Mini pickup truck

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If anyone already posted about this, sorry for the repeat.

I really LIKE this small, inexpensive, simple pickup truck. DH, who is 6’2" tall, drives a Ford F-250 Super-duty 4 wheel drive pickup but I have never driven it even though I bought it for him. I simply can’t reach the pedals or throw the gear shift because I’m 5’3" tall. I have to say that he does use the truck for genuine country-type loads like wood, plywood, mulch, etc. We also toured the southwest with a truck-mounted camper.

This new little pickup appeals to me and I’m sure many others who don’t need big hauls would like it.

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/a-small-affordable-pickup-truck-its-finally-here-4d6d4ffb?mod=hp_featst_pos5

A Small, Affordable Pickup Truck? It’s Finally Here

A Jeff Bezos-backed startup wants to take pickups back to a simpler, cheaper time

by Dan Neil, The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2025

  • EV startup Slate Auto unveiled a mini-pickup made in the U.S.A. targeting a price under $20,000 with current tax credits.

  • Slate Auto, backed by Jeff Bezos, aims for the mass market with a ‘radically simple, radically affordable’ electric mini truck.

The Slate truck is small but features a 5-foot bed and 1,000-pound towing capacity, as well compatibility with Tesla’s Supercharger network.

More than 70% of American households earn $100,000 or less, while the average new-car payment has ballooned to $742 a month. The auto industry has been so focused on “autonomy and technology it’s driven prices to a place that most Americans can’t afford.”…

Expected to go into production late next year, Slate’s truck is radically small: a single cab, two-seat configuration, 14.5 feet from nose to tailgate, about the size of a Toyota pickup from the mid-1980s. Even so, the cargo bed measures 5 feet long and 50 inches wide, able to carry 4×8 stock on top of the wheel arches. …

Initially available with a choice of two battery packs, offering 150 or 240 miles of estimated range, the truck will also be equipped with a North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, compatible with Tesla’s Supercharger network…

To avoid the cost of painting, the body panels are made of gray injection-molded polypropylene. Owners can select from an assortment of colored wraps and graphics packages, either applied at the factory or available as DIY kits…

The side windows are hand-cranked. The dashboard is open storage, lacking even a vestigial touch screen or audio system. Instead of an audio system, Slate will offer a universal mount for your mobile device with nearby USB connection. You can opt for built-in speakers or an under-dash mount for a bluetooth speaker… [end quote]

This really makes sense to me. If I needed a pickup truck I would definitely consider it. I doubt that most of the monstrously huge pickup trucks I see around town are actually used to their full capacity.

Wendy

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To use it for off road the price is a lot more expensive. They say around 40 to 50 thousand dollars.

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According to ChatGPT:
Based on surveys and industry insights:

  • Industry estimates suggest that only about 15% to 30% of pickup truck owners regularly or occasionally drive off-road.
  • A 2021 survey by Car and Driver and other auto publications indicated that a large portion of truck buyers prioritize the rugged, off-road image rather than actual off-road use. [end quote]

I guess the same people who buy high-powered muscle cars even though they live in small towns with a speed limit of 30 MPH will buy off-road pickup trucks because it makes them feel rugged. :wink:

However, I do buy the rationale that the big trucks give a high sight line and are safer in a crash with a smaller car.

By the way, DH’s hobby used to be volunteering in groups to clear trails of fallen timber in the National Park and National Forest so he really did drive off-road with his 4 wheel drive F-250.

Wendy

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That is probably true Wendy but in the desert we use them a lot. Especially during quail hunting season.

Edit: I grew up in Montana and hated the Desert when I first came down here but if anyone gets a chance to camp out in the desert in October and November take it. No bugs and the weather and scenery is outstanding.

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We had another thread about this, and I think one of these trucks would be awesome. I had a 1977 Toyota SR5 (in the 1990s) which was a great workhorse vehicle. I very seldom needed anything bigger, and this is almost the exact same size. I need a truck to go to the dump, the big box store, the furniture store, and the nursery, and all of those are easily in range.

Because of a weird quirk in how CAFE standards for trucks are calculated, you can’t buy a small truck like that anymore. They are either monsters, which I don’t want, or they are basically a sedan with a tiny box ( which kind of defeats the purpose of having truck).

It apparently lacks 12 v plug-in access to the battery, which is too bad because that would make it a great job site vehicle.

I used to do a lot of work siting cell powers in remote locations like on mountain tops. I had several people remark they were surprised my truck could make it up the steep, rutted roads without 4WD. But the truck was really light, so I just kept the speed up and it was fine.

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I have been up in a lot of those sites, I was up on an early warning site in Alaska in the middle of winter called Pedro Dome without four wheel drive but it didn’t work out well. I went off the road and had to walk 2 miles back to the site in 40 below zero weather. The northern lights were really cool and the wolves howling in the distance made the ordeal almost a Jack London type of experience.

The thing about 4x4 is when you need it you need it.

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" if anyone gets a chance to camp out in the desert in October and November take it. No bugs and the weather and scenery is outstanding."

