I’ve got a thing for American electric pickups. I ordered a Tesla Cybertruck back in 2019 after attending the launch party in LA – remember the event when the truck’s unbreakable glass smashed? I’ve still got that order and there’s still no sign of the Cybertruck coming to the UK in any form.
Time moves on quickly and the appeal of the Cybertruck has dimmed. I’m about to cancel because there’s a new all-electric pick-up that’s taken my fancy – and it’s called Slate.
My first in-person encounter with Slate was at the annual Car Design Event in Munich last May when I met Slate’s head of design Tisha Johnson. I’d already speculatively put my $50 (£37.50) order in for a Slate, but Tisha had a scale model of the first Slate pick-up for me to look at. It was then that the whole Slate business began to really impress me.
Why? Because the Slate is everything the Cybertruck isn’t. It’s small, usable, affordable, ultra-cool, cleverly designed and – crucially – socially acceptable. It’s not a statement of excess or ego; it’s a quietly confident symbol of how smart design can make electric vehicles genuinely democratic.
