to be what are the theft statistics going to be you know how
easy or difficult are these cars going to be to steal and what's the real world crash test data
those are all the things that the actuarial accountants at insurance companies look at to
figure out how much they're going to charge you for your insurance premium on this brand new
innovative vehicle because their priority is not to lose money themselves so we don't know
how much it's going to cost to ensure yet so about those safety crash test ratings there aren't any
yet the official national highway traffic safety association and the insurance institute highway
safety that crash test data is not available yet because they haven't gone through all of these
federal and insurance evaluations yet the manufacturer is internally targeting for the highest
possible five star ratings so we'll just have to see how they actually do once the government and
the insurance agencies start driving them into concrete walls at 55 miles an hour we shall see
so the biggest question really is should you pre-order one i mean it sounds really cool and
the internet is certainly hyping it up and drinking the kool-aid i know people in the industry who've
already put down their pre-order for one because they're super excited about it but what about you
some people like to accept the risk of these new innovative vehicles because they want to be the
first they're willing to accept the risk that goes with that and maybe you know they have the funds
to take that risk other people are a lot more cautious i tend to be a lot more cautious i like
to wait a year or two until things are figured out they've identified some of the kinks i like
other people to beta test these things and then let's see what happens and more importantly with
this i want to see what really is the support network going to look like what are the insurance
costs going to look like i want to see the full economic picture before i would feel comfortable
recommending one of these vehicles to one of my clients or potentially getting one for myself
because think about it it's not just a new making model this is a startup company that's a whole
different ballgame than just getting a brand new model even with brand new technology and a radical
redesign from an established automotive brand it's different than even buying a brand that's a
spin-off of an established brand like toyota is going to be they're making these crown vehicle
models the crown the crown signal their intention is to spin off crown as a new brand just like they
spun off lexus and scion years ago hunday spun off the genesis brand they were still just existing
established car makers that were just making fancier cars and calling them something else building a
car is difficult enough but building a sustainable car company that's a whole
another level so everything is brand new there have been a lot of startups in the e-v space
and not all of them have gone well you may remember fisker or you maybe don't remember them because
they didn't last very long the fisker ocean electric suv which was a great looking vehicle
they launched that in 2023 a year later they filed for bankruptcy leaving the people who
did buy the cool new fisker ocean completely and totally screwed and the cars have basically gone
down to zero value there's no support boom so those cars were very expensive so those people
that bought them and took that risk lost their butts this company i'm a lot more hopeful for it
i don't want them to be another fisker the people running the company are experienced not just in
the automotive industry and how to build cars but also in supply chain and manufacturing and logistics
so they know how to run a company and that was really the problem with fisker was that it wasn't
that they built a bad car yes it had its problems but they didn't know how to run a company and that
is why they went out of business that and their car was really expensive so not enough people
bought them i am much more hopeful for slate auto i hope the blank slate concept is very successful
and that it truly solves some of the problems like affordability and american manufacturing
and engineering expertise especially in the e-v space so plus it's a really cool looking little
vehicle would i drive one around town oh hell yes i would absolutely i'd have to put some more
car chick specific stickers on it but oh yeah i would drive one around in a heartbeat so i'm going
to be eagerly watching this company and seeing what actually happens seeing the data that comes out
but i am sending them all of the good vibes for this to be a great success so tell me what you think
would you buy one of these or have you already reserved one and if so tell me about why you
chose to do that with there being so many unknowns still out there let me know in the comments or
message me through the website cart chick dot com in the meantime i hope everyone has a safe and
happy fourth of july and happy birthday america i'm out of here the straight shift podcast is
copyright lee and shattuck the car chick all views expressed by guests and or co-hosts or those of
the guest and or co-hosts and not necessarily those of lee and shattuck or the car chick
About this episode
Explore the disruptive world of Slate Auto, a new EV startup aiming to solve the vehicle affordability crisis. Led by former Stellantis executive Chris Barman, the company is launching the Blank Slate, a bare-bones, highly customizable 25,000-dollar electric pickup truck. Stripped of bloated infotainment screens and unnecessary tech, this back-to-basics vehicle offers a modular, DIY-friendly platform reminiscent of Legos. Learn how this Gen X-inspired startup plans to challenge traditional automotive manufacturing by putting simplicity, utility, and budget-friendly customization first.
Original notes
Electric vehicles were supposed to make cars more affordable. So why does the average EV now cost well over $50,000?
Enter Slate Auto, a brand-new American startup that's taking a completely different approach. Their first vehicle is a bare-bones, highly customizable electric pickup that starts at just $24,950. No giant touchscreen. No built-in stereo. Even crank windows are back.
But is Slate Auto really the future of affordable transportation...or just another EV startup that's destined to end up like Fisker?
In this episode, The Car Chick® breaks down everything you need to know about Slate Auto, how its unique "Blank Slate" concept works, and—most importantly—the tough questions every potential buyer should be asking before putting down a deposit.
In this episode:
- Why new cars and EVs have become so expensive
- The story behind Slate Auto and its founders
- How the Blank Slate platform works
- Service, maintenance, and Right to Repair
- Warranty coverage
- Could Slate become the next Fisker...or the next success story?
Whether you're excited about affordable EVs or just curious what all the buzz is about, this episode goes beyond the marketing hype to answer the questions nobody else seems to be asking.
Resources & Links:
🚗 Slate Auto: https://www.slate.auto/
Connect with The Car Chick
Website: https://www.TheCarChick.com
You can view a full list of resources and episode transcripts here.
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The Straight Shift with The Car Chick
LeeAnn Shattuck, The Car Chick: Your Car Buying and Repair Expert
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