In the most surprising automotive debut in decades, Slate — a company funded in part by Jeff Bezos — just showed a brand new pickup truck that comes standard with unpainted plastic body panels, crank windows, no heated seats, no radio, no infotainment screen, and steel wheels. It is a cheap, bare-bones “blank slate” that comes as either a pickup truck, a fastback SUV, or a squareback SUV. Here’s everything you need to know about this completely outside-the-box concept that may end up being America’s only sub-$20,000 EV.
The caveat on “sub-$20,000” is that it depends on the EV tax credit, which may or may not go away soon. But even without the tax credit, the new Slate truck is expected to cost somewhere in the “mid-twenties,” which is dirt cheap. What Slate had to do to get the cost down that low is shocking, especially for 2025; the company — whose engineering is based out of Michigan and whose design studio is in Long Beach, CA — stripped the car down to its very essentials in a way we haven’t seen since… maybe the Chevy Aveo?
I visited the office in Long Beach and saw what looked a lot like a stripped-down black Ford Bronco Sport. It has plastic body panels that are designed to be wrapped, and comes in a single trim (the base model is the top-of-the-line model), which offers crank windows, no heated seats, no radio, no infotainment screen, and steel wheels. It is the most basic modern car I’ve seen since I rode in a Dacia in Romania a few years ago.
The new 400-ish-person American company — which plans to build its trucks/SUVs stateside — says in its press release that the goal since the company started in 2022 has been “simplifying the manufacturing process and removing unnecessary content to reduce cost and increase reliability.”
“The definition of what’s affordable is broken,” says Slate CEO Chris Barman in that press release. “Slate exists to put the power back in the hands of customers who have been ignored by the auto industry. Slate is a radical truck platform so customizable that it can transform from a 2-seat pickup to a 5-seat SUV.”
That’s right, the truck is the SUV. You may recall back in the late 1980s Nissan’s Pulsar, which came with a variety of different roof options. Check it out:
The new Slate follows this same model, but takes things a bit further. Not only can the Slate transform from a truck into one of two SUVs (fastback or squareback), but it can also increase its capacity from two passengers to five.
The fiberglass roofs, seats and roll cage come as as part of the “SUV Kit,” which Slate calls a “flat-pack” accessory, meaning it’s all shipped to your door in a flat-ish box. “The flat-pack accessory SUV Kit turns the truck into a 5-seat SUV, with a roll cage, airbags, rear seat. Do it yourself or have it done for you,” reads the press release, leading me to wonder if customers are meant to install their own rear airbags (surely not, right?).
The roof options represent just some of the over 100 accessories one can buy for the Slate — all of which are DIY.
You read that right: You buy a bare-bones truck, and if you want to add things like a radio and speakers and a rear-mounted spare, you just order the kit and install it all yourself. If you want to add heated seats, Slate will ship you a seat-cover accessory with a pad-heater built in. Power windows? You can install those, too. You can also buy alloy wheels and custom bumpers.
As for infotainment, the truck doesn’t come with any. There’s a place to plug your phone in and use it as your display if you like. “Bring your own tech,” is how Slate bills it, writing: “Rather than learn a new interface, use the one you love. Slate introduces the universal phone mount and USB power. Add a dedicated tablet if you want to.”
Hardware-wise, there’s a 52.7 kWh battery pack that combines with the vehicle’s light 3,600-pound curb weight and small overall dimensions to yield a range target of about 150 miles. As for charging, there’s DC “Level 3” charging with speeds up to 120 kW (using the Tesla “NACS” plug), promising 20% to 80% state-of-charge in under half an hour. At-home charging is limited to 3.6kW with a regular “Level 1” plug (11 hours to charge 20-100%) or 11kW with Level 2 (under five hours from 20-100%). There is also an optional 84.3 kWh battery pack that Slate says will offer a targeted 240 miles of range, though, unlike other accessories, this is something an upfitter would have to install if a customer wanted a range upgrade.
The battery, 150 kW (201 horsepower) rear-mounted electric motor, and gearbox (Slate says it has package-protected for a front motor in order to potentially offer all-wheel drive) are off-the-shelf items to keep cost down. It’s not exactly clear who makes these components, but 52.7 kWh is exactly the same as the Chinese Weltmeister EX5 400’s CATL-based battery pack (that’s just a guess). Suspension is a MacPherson strut setup in the front and a DeDion tube in the rear. Tires are from Kenda, a budget tire brand. The rear taillight is a single LED. And I could go on and on about other cost-saves (I plan to do a deep-dive into it soon).