I think the SW US is awesome. The 1st real mini backpack trip I did outside of Michigan was Zion NP. We flew into Vegas and drove from there. I remember looking at the landscape and having serious doubts about what we were getting ourselves into, but as we got to Zion it was unreal beautiful. Still the best backpacking trip I’ve ever done.

Want to do Death Valley and Joshua Tree, but my backpacking buddies seem to have aged out. So trying to drum up interest in just camping and doing day hikes, maybe bring bikes. Some of the best road bike riding I’ve done has been in sparsely-visited NP’s like Teddy Roosevelt NP in North Dakota. Pedaled the Road to the Sun in Glacier NP right after I retired in 2018, it was busy but truly the most scenic ride I’ve ever done.

The American West is epic, to my Midwest eyes, I like all of it that I’ve seen.

As far as 4wd trucks go, I agree with Wendy that most people don’t go offroad much. But I’m on unplowed forest roads a lot in the winter, I can drive a few miles back in and park right next to the ski trail. Go offroad year round. Nothing crazy, but would not do some of it without 4wd.
4wd is not a “get out of jail free” card in the Winter, I buried myself twice last winter. But it was not a big deal to dig myself out, both times it didn’t take over a half hour to get unstuck.

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I grew up right outside Glacier. Hiked and rafted all over that area. I worked in death valley and the winters are great. They have furnace creek that the town is called after that flows down and heats up the pool. Amazing country. I have hiked and skiid Utah, Brianhead, Park City, Zion. People don’t realize how amazing Nevada is. Tahoe to Las Vegas is. Nevada has the most public land that any state has. You can drive 100’s of miles, off road on dirt roads. People from the east don’t realize how vast and unpopulated the west really is.

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[quote=“buynholdisdead, post:8, topic:116073”]
I grew up right outside Glacier. Hiked and rafted all over that area.

Wow, lucky you ! I was in awe of Glacier NP. I know I just skimmed the surface on the bike ride. I went from St Mary’s on the east side to Logan’s Pass. It was incredible.

Seen a grizzly bear about a hundred yards up a slope off of the pavement. Knew it was a grizz cause car traffic came to a standstill, as people just stopped, got out and started taking pics. Remember 1 fool actually started walking up the slope toward the bear, to get a closer shot, lol. I took off pedaling right after that, just in case the bear had an attitude, and wanted to show the puny humans how fast it could get up in their business. But don’t think anything happened, there were no “bear maulings” being reported, lol.

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I never saw a grizzly while hiking only in cars. But not something I ever wanted to see. Was chased up a tree by a black bear right outside of Glacier park, In the Jewel Basin. I was lucky it didn’t come up after me. My wife says my stories are all bull but she didn’t grow up in country like that. I feel lucky I was able to see it all when it was still fairly wild.

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To that you would need to add the percentage who have a boat and need to tow it down to the lake.

DB2

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Thing is, something like this already exists.

I wrote several months ago when I saw this in the driveway of a house nearby, a Daihatsu van. It was so cute I just had to stop in and ask about it (there is no badge anywhere on it).

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As it turns out there is also a Daihatsu (and presumably other makes) of pick-up, cheap and common in Japan, known as “workman’s truck” or “kei truck”, and are especially suited to Japan’s narrow urban alleyways and roads, and come either well stripped down or loaded with options like 4WD and audio equipment, but their biggest selling feature - and why they’ve become popular in many other areas including especially South America, is price.

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The wave of registration bans on kei trucks is spreading across states like Georgia, New York, Maine, and Rhode Island, among others. Each state has its own set of rules and regulations, which have made the registration process a daunting task for kei truck owners. These bans primarily stem from concerns regarding whether the vehicles comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which is a non-profit and not a government agency, significantly influenced the bans on kei vehicles across various states. The influx of mini-trucks from Japan and China in the 2000s prompted a series of meetings from 2010 onwards, aimed at standardizing registration laws.The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) weighed in, labeling these vehicles as unsafe. Following this, the AAMVA published a “Best Practice” document concerning the registration and titling of mini-trucks, marking them as substandard in safety and emissions, which swayed many states towards implementing bans​​.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news: there’s a beacon of hope for mini truck owners in the form of Montana’s more forgiving vehicle registration laws. By forming a Montana LLC through LLCTLC’s Montana LLC formation services, vehicle owners can register their Japanese mini trucks in Montana, where the laws are more favorable. This pathway not only provides a solution to the registration ban dilemma but also offers financial benefits such as no sales tax on vehicle purchases. The process is straightforward and LLCTLC guides you through every step, making LLCTLC a preferred choice for many mini truck enthusiasts seeking to bypass the registration restrictions in their home states.

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The trouble with Kei trucks in the U.S.A is they are limited to around 600cc and 60 HP, putting them roughly on par with my Honda 750 motorcycle, which is 1/3 the weight. This may be fine in an urban setting but they are not well suited to high speed interstates or rural highways. Add to that they don’t meet federal safety or emissions standards, so only “antique” (25-year-old) trucks can be imported and licensed in most places.

If the Slate truck can meet federal standards and cruise at 70 mph, I would be interested.

[edit] I see tjscott0 beat me to the punchline :slight_smile:

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I assume that if it can’t meet US standards, it won’t be able to be sold here.

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