Know your audience.

Heated armrests, pop-out door handles, massage seats, a fridge, augmented reality head-up display? There’s a growing number of car buyers who aren’t fussed about the plethora of luxury-priced add-ons brands now offer. They’re more concerned about getting from A to B without costing the earth (literally). They want an EV that provides practical mobility – so savvy manufacturers are taking note.

Dacia have long appealed to this demographic and promote themselves without frills; “Dacia focuses on what is essential: making quality new cars at an affordable price.”

New to this stripped back arena is the Jeff Bezos-backed, American EV maker Slate, and their first offering may well scoop awards for design and ingenuity. To keep your costs down to around $20,000, they dispense with everything that isn’t key to what a vehicle should be. The clever vehicle platform gives you the choice of a pickup or an SUV and whether you want the suspension raised or lowered. Then there’s a choice of over 100 accessories with everything from colour wraps like ‘Whole lava love’ or ‘best of the Zest’, to a range of decal kits (excellent potential here for partnerships, say with an NFL team or outdoor brand). You can select different front grille designs, running boards, and tons of interior design options including ‘Slatelets’ (which are like rear bumper stickers for your dashboard – the US dig a bumper sticker). All these add-ons snap into a beautifully crafted modular set-up meaning you can customise again further down the road. I enjoyed configuring mine which you can check out below or have a go yourself at slate.auto. But don’t get too attached, Slate currently has no plans for sales outside the US.

Another mobility solution is Citroën’s agile, 2-seat Ami. Aimed at drivers looking to get around with minimal fuss, it doesn’t go above 28mph but gives you a 46-mile range for less than a single bus fare – perfect for big city dwellers who can only dream of exceeding 10mph. And although not on a Slate level, it’s configurable to allow half of the inside to carry cargo – making Ami ideal for last mile deliveries.

It's clear that these brands (and there’s many more) know and recognise the needs of their audience, so have followed a simple theory to unite marketing and design to deliver perfectly relevant products. Something we understand implicitly.

If your brand is looking to do something more relevant for your audience, get in touch, or learn more about the services we offer by clicking here.

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