Tabula Rasa: The $20,000 (Blank) Slate Truck That is Infinitely Customizable and Comes With Wind-Up Windows, and No Touchscreens

A Ford Model T at Greenfield Village, an outdoor museum complex in Dearborn and part of the Henry Ford complex.

The recent debut of the all-new Slate Truck gives new meaing to the term “tabula rasa,” or “blank slate.”  The sleek yet proudly retro (wind-up windows, anyone?) truck is a highly customizable blank canvas, hence tabula rasas,  that comes with a lengthy accessory list including one that converts the pick-up into an SUV.

To paraphrase what an early automotive pioneer, industrialist, and known antisemite said about color availability for his mass-produced automobile, the Slate Truck comes in any color so long as it is, of course, slate gray. However, this is decidedly not your great grandfather’s Tin Lizzie.

Indeed, it is the single color is one of the factors touted by the manufacturer to keep the cost low, but buyers won’t be locked into black, I mean slate: they will also be able to use the wraps Slate will produce to add color and flair.

The automaker’s CEO, Chris Barman, has said in interviews that the truck’s means of production as well as the truck itself have been designed from the start to keep down the vehicle’s per-unit cost. The decision to make one model in one color is literally saving Slate Auto hundreds of millions of dollars by eliminating a need for metal stamping presses and paint shop, just to cite two examples.

Slate Auto chose the name Blank Slate for its entry-level pickup that will be equipped with a 52.7-kWh battery pack for an estimated 150 miles (241 km) of range and will be delivered in a slate gray color molded into the truck’s composite body panels. The battery cells, the company said, use a nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry sourced from Korean maker SK-On, albeit from a U.S. production plant. The anticipated cost? $20,000 after various government incentives are applied.

Standard features include manual roll-up windows, steel wheels, manually-adjustable non-electric cloth seats, and real knobs for the vehicle’s HVAC controls. The jury is still out on whether the use of hand-cranked windows is economic virtue signaling through anachronistic technology or not.

The Slate Truck has one single option: a larger 84.3-kWh battery that offers 240 miles (386 km) of driving range.

It’s the Slate Truck’s modularity that  makes the truck a standout. Just like adding Lego blocks, one can snap on an SUV kit that includes a roll cage, rear seat and airbags when a truck is being used for one specific job or function, and later revert it to the basic pickup with a full 60” truck bed. The Slate’s front trunk offers 7 cubic feet (0.2 cubic meter) of storage in addition to 37 cubic feet (1.05 cubic meter) in the cargo bed [or 34 cubic feet (one cubic meter) in the SUV’s load bay].

Slate Auto says it will sell directly to consumers (which will please buyers while angering dealers) and offer a nationwide service network, although it has not provided much detail on its plans at the present time. The automaker is paying strict attention to keeping costs down. The lone display screen  is located behind the steering wheel, and the primary purpose of the tiny 4” display is to satisfy federal requirements for having a backup camera display. Automatic emergency braking is standard.  A dashboard-mounted smartphone holder is included so that a driver and passengers can bring their own phones along. The truck charges using a Tesla-style NACS port. An onboard 11-kW charger is said to take the battery from 20% to 100% in 11 hours on a Level 1 charger and under 5 hours on a Level 2 charger.

The truck is almost infinitely customizable for the battery and powertrain, which remain generally inaccessible, and you don’t pay for any functionality you don’t want because you simply don’t add it.  For example, there’s a lift kit and wheels with all-terrain tires and zip-on seat covers that adds heated seats for cold weather operations. In other words, similar to most other automobiles, Slate Truck buyers are able to equip their trucks with whatever options they desire. They just have to be proficient at Lego toys in order to take full advantage of the options.

Photos: Accura Media Group)