The electric Slate pickup usually gets compared to the hybrid Ford Maverick and Ford’s upcoming small electric pickup, but there’s another classic trucklet that it has far more in common with.
The tiny two-door Slate is just a couple of inches longer than the Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup that was sold in the U.S. from 1980 to 1984. Like the Indiana-built Slate, the VW was also built in the U.S. at the German automaker’s now-shuttered Westmoreland, Penn., factory.
The 1984 Rabbit Pickup wasn’t electric like the 201 hp Slate, but it was similarly economical and available with either a 65 hp four-cylinder gas engine rated at 38 mpg on the highway or a 52 hp four-cylinder diesel good for 50 mpg. It has a smaller cabin than the Slate, but also a six-foot bed that’s a foot longer than the Slate’s.
The Rabbit Pickup didn’t undercut the competition on price as much as the $24,950 Slate does, but it started around $7,000, which was in the mix with the other basic small trucks of the day.
Read Also: THE VOLKSWAGEN ID BUZZ RETURNS WITH A CAMPER PACKAGE TO PUT AMERICA TO SLEEP
However, it has a far more direct connection to the Slate, which is being equipped with batteries supplied by Gotion from a factory it runs in Illinois. Gotion is a Chinese company that’s now 33% owned by Volkswagen Group.
Slate hasn’t revealed the cost of the 65 kWh LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery pack that provides its pickup with 205 miles of range, but the going rate for American-made LFP cells is approximately $150 per kWh. That means the Slate’s pack could cost $9,750, which is roughly 40% the value of the entire vehicle. That makes the Slate is about 13% Volkswagen, in automotive geneaology terms.
VW Group also owns 16% of Rivian and is behind the reboot of Scout, which is planning to launch the South Carolina-built Terra extended range electric pickup in 2028, so it will soon have its fingers directly or indirectly dug into a lot of American-made electric trucks.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE AMERICAN CARS AND RACING YOUTUBE CHANNEL