As for dimensions and capacities, the 3,602-pound vehicle is rated to tow 1,000 pounds and to carry a payload of up to 1,433 pounds. It’ll do 0-60 mph in around 8 seconds, get up to a maximum speed of 90 mph, and carry up to 37 cubic feet of cargo in its bed (34 behind the front seats of the SUV). There’s also a frunk at the nose that holds 7 cubic feet.
Overall dimensions are: 175 inches long, 109 inches in wheelbase, and 71 inches wide, and 68 inches tall. This is two feet shorter than a Ford Maverick, and a couple of inches narrower; it’s a little narrower but otherwise roughly the same size as a Ford Bronco Sport, with which it shares quite a few design elements in my opinion.
As for safety, Slate says its vehicle was “designed to achieve the highest safety ratings,” and that the vehicle has Active Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Warning, and up to 8 airbags.
Reservations of this wacky new approach to cheap EVs are now open at $50 per, with shipment expected direct-to-consumer at the end of 2026.
If I can actually get one for ~20k, this just might save enough on gas to cover the payments. The 150 miles range is exactly what I need – enough to commute and have a decent amount of over.
Question, does it have a screen for a rear back-up cam? I thought those were federally mandated now so it has to have one (didn’t see mention in the article, and too lazy to scroll through 200+ comments)? The only screen I could see in the pics is the dash screen, but it looks really small. If a backup screen is already mandated, how much extra could it cost to throw in anroid auto/apple carplay compatibility?
That nitpick aside, I love this concept. (Although I hate to see one of the world’s richest men get even richer). I hope it succeeds.
The camera screen could be in the rear view mirror. I’m sure AA/Car Play is deemed an unnecessary expense to help keep prices low, especially if they’re expecting folks to just slap a tablet or phone to dash. Which I actually kind of dig that idea, and for once I’d give the design trend of haphazardly slapping a tablet onto the dashboard a pass.
The screen pops up on the digital instrument cluster. Agreed it’s pretty small for the purpose.
I DD a 2009 Honda with the backup camera screen in the rear view mirror. It’s fine but if you’re used to a full size screen it’ll be an adjustment.
Other articles I’ve read on this vehicle state it has a small screen in the gauge bezel for the camera.
Are there regulatory problems with an end user adding a second row of seats? If there are standards for crash performance of the seat including the second row, which would then require installation of approved seating (whether from the OM or a third party who has cleared regulatory hurdles), would those standards also require that the installation be done by a party that is also approved (and assumes liability for installation quality)?
Even as bare-bones as it is and being made in the US, I still wonder if that sub-$20k price is really feasible with all these bullshit tariffs. Yes, it’ll be made here, but where do the parts come from? If it’s true that the motor comes from China, will it still be able to pull off that price point? Where are Kenda tires made? Where does the plastic for the body panels come from? I just really wonder if they’re promising more than they can deliver, not unlike another famous EV brand…
There’s a chance that our Orange Leader might be out of office by the time these are being produced in any significant numbers, so the tariffs might be gone/different by that point. Of course, it’s hard for any affected business to make long-term plans in this kind of environment when federal trade regulations are subject to change on a daily basis.
Gonna see a bunch of these as surf rigs in southern california I imagine.
“At-home charging is limited to 3.6kW with a regular “Level 1” plug” –
Uhhhh you’d need to draw 30 amps at 120 volts to get 3.6kW out of a “Level 1” plug. I think there’s a typo in here somewhere. A 16-amp 240 volt L2 connection puts out about the same power.
It could be a Y-connector for 2 120V plugs. This is a solution for my Zero FXS. 2 15-amp plugs that go to 2 different outlets on different breakers. It takes extra work, but it’s possible, and the max achievable w/o a 240V setup. Great for ad materials.
One thing this is missing is V2H. Having a 50kw battery back just sitting around as a second or third vehicle would be great to have in case of a power outage. I know it would add costs but adding it as an option down the road would be nice. One could easily sell it as a spare car and backup power supply for $25,000.
If there were enough of these out there, I could see a third-party company enabling this as an aftermarket option even if never offered by Slate itself. I agree that a 50kWh battery doing nothing while sitting in your driveway seems silly. But of course, V2H is only an option on some/newer EVs now… plenty of EVs never had that option either.
