REAR DOORS - Is Slate architecture flexible enough to add them?

[Chadsfantasygarage]

Is it too soon to question how long Slate can ignore the needs of those who may need some rear doors to load children, elderly passengers (or pick up some gig work driving Uber)?

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as nostalgic as everyone else here about the "good ole days" of single cab pickups and 2 door SUVs, but back in the 80s and 90s more and more people discovered the added convenience of rear doors. Surely Slate isn't naive to how history might repeat itself, if their modularity doesn't accommodate the needs of the masses (who unfortunately prefer convenience over coolness).

To be clear, I think history went too far the other direction towards dual cab only pickup trucks with tiny beds and away from 2 door convertible SUVs, which is why Slate is such a breath of fresh air, but perhaps they will find a way to deliver the exact desired cab/bed/door configuration to everyone in a way that doesn't leave anyone on the curb?

So how would they add some rear doors? Is Slate vehicle architecture modular enough to allow more doors to be added by owners after manufacturing? My attached renders show how rear doors would look on the current Slate (addressing where to put the door handles without interfering with the rear fenders), and hopefully how far Slate's modularity could expand their lineup in the future.

😉

 

[slateya]

The frame does not look like it would accommodate rear doors in its current form from the photos in this article. One could hope. But price point is a major squeeze on this.

https://www.slateforums.com/the-eng...truck-chassis-body-battery-safety-suspension/

 

[Chadsfantasygarage]

The frame does not look like it would accommodate rear doors in its current form from the photos in this article. One could hope. But price point is a major squeeze on this.

https://www.slateforums.com/the-eng...truck-chassis-body-battery-safety-suspension/

Wow this article is actually very informative and included a lot of information that I did not know yet, including how the "Slateboard" is designed. Yeah seeing the naked body/frame definitely reveals how rear doors would never work.

 

[Chadsfantasygarage]

I still surprised they didn't future-proof the body similar to the 4 door Wrangler or Bronco, because both of those can somewhat easily convert into a single cab pickup trucks (especially if they had removable rear roll cage like the Slate). I'm assuming it's because they wanted to make sure the it had enough bed load capacity, but didn't want to go with a traditional body-on-frame architecture?

Btw, the Bronco is probably the 2nd most modular vehicle after the slate because non welded body panels. Wonder why Ford isn't taking more advantage of that?