Loving the idea of Slate’s affordable electric truck but not the idea of electric power? A company called REO Industries is looking to challenge the Slate with something nearly as basic for even less money. REO’s slogan is “build it like it used to be” and that’s exactly what it wants to do: build a gas-powered truck with a six-speed manual, four-wheel drive, and price it among the cheapest new cars in America – pickup trucks or otherwise.
Automaker Reborn After More Than 50 Years
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REO is a name that your grandparents or even great-grandparents might remember. It was the company that Ransom E. Olds of Oldsmobile fame founded in the early 1900s, after he was kicked out of what would become Oldsmobile. The company essentially created the American truck segment in the early years but eventually went through all kinds of weird bankruptcy-fueled changes in the 1950s. It was merged with Diamond T to create Diamond Reo Trucks in the late 1960s, and quietly faded into obscurity before succumbing to bankruptcy yet again.
But now, the REO name belongs to a Dallas-based real estate entrepreneur named Zach De Bernardi, and he’s a big fan of off-roaders. Apparently, he also likes simple vehicles. Considering all the hubbub surrounding Slate and its cheap barebones electric truck, you can probably connect all the dots here. If this startup with a storied name in American manufacturing sticks to its current plan, it could be a big Slate competitor by the end of this decade. But there’s much to do between now and then.
REO’s Plan For Trucks And SUVs
According to the company’s website, the plan for now is three vehicles: a regular cab truck called the Runabout T4X, a crew cab truck called the T4C, and an SUV named S4C. To be clear, none of these vehicles exist yet, or at least, none that we’ve seen.
REO plans for this pickup truck to be small, but a real truck by diehard truck fans and owners. That means a body-on-frame vehicle with a combustion engine. Preliminary stats list a max towing of 4,500 pounds, 500 pounds ahead of the Ford Maverick and 3,500 pounds ahead of Slate, with a 1,200-pound payload. The T4X is listed as 180 inches long, six inches longer than a Slate and 20 inches shorter than a Maverick.
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It will be powered by a yet-unnamed four-cylinder gas engine with mechanical four-wheel drive, connected to either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic. Hey, it’s not that basic.
Huge Goals And Long List Of Features
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REO has some huge goals for the truck. It wants it to be reliable for 500,000 miles and easy to maintain/repair for owners. “Every panel off in under five minutes with common tools. Plain-English diagnostics on a $30 scanner. A 20-year public parts catalog at fair prices,” read the claims. It’s similar to Slate’s stance regarding its new truck, and a stark contrast to some CEOs of major automakers who claim modern vehicles are too complex for anyone but dealers to fix.
For now, all we can see are some silhouette sketches of the truck’s profile. REO says it plans to reveal more about the three models later this year, and to begin pre-production truck assembly in 2027. REO says the trucks will be built in Texas, but doesn’t have a factory location yet.
The modern REO is looking at some other features that don’t really exist anymore. The company says that it can be flat towed, which means towed with all four tires on the ground without any extra parts. That’s a big deal for owners of large RVs, who often flat tow small vehicles and have very limited options these days.
REO’s Instagram account also shows an image of a vent mounted directly under the steering wheel. The caption reads: “real ones know. The chiller is coming back.” It’s a nod to a similar but since-dropped air conditioning vent that was found on Chevrolet and GMC trucks in the 1990s (among others).
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The automotive world is a graveyard of brands looking to find a niche and make it big. Many, even companies as big as Sony and Apple, have attempted and then walked away. De Bernardi told Road & Track that “we are funded” and that he had “a lot of my own money” invested into the company.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
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A new pickup for less than a new Hyundai Venue could be amazing for consumers. Even the SUV has a planned starting price of just $28,500, again potentially incredible for affordability.
Still, getting a new car company up and running is difficult. Just ask Henrik Fisker. Startup car companies are almost a cliché these days, but at least REO has some legit history in the US, not to mention inspiring the name for the American rock band REO Speedwagon. But time will tell if this new REO manages to ride the storm out to get back on the road again, or if it’s only in their dreams. Either way, we can’t fight this feeling that it’s going to be tough to keep the fire burning.
Source: REO Industries
