Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - Curiosity about the Slate Auto EV truck to be manufactured in Warsaw brought the public from near and far to Saturday’s Great 4th of July Celebration in Winona Lake.
The beta prototype of the truck - which can be converted to an SUV and modified as the owner wants - is one of many betas that were manufactured. Slate Auto has three main ones out in the public, with the remaining beta prototypes used for things like safety testing.
About 6 feet wide, 15 feet long and less than 6 feet tall, the prototype in Winona Lake Saturday had white panels with black trim. All the trucks are manufactured in Slate grey, but owners can change their colors with panels.
The truck is meant to be more affordable than other trucks and more a la carte.
John Dale, Kokomo, and Patrick Hunter, Corunna, stopped in to Winona Lake Saturday just to check out the truck. Both have one on reserve.
“I’m just here to see this truck. As soon as I saw this thing come online and available, I literally placed an order that day,” Dale stated. “This reminds me of my youth. I had an International Scout. ... It’s top speed was 47 miles an hour. I didn’t need any more than that. This is all I need in my life. My wife and I, the farthest we go, typically, is to the grocery store. We go to the YMCA four times a week, and that’s no distance at all.”
Hunter said he would drive the Slate truck about 85% of the time because he would be “hopping” from Corunna to Kendallville to maybe Auburn to Garrett and back home.
“So this just fits in perfectly,” he said.
Dale said he has a Tesla so he’s already “very wired up with electricity. I really understand how it works. My Model Y will get me from my home in Kokomo to Bloomington where I go down to visit my son and back on one charge.”
For him, he said the bigger battery for the Slate truck will be his preferred option.
“That’s the only thing I’m looking for, the bigger battery,” Hunter agreed.
Unlike Dale, Hunter said his Slate will be his first electric vehicle.
“I’m sold on electricity,” Dale stated.
Hunter agreed, saying, “Absolutely. One of my brothers bought a Tesla the first year they came out, so he’s been into it. He goes to the East Coast with it. He says once you get to the East Coast there’s a charging station on every block.”
“Getting electricity is not harder,” Dale said, who said he also owns a gas-powered vehicle. “To get energy is easy. I have chargers at my shop, I have chargers at home. I’m a 70-year-old man. Every charger has a restroom within 100 yards of it.”
Hunter added every casino has a charger at the front door.
Dale reiterated the Slate truck is his “youth revisited” and he’s just trying to get it before he’s not here to have more youth. “I just love this.”
Hunter said the truck is a “perfect fit” for the Midwest. “The Midwest are a bunch of do-it-yourself people, so they’re going to get that thing, drive it and then do what they want with it,” he stated.
Marcus Banning, Warsaw, said he’s already reserved a Slate truck and wanted to come out and see what it looked and felt like in person.
“I’m kind of excited to see if it gets built here, actually. Hopefully, they can develop the (Donnelley) plant out on (2801 W. Old 30) and get built,” he said.
What made him decide on reserving one was that the truck “is just a small, handy, little truck. It’s not big. It’s electric. It doesn’t need too much gas. It can haul enough when I need it to. It’s utility, but useful.”
Though he’s never owned an electric vehicle before, Banning said he’s driven a couple and they served his purpose very well.
“Just here to work, here and back and just trips around town. It just seems to serve a purpose,” he said.
Banning likely will convert the truck to an SUV as he has two little children.
“An SUV at first when I have them, and a truck when I don’t, and just whatever the purpose may be. If it’s as easy to change out as they say it is, we’ll see,” he said.
On June 12, the Kosciusko County Council approved personal and real estate tax abatements for Slate Auto.
Attorney Steve Snyder, on behalf of ReCar Inc., doing business as Slate Auto, and Phoenix Warsaw Industrial Investors LLC, which owns the former Donnelley real estate, told the council one 10-year abatement was for personal property improvements totaling $303,166,831, comprised of machinery of roughly $255 million, logistics equipment of $34 million and IT equipment for $14 million; and the second was for real estate improvements at this stage planned to be $59,085,106. Total of both personal property and real estate improvements is $362,251,937.
The proposed number of employees is approximately 1,800 new jobs. The actual salaries for the additional seat employees was yet to be determined. The salaries for the initial employees expected to be hired total over $93 million.
To learn more about Slate Auto and the truck, visit the website at https://www.slate.auto.
