Women are running America's new electric vehicle company

Chris Barman is one of the very few automaker chief executive officers. Barman leads Slate, the new electric vehicle startup that debuted its first model, a truck that can be turned into an SUV, yesterday.Tisha Johnson,Slate's head of design, is one of a handful of women to lead a car company's design department.Together, they are vital parts of Slate's story. Chris Barman, CEO of Slate. Chris Barman, CEO of Slate. Slate Both women drove a long and winding road to get to where they are today. Johnson told Newsweek that she started sketching in elementary school. "I've been designing cars for family and friends since I was in at least the fifth grade," she said. That passion led her to the Art Center College of Design, where her senior project focused on "bringing good design to people [where it] could have the most impact." She specifically designed a vehicle for the profile of a person who needed reliable transportation as a single parent on a tight budget.That idea targets the type of customer Slate is going after with its new model.Barman had a different path but with similar interests. "I had a very interesting career at a large original equipment manufacturer ... When I was an intern, I worked on the original Viper as a trainee. I worked on the Prowler as a vehicle line executive. I worked on helping to bring the second-generation 300, Charger and Challenger back... very exciting programs," she said.The CEO reflected: "The first car I drove was the old Ford Ranger. That was the farm truck, but the first car that was really mine was a Sundance America. The situation was that I had finished my freshman year at Purdue University in engineering. I had gotten an internship, and my parents didn't want me driving a used car. They wanted something reliable."So, we went out, we cross-shopped, and the Plymouth Sundance had a version called the America, which was like a low budget version ... six-speed manual [transmission], no A/C and no FM radio. But hey, it fit our budget. I loved that car for the freedom it gave me, for the security it gave me. It was a new car."When I thought about Slate and I reflected back, and I was like, 'Okay, the brand Plymouth is gone. The brand Pontiac is gone. The brand Saturn is gone. Like, where do people go? If you know, if I were to go back to that day, like, what would I be looking for? What would I be able to afford?'"Before she took her role at Slate, Johnson had stepped back from the automotive world. But, after a discussion with Barman, she was hooked on the concept. "I was at a moment where I felt like I really want to be part of this change. I got far enough away that I'd stepped out of the auto industry, but I really felt like this is where my calling is. This is where my passion is," she said.Johnson is doing more at Slate than just designing a truck and SUV. She got involved with the company very early on and has been able to design the model, work on branding and influence the DNA of the company. "It could not be more exciting to me," she said."Tisha and Chris bring the ideal experience and leadership for Slate to deliver radically affordable, personalizable and reliable electric vehicles," said Slate CCO Jeremy Snyder. "Varying perspectives across genders are absolutely critical to defining the best possible product.Johnson was candid: "Women look at vehicles differently than men." She points to the views of aesthetics and functionality of a vehicle as varying depending on who you ask. "I find a lot of times, even as much of a gearhead as I am, when I sit in the car with one of my male colleagues, I'm looking at things differently. I'm looking at them from a mother perspective or stepmother perspective. Or, we just have different priorities when we get in the car."She can point to specific bits of the Slate model that were directly influenced by her personal experiences. "We have a very low console, and we created a really nice, big open space to accommodate a handbag. It's a nice place to put a purse that you've invested a few dollars into. You care about it. You want to keep it secure, but you also want to make sure that it stays clean. This is a thing that women know and talk about so we have this open tray, which also works for a computer bag."She also designed the vehicle to have a low load height, a "nice low step" into the bed, to accommodate the heights of a wide swath of people. Slate is targeting reaching up to the 95th percentile rather than at the 95th percentile, which is how she describes the industry as traditionally creating models."We really want to make sure that we have women in the mix that are part of the development process, because we will naturally infuse our experiences into the conversation and into the outcomes. We find that when we do that, when we have attributes in the car that meet the needs of women, as a natural outcome we meet the needs of our family members. Women will be thinking about the experience for the child getting in and out of the car. They will be thinking about what other members of their household may need. And so just as a natural outcome, we're able to support a broader ecosystem of use," Johnson said.Barman agrees that women need to be involved in the development process for autos. She said: "I think it's important that there are more female leaders within the industry. Seventy to 80 percent of all purchase decisions are either made by or heavily influenced by women, and women need to be part of the process of designing such a complex consumer good as a vehicle. And, make sure that their perspective on how it's being used, how it should be designed, what the different use cases considered [are explored]. What resonates? What do women want to know about a vehicle? What's being provided to them? That's important. And the more women that we have in the industry and seating at the table where these discussions are happening, the better product we'll have to be able to provide to the consumer."

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