The Slate Truck of Europe

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Based on website analytics and performance of Destination Charged on MSN, topics covering the new Slate Truck do well. And because I’m tired of crying in the shower every day, worried about where rent will come from, I’m going to ride that SEO bandwagon and talk, again, about the truck that seems to have the internet up in arms.

Well, at least I’m going to talk about it tangentially. Let’s get into it.

In This Issue

• It’s Ami, A Mario!

• Good News!

• So What Do We Do?

It’s Ami, A Mario!

The Citronën Ami just received a few updates, and the Buggy version is now officially slated for production. The Ami is a small EV designed to be built as inexpensively as possible. Does that sound familiar? It’s more or less the same idea behind the Slate truck.

The cute Buggy version, likely the most expensive model, costs a little less than $11,000 (based on current exchange rates). It’s not exactly a Slate — it can be operated for 14 and 15 year olds because it’s not technically a car car — but it is built to be cheap and cheerful.

The front and the back of the Ami are identical in design. It’s just a difference of what lights the manufacturer puts in (obviously, the front gets headlights and the rear gets taillights). Also, the Ami only has one door design with hinges only on one side. That means it opens with the hinges forward of the door on one side, and hinges aft of the door on the other.

There’s no built-in infotainment, but rather a dock for your phone to plug in. The seats are basic. It has steel wheels.

Again, does this all sound familiar?

The big difference is that this little French runabout has a maximum speed of just 28 miles per hour, and has a driving range of just 47 miles. It’s a quadracycle. Neither of those stats would make it work well as a car in the United States. But’s it’s also $17,000 (pre-incentive) less than the Slate, so in theory some things could be upgraded to offer similar range or a bit better performance.

No, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. I’m not claiming it is. But the company did sell nearly 10,000 in France in 2023, and it’s rebadged as an Opel Rocks-e and the Fiat Topolino, depending on the market.

So cheap and cheerful can be done, and people will buy it. Again, I know it’s a fair comparison, but it does demonstrate what can be done when an automaker wants to do it.

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Good News!

Again, if an automaker wants to make an inexpensive car, it can. It’ll likely sell well, too.

The Dacia Sandero was the most-registered model in Europe-28 last year, with 268,101 registrations. The Renault Clio — another inexpensive car — came in second place with 216,317 registrations.

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