When Slate Auto, a start-up, presented an electrical truck of approximately $ 25,000 last month, social media lit up from the comments. Many people have seen the vehicle without frills, with a body easy to repair and nostalgic hand -craised windows, such as a refreshing antidote for padded and increasingly inaccessible cars of today.
How inaccessible? The average monthly payments on new cars went up to $ 739 in March from $ 537 in January 2019, according to Cox Automotive. The new average car costs $ 47,400, with electrical models of about $ 59,200. High interest rates, now about 9.4 percent for a 72 -month loan, have made cars even more than a financial section.
“Prices and interest rates are both high and blocked,” said Mark Schirmer, director of Industry Insights for Cox Automotive. “If you are not on the market since 2018, it must be shocking how much a car costs.”
The rates of the 25 percent Trump President on cars and imported parties have consumers who climb for the purchase before the prices increase even more. Cars that cost less than $ 30,000 are particularly vulnerable: almost 80 % of these are subject to rates. They include consumption staples such as the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla of American manufacture, which are based on imported parts. The supplies of budget models will be reduced and the car manufacturers could stop importing certain models entirely.
Insert Slate, a company based on the outskirts of Detroit supported by risk capitals and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
Chris Barta, former engineer Fiat Chrysler and Slate CEO, said that the Haesthesia truck has been expressly designed to facilitate adhesive shock, although it will not be available until the end of 2026. The company plans to produce the Pinta size truck in a retrofitto printing system in Indiana, with a capacity of 150,000 per year.
Faithful to its name, the truck is designed to be an empty list to which buyers can add more than 100 accessories, such as heated power supplies and seats, since their budgets allow or need to change. There is no integrated stereo or touch-screen display, but there are docks for phones or tablets, saving money and avoiding digital obsolescence that often afflicts entertainment and navigation systems.
“We think that laboring Americans are looking for a good value for money,” said Mrs. Barman in a recent interview.
That message appealed to Liv Leigh, 41 years old, who climbed inside a slate truck during his public debut at Long Beach airport in California in April. Mrs. Leigh, a biomedical designer and passionate about electric cars, paid $ 50 to reserve a list.
He saw the company's employees transform the two-seater pick-up into a five passenger sports utility vehicle in about an hour, with an intelligent conversion kit aimed at do-it-yourself owners. Mrs. Leigh appreciated the orderly dimensions of the truck, shorter than a civic and her modest range of 150 miles.
“I love the idea of an absolute base, a tree of the tree of the tree, where I can attack a dog or muddy bikes or compensated on the back,” said Mrs. Leigh. “I don't need a giant vehicle to carry things.”
Mrs. Barman said that efficient design and production are fundamental for the low prices of the company. The gray plastic plastic panels of the truck eliminate every need for a steel printer system or a paint shop, which can cost manufacturers of car manufacturers many million dollars.
Where a Ford Model T, an egalitarian car from another era, has only come in black, slate will offer winding for the vinyl body in a series of colors and styles. Buyers can also opt for a larger battery installed in the factory with a 240 mile interval.
“All this maintains costs, but also feeds to give customers freedom of choice,” said Barman. “They can equip the vehicle in the way they want it, not in the way a manufacturer designed it.”
Slate hopes that an supply chain based in the United States, including batteries made by SK ON, a South Korean company, will make the pickup suitable for a federal tax credit of $ 7,500. On Monday, Republican legislators released a budget bill that would have eliminated that incentive and dismantle other climatic and energy policies of the biden era.
It all depends on Slate's successful navigation for start-ups for electric vehicles. Several young car manufacturers, including Fisker, Nikola and Canoe, have sought bankruptcy and closed protection.
With or without subsidies, Slate has a practical company plan, said Mrs. Barman.
The company hopes to evaluate its $ 20,000 truck before the government's incentives, which would reduce the Nissan Leaf, which is the most convenient electric car to $ 29,300 but no longer suitable for tax credits. Chevrolet plans to offer a bolt reluctantly redesigned by the end of the year for about $ 30,000. The General Motors brand means that the Bolt qualifies for the tax credit, dropping its actual price to about $ 22,500.
Erin Keating, an executive Automotive executive analyst, praised the ingenuity of the slate truck. But he said a two-seater pick-up, short-range and naked bone interiors may not appeal to the buyers of American cars who have become accustomed to having many comforts of technology and creature.
“There is nothing wrong with trying to break the economic crisis, but I don't see it as a huge volume seller,” said Mrs. Keating. “In the end, this is an extremely small EV with almost nothing in it, in a market with a growing number of convenient choices with a much longer radius.”
Ford Maverick is a potential rival that can discuss or against Slate's prospects. That compact pickup is two longer foot than the blackboard. Seat to five passengers and offers many more features. A hybrid version can reach 40 miles per gallon and travel more than 500 miles on a full tank.
Ford sold 131,000 Maverick last year, suggesting that there is a strong demand for small trucks efficient from an energy point of view. The company has increased the starting price of the hybrid version of the $ 4,200 truck since 2024, at $ 28,150, including an increase of last week that Ford Motor has recognized was partly an response to the truck rates, which is assembled in Mexico. The company said that it was not transmitting the entire cost of the tariffs for customers and would have offered all its cars at the same price that sells them to employees until the beginning of July.
Although any category of vehicles, American trucks commissioned the way the cars have changed in recent decades, mostly becoming larger, more powerful and much more expensive. Some sumptuous pickups can cost as much as the great European luxury sedans. Tesla's electric trucks, Rivian and Ford range from $ 70,000 to over $ 100,000.
Mrs. Barman sees the opening of a market for entry-level truck enthusiasts, families who shop for a second car, empty Nesters and companies such as landscapes, contractors and delivery operators. The company plans to sell many trucks to people who otherwise buy a used car, whose average price is $ 26,000.
A great challenge for slate, or other companies that hope to sell cheaper cars, despite what they say they want, many Americans do not seem to buy such cars.
Mrs. Keating noticed that about two dozen models on the market start from less than $ 25,000. They are all small cars or SUVs, including the car at the lowest price of the market, the Nissan pour by $ 18,300.
Almost every medium -sized family sedan begins less than $ 30,000, including Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata. But many Americans have rejected those cars in favor of larger vehicles. SUVs, pickups and minivans now represent over 80 % of the market.
The commercial policies of Mr. Trump remain a joker. Analysts provide that the rates will add thousands of dollars to the prices of new cars and increase demand and prices for used cars.
The Americans purchased 1.5 million new cars in April, 400,000 more than in April 2024. But analysts said that people were buying now to avoid being touched later. Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of Cox Automotive, said that the inventories of new cars went down to their lowest levels in two years, suggesting that prices could increase when traders run out the cars made before the rates had effect. S&P Global Mobility, another research company, has lowered the forecasts for new cars sales and now expect them to fall by 4 % this year.
For people looking for a safe harbor in a financial storm, electric cars are an intelligent choice, said Mrs. Keating. Among the incentives of the government and the car manufacturer, the new electric cars were discounted by 13.3 percent on average in March, a saving of almost $ 8,000.
Mrs. Leigh recently rented a Chevrolet Equinox for two years, paying $ 5,500 in advance, which is at a monthly payment of $ 230. The electric SUV has a 319 miles driving range. “Some people don't realize how many incentives there are out there,” he said.