Forget Slate: Another American brand promises cheap, back-to-basics utes, but with petrol power

Jeff Bezos-backed Slate has been getting a lot of attention for its configurable, cut-price electric ute, but another firm wants to enter this space… just with petrol engines.

REO Industries says it’s developing a trio of vehicles on a new body-on-frame architecture – single- and dual-cab utes, plus an SUV – which it plans to build in the US state of Texas.

They’ll wear the Runabout nameplate, used on the first vehicle from the original run of the REO brand.

The startup says it’ll reveal the production vehicles in the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2026, ahead of pre-production vehicles being built and certified in 2027 and customer deliveries commencing late in 2028 or early in 2029.

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It has opened reservations and released some preliminary details, but the most interesting is the base price: US$21,500 for the T4X single-cab ute, which features a steel drop-side flatbed configuration.

That makes it only slightly more expensive than the moribund Nissan Versa at US$17,390 (A$25,246) and the Hyundai Venue at US$20,550 (A$29,830).

The five-seater T4C dual-cab ute will be priced at US$25,000 (A$36,290) and the six-seater S4C SUV at US$28,500 (A$41,370).

REO has compared its vehicle to not only the upcoming Slate Truck, priced from US$25,000, but also the petrol and hybrid Ford Maverick – currently the cheapest ute in US showrooms – which is priced from US$28,500.

While it’ll feature a petrol four-cylinder engine like the Maverick – albeit with the choice of both manual or automatic transmissions – it won’t offer turbocharging or a hybrid system, and it will feature a mechanical four-wheel drive system.

Towing capacity is a claimed 2041kg and kerb weight around 1905kg, with a 544kg payload.

REO says it’s inspired by Japanese kei cars.

“We call this class of vehicles the Ameri-Kei, as they're heavily inspired by the simplicity and utility of the Japanese kei trucks,” it says on its website.

Per Road & Track, in single-cab ute guise the Runabout will measure 4572mm long, 1879mm wide and 1879mm tall, making it roughly the same height and width as a single-cab/chassis Toyota HiLux but significantly shorter in length.

REO says its vehicles’ interiors will feature analogue gauges and plenty of physical switchgear, as well as “one small screen for diagnostics and CarPlay – nothing more”.

It’s also aiming for its vehicles to be sold directly online and to be easily repaired, with every panel able to be removed in under five minutes “with common tools”. It also says the roof and wiring are ready to accept autonomous driving sensors without metal needing to be cut, so this technology can be retrofitted.

It also says the vehicles will be fully open source, with anyone able to build a part for it. It’ll establish an online marketplace through which parts can be sold directly to owners at fees lower than established marketplaces like eBay and RockAuto.

“Every new car startup in America is electric, while 90 per cent of American buyers are not. Those companies raised record money chasing a fraction of the market, and every American EV maker except Tesla now sits billions in the hole,” the company says on its website.

“We exist because of those failures, and we build for the everyday American who simply wants a vehicle that works."

REO makes it clear that its timelines are targets and are subject to change. Its founder and CEO Zach De Bernardi comes from the real estate world, and is new to the automotive business.

Mr De Bernardi acquired the trademark for REO in May. It was last used on cars back in 1936, though the company continued manufacturing trucks until 1975.

It’s arguably not as well known as the American band behind hits like Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon, which took its name from one of REO’s trucks.

REO was the second automotive company of Ransom Eli Olds, the founder of the Olds Motor Vehicle Company (later known as Oldsmobile and purchased by General Motors in 1908).

Mr De Bernardi told Road & Track that “we are funded” and confirmed he had put a lot of his own money in the company.

For now, the revived REO doesn’t yet appear to have a factory lined up and there are question marks as to where it’ll source powertrains and other key components from.

It’s therefore unclear at this stage whether REO has a chance at success, as other automotive startups – many of which, as REO points out, were developed to produce electric vehicles – have folded.

That includes the likes of Fisker and Lordstown, while another brand conceived to produce affordable small utes, Alpha, has yet to put the Wolf ute it first revealed in 2020 into production.

It announced in December 2025 its body-on-frame electric ute had entered “pilot-phase, controlled-volume manufacturing”.

MORE: Slate reveals back-to-basics electric ute in production form