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Meet the Woman Behind the $27,000 Electric Pickup Everyone’s Talking About
For Slate’s head of design Trisha Johnson, this cheap truck represents an idea 25 years in the making.
Full Article: https://www.motortrend.com/features/tisha-johnson-slate-designer-interview-feature
Most interesting quotes:
For Slate’s head of design Trisha Johnson, this cheap truck represents an idea 25 years in the making.
Full Article: https://www.motortrend.com/features/tisha-johnson-slate-designer-interview-feature
Most interesting quotes:
The customer Johnson had in mind for her affordable vehicle back in 1999 was a single mom. “I had her profile exactly [in my head],” Johnson says. “It was a struggle for her to really be able to take care of basics.” At Volvo—her design credits include the interior design of the 2005 Volvo 3CC ‘sustainable mobility’ concept car and the production interiors of the S90 sedan and V90 wagon—Johnson says she came to realize that while she was working for an automaker that, more than most, was committed to equity and concern for people, she was actively pushing the brand up and away from accessibility as it moved into the premium vehicle segment.
the Slate’s single-color injection molded body panels not only eliminate the need for an expensive paint shop in the factory, but, says Johnson, they make it simple to cloak the vehicle in colorful wraps. “I learned how to wrap a car in the process of designing the vehicle; in fact, our whole team did,” Johnson says. “The coach lines on the surfaces are anchor points that make it easy to wrap. It takes minutes to get to whatever color you can imagine on it.”
The Slate, which also can be configured by way of a factory kit as a low-cost SUV, even allows owners to commit what for most automotive marketers is the ultimate heresy: remove its branding. The Slate branded faceplate at the front of the truck has fasteners and can be removed and replaced with one displaying any name customers want, created by an embossing kit that Slate will sell you. “When the truck rolls off the line, it becomes infinitely personal,” Johnson says. “Our North Star was creating a vehicle that people would love.”
For decades the auto industry has followed what is now a predictable path, launching new models that are bigger, bolder, and more lavishly equipped than their predecessors to justify their ever-increasing prices. The uncompromisingly simple Slate pickup kicks that tired orthodoxy into the weeds. “We thought a lot about the people who can't afford cars,” says Trisha Johnson, “and we wanted to make sure that the vehicle itself left people with a sense of pride and dignity.”