Someone is going to cast/print/vac form a camper shell for one of these and it will look hilarious
This is the small EV truck we’ve been asking for.
I think its cool as heck
I hope they sell tons of these.
Is anyone else getting 1st-gen Saturn vibes from the plastic panel build and “made in America” tag?
It’s backed by serious “f*ck you” money, though… meaning that even if it fails, it won’t tank the company.
They’re going to sell dozens!
Trying to figure out how this is not what is called a penalty box when it’s not in truck form. So the SUV form is a penalty box, but the truck comes with a bed so that makes it okay, do I have that right?
It brings a lot of coolness, so I don’t think it can be called a penalty box. Like a 2CV.
I’ve road tripped in a 2CV, I love the Scion xB as one of the best box cars ever, and I happen to like this a bunch, too. But give it a curvy hatchback form with the same design choices and call it a Mirage or an iMiev that sells for a lot less, and this comment thread would not quit on how undergood superlousy penaltyboxawful it was. Do I want it anyway? Yes. But I also want a Leaf as a commuter. Or a rust free low mile manual xB. Or an Ente (duck in German, which was the name for the 2CV). I love them all, not just the truck version.
It’s a penalty box. But, at least it’s a penalty box you can upgrade, and an interesting enough vehicle that the penalty box nature is just part of the charm.
If it ever exists in numbers, I’ve zero doubt that the aftermarket will be festooned with so much interior crap that some Slates will wind up looking like Chinese (or American) luxobarges on the inside. Think of all the padded, diamond-quilted Alcantara, ambient LED lighting strips, and fake carbon fiber veneers you could slather the cab with. 😉
They’ll be hideous, but again, each to his or her own. 🙂
Range is fine for commuting or getting to a work site and back, then recharge overnight, which I’m sure was their target. No way this was intended to be a cross-country tourer.
Agreed. 150 miles of range is probably a safe minimum for 90+% of nervous commuters, even w/just 110VAC recharging at home (I gather than 110V recharging is easier on the batteries over time than 220V or faster charging is). There are plenty of weeks where I don’t even travel 150 miles.
Throw a generator in the bed, and now it’s a DIY EREV. What a time to be alive!
Jokes aside, it’s neat, in a two-car household, I can see how this would easily replace one vehicle affordably!
Amazon Basics EV.
This is fucking sweet. My Focus ST is 13 years old. It’s rusty and dented from surviving 2/3rds of my driving career.
I love the idea of this thing. I’ve been saying, on here even, why can’t I have plastic body panels? Steel requires $5000 paint job just to not turn to dust. It’s stupid. I Can install a stereo for less than $1000 and it will sound better than anything that comes in a $30k car. I wouldn’t get it wrapped. What’s the point? A temporary wrap on a utilitarian vehicle? The wheels are great.
Deposit made.
I SO agree. Assuming it doesn’t succumb to UV overnight, I’m fine w/unpainted plastic panels and heck, I LIKE the steel wheels. When the cheap tires it comes with are used up, then I can put on some better ones. But cheap is good! I hope it has AC though.
I would buy one of these if they can hit the price point. I recently bought a new ICE CR-V after finding the math on a hybrid or electric vehicle didn’t work for us. 95% of our driving is within 15 miles of the house but we need something that will go 200 miles on a Saturday twice a month, so I need something with range. And that long-distance drive requires something that can haul, so this would be perfect (if not as roomy as a Maverick). I don’t need heated cupholders or a 72″ touchscreen, and I like the idea of modular upgrades as long as they’re not priced to gouge. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.
How much do you need to tow? There are plenty of EVs and PHEVs that can tow, and many that are pretty cheap used. Kia EV6 can be had in the $20s and all versions can tow 2300lbs. The RWD long range versions have over 300 miles of range, so would likely make the 200 mile trip even while towing. My sister just got an Outlander PHEV for $12k after incentives. It has 25 miles of EV range, AWD and can tow 1500lbs.
Even if it can’t make the 200 mile trip without a charging stop, unless you are in Arkansas or something there’s gotta be at least one fast charging station on your route?
Having lived with an EV for several years, not having to do oil changes or stop at the gas station in daily life is totally worth having to fast charge on an occasional short road trip. Both from an experiential perspective and also just from a time-efficiency perspective.
Jeff Bezos’ wallet getting fatter? Count me out.
