Is this the antidote to the problem of the American truck swelling?

Yesterday night, A new company called Slate Auto revealed its first productInterlocking electric truck, two seats with only 150 miles of the range and a world of possibilities. There is no coating, no entertainment screen, nor Estrio or even a radio. It does not appear on the 12 -year -old average, and it may be sold for less than $ 20,000 (including incentives) upon its arrival in 2026.

If you arrive, of course. We do not need to enter into a set of obstacles that lie in the path of success in the future – including a global trade war and a publicly hostile presidential administration for EVS – because instead I am interested in talking about the truck as a potential antidote to our growing obsession with large -sized trucks and four -wheel drive vehicles.

You may have noticed this problem if you have eyes and live in America in 2025. Our roads are full of roasted lands. SUV sales and captured trucks reached their highest levels in 2024, representing 75 percent of the total vehicle records. A decade ago, only the two parts of the market formed. Today, they represent three of every four new vehicles sold in America.

These vehicles are larger and heavier than their predecessors. In 2023, the weight of 31 percent of the new cars in America was more than 5,000 pounds (2.27 tons), compared to 22 % in 2018, according to what he said. Modern investigation before Economic. With the transformation of electric cars, many of these compounds have become heavier. The weight of the Lightning Ford F-150 is about 6,500 pounds, which is about 60 percent heavier than the equivalent of gas.

While they expanded, it increases longer and wider on an average of vehicles than previous contracts, they have also become More lethal pedestrians and other users of weak roads. A vehicle shape, especially the cover, plays a decisive role in determining whether pedestrians can survive. The vehicles with an altitude were covering more than 40 inches (about 3.3 feet) and sharp front ends with a larger angle than 65 degrees were 44 percent more vulnerable to causing deaths, According to the Institute for the Safety of the High Roads.

Meanwhile, the death of pedestrians has increased in recent years. Between 2013 and 2022, pedestrian death increased by 57 percent, from 4,779 to 7522, NHTSA reports. In 2022, 88 percent of pedestrian deaths occurred in one vehicle.

The truck is practically small compared to most other trucks on the road. It is 69.3 inches long and 174.6 inches long and 70.6 inches (including mirrors), with a wheelbase of 108.9 inches. Compare this to 2024 Ford MAVERICK- It is often suspended on the type of built-in truck that is not made by most automobile companies-which is 68.7 inches long, 199.7 inches long, and 83.5 inches, with a wheelbase of 121.1 inches. Slate even has an elegant visual on Its website on the Internet This compares his truck to the nose, as well as Chevy Silverdo EV and – with pleasure – Toyota Sr5 Bickup for 1985.

The menu truck may come in a smaller package, however like edge The shareholder, Tim Stevens, noticed in his news messageIt is still designed to do all the owners of the trucks they love. Its area is 50 x 60 inches, and it can carry 1433 lbs of the net load and withdraw 1,000 pounds of everything you have. Most truck owners persuade themselves that they need more, which is why GMC Sierra 1500 2025 provides maximum clouds of up to 13,300 pounds. But when the medium Airstream trailer weighs about 3000 to 5,000 pounds, it is unclear what owners are supposed to do with all that added strength.

Slate technology approach is also simple. Instead of a giant central touch screen, the company includes a Dash pregnant for a smartphone or tablet. Slate offers its own application, but everything else needs to be known on the Gauge Beather set behind the steering wheel.

Research indicates that the shift towards information and entertainment based on the screen has accompanied a significant increase in the driver’s distraction, With AAA study He concluded that drivers who use a touch screen were visually dispersed and mentally distracted for more than 40 seconds when completing tasks such as transmission or sending a text message. Remove your eyes from the road even for only two seconds, the risk of the accident doubles.

Of course, this monastic approach to design helps maintain its low costs, allowing the company to sell at rock prices. When the average of the new buyer of cars in America pays 49,740 dollars, which is According to Kelly Blue’s book It is close to the highest level ever, then the idea of ​​obtaining low -cost signs, and a careful joke with a fully electrical transmission group (consider low maintenance costs, and no pollution) suddenly looks much better than you think.

Slit is definitely facing an arduous battle. All public caveats are applied about the start of a completely new car company in America in 2025. Customers can reject the LO-Fi approach or run their noses in the idea of ​​all after-sales allocation. Who wants to do all this work? The Trump administration can kill the Federal Tax Credit, which will push the existing truck to the familiar Mobile lands of about $ 28,000.

But if this is a success, and people start screaming for the most affordable and smaller cars, it may be a world that giant killings and environments and killing are not actually over hand.