Sending chicks into space and maintaining a 417 foot yacht doesn’t come cheap…buddy can you spare a dime?
Jeff Bezos doesn’t have to do anything for his wallet to get fatter at a mind-bogglingly quick rate. He could just sit on his ass and make more money in a week (or a day, if we’re talking global averages) than most people will make in their lifetimes. That is in fact how most of the hyper wealthy exist: out of sight and mind of the general public, living their extraordinarily luxurious lives completely off of the passive income their wealth generates.
I’d rather have a billionaire that is actually trying to do something with their money than just sit on it and enjoy cavier.
Investing in a car company is not what one thinks of when it comes to philanthropy or what you call ‘doing something with their money’. Its what one does to make even more money. You are buying into the idea that they know what is good for us.
At this point anything you buy period will line the pockets of some billionaire somewhere. Do I love that, no, but the world is what it is at this point.
You not buying it isn’t going to impact Bezos. It’s just virtue signaling.
They can be right sometimes. That’s ok.
Me alone, no. Power is in numbers but one has to be open to believe what their eyes see and not blindly believe what ‘they’ say. It’s not ok.
No amount of people are going to make Bezos less rich.
You have to believe brother. Nothing lasts forever.
I don’t give a shit about billionaire philanthropy, most of it is a tax scam anyway. But investment in companies that build useful products that progress humanity is a good thing, and a much better use of it than endless luxury shopping sprees. If it makes them more money, so what? All of their employees are getting paid as well, and their customers are getting useful products. The economy is not a zero-sum game, if you increase the amount of resources, energy, and capital available to all, then everyone is getting richer- that’s human progress.
Did somebody already point out Slate is an anagram of Tesla
Bezos and Musk do like to tweak each other, LOL.
Any info on where the factory is? I assume for 2027 rollout they need to be working on one?
They said the plan is to produce in US.
Indiana, I think
The road of new ideas is littered with, well, new ideas, but I truly wish them well. This seems like great design philosophy that will resonate will a passionate group of buyers. Hitting that price will be the toughest target.
I could buy this as a third vehicle for my wife and I. We haul and tow enough to justify having a utility trailer but not enough to own a truck. This would replace the trailer and be a lot easier to deal with. We could rent this out on Turo the 320ish days of the year we don’t need it. In 13 years, it could be my son’s first vehicle.
If you’re towing with an EV don’t forget to cut the range down by 40-50%.
Same with a gas car. Towing with the Grand Cherokee we owned would yield 12MPG on a good day. 20MPG driving the same route without anything.
Our trailer is small, anything we tow on it would fit in the bed of this truck. Not dealing with hitching a trailer and securing things on a flat trailer sounds very appealing.
I’m not one to put down reservations on anything, but I am seriously tempted here. They seem to have their shit together far more than 99.9% of other startups, and I’m less worried about reliability/maintenance given how simple the thing is. It would be a perfect 3rd vehicle for me as I could really use some more utility but don’t want/need something that costs a lot to run.
Plus, down the road, it’s likely that there will be third-party upgrade components (for more power/speed/range/towing capacity from the same companies that Slate itself buys parts from.
I would buy this.
This may have a Chevy Bolt problem by the time it reaches production. It’s a truck so it’s a bit different but I’m sure they are banking on not just the work truck segment but the affordable transportation segment and the Bolt will almost certainly come with a longer range, radio, rear seats, power windows, and power locks at or close to the base price of this.
But they are two completely different formats. One is a small car the other is an SUV or truck. The Bolt can’t and won’t have a truck bed. That’s a huge distinction.
Did a Cavalier steal S-10 sales? Probably not.
No but the S-10 did steal a lot of Cavalier sales back in the day when trucks cost less than cars, in part due to their lower price thanks to the bare bones amenities. I know a few people who bought mini pickups as their first new vehicle since it was the cheapest new vehicle.
For a buyer just looking for cheap transportation? The Cavalier probably did steal S-10 sales. I’m willing to bet that Ford has a decent number of people all cross shopping the Bronco Sport and the Maverick. The calculus also changes a bit with the fact that the Bolt is a hatch/suv thing which is closer in capability to a small pickup than a Cavalier ever was.
If someone just needs cheap transportation, they aren’t going to look at trucks. That’s the point. If they don’t need/can’t make up reasons to need a truck bed, why would they shop for trucks?