The Slate EV might be the most interesting planned car launch of the year, not because it’s a technological moonshot or a revamp of a wildly successful existing model, but because it’s a litmus test: Are Americans ready for true entry-level EVs? When it was first unveiled last year, it piqued our interests but questions remained around whether it could make it to market. Now it seems to be one big step closer, with actual pre-orders opening soon.
The premise behind the Slate is a rather interesting one: At a time when cars are growing increasingly expensive and DIY-unfriendly, what if someone made an EV in America that did the opposite of those thing? In addition to standard features not seen in ages like crank windows, Slate has some other bold ideas for this little truck. A pair of SUV conversions including curtain airbags that you can supposedly install yourself, a standard battery pack with an estimated range of just 150-ish miles, molded-in-color grey plastic panels instead of paint.
It’s a neat concept and has some serious backing, but I’ll admit, I’ve had my questions about viability. Will Americans be receptive to a short-range EV, even if it’s reasonably cheap? What happens now that federal tax credits have gone away? And will the Slate actually see production? While reservation slots opened at $50 a pop, that sort of thing often doesn’t mean much. I’ve seen plenty of EV efforts fizzle out, and proposed projects get stuck in reservation purgatory. Has anyone seen the second-generation Tesla Roadster recently?
Well, color me delightfully surprised: Slate has announced via email to reservation holders that actual pre-orders for the little EV open up on June 24. To make it into the first delivery window, you’ll have to pay a deposit of $250 if you have a reservation and $300 if you don’t, within 30 days of the portal opening. Otherwise, you’ll simply be bumped down the queue. Slate claims that if you complete that step, they’ll reach out to you as early as this autumn to spec wraps and accessories, finalize the purchase, and arrange delivery. Time flies, right?
Mind you, the one thing we don’t have yet is an actual price for the Slate. While the marque claimed a starting price under $20,000 with EV rebates, those federal rebates have completely evaporated. As such, Slate’s only claiming a base price “in the mid-twenties,” but that’s both subject to change and before any taxes and fees. Is the freight fee factored in there? I haven’t the foggiest, but we should know more come mid-June. Beyond the bottom line, I’m especially interested in learning what the longer-range model with an estimated 240-ish miles of range costs.
Regardless, Slate marching towards production gives me hope. Hope that people still want basic cars. Hope that some automakers are still willing to support DIY maintenance. Hope that North American EVs don’t have to be expensive. It seems like there’s only about a month to go until we learn a whole lot more, so I’m definitely keeping my eyes peeled.
Top graphic image: Slate
I was a reservation holder day 1… ish. My commute is 13 miles each way and the Slate would be the perfect thing to find out how composite body panels hold up to hail.
I think anything under 30k is acceptable as long as they have the inventory/production capacity to actually get models out into peoples actual hands. None of this Toyota artificial scarcity nonsense.
$25,890 is the competition. MSRP for new Honda Civic. Includes freight. Includes power windows. Includes radio. 41 mpg hwy epa.
It’s not a pickup. It’s just a superior choice.
i just want one with a backup camera, speakers, and power windows.
Backup camera is federally mandated.
Yeah, I’d buy this only if it was gas. Not new either, only used. I miss small trucks. Maybe if I got my hands on one, I’d do what I want to do w/ the VW Buzz. Rip out all the EV junk, sell it and then put in a gas engine. The Buzz looks so good I’d want to make a gas tribute to the iconic hippie bus; maybe an awesome Porsche (parsh!) engine. Then rebadge from Buzz to Bus! Hell yeah ha ha
“I’d buy that for a dollar!”
the longer range model will be at 30k or more to actually get one in your driveway, and I imagine it will be quite a while before those get delivered. This means the price will be even higher than that when it finally ships.
I want this to succeed really badly, but I just see so little future for it. It will be far too expensive for its target income level buyers with too little range/features for where it will actually be selling at. Its inherently a low margin vehicle to keep the costs down so I dont see where this company would actually make profits in the next many many years and we have seen that unless you have infinite money to prop you up (see Lucid) you will struggle (See basically all EV companies, even Tesla, which hit the market at the perfect time years ago and got huge chunks of money from the govt and still had to focus on high profit margin vehicles for a long time before breaking even).
Again I really hope I am wrong, these look cool and if the company stays around long enough to build up spare parts and service networks I would love to get a used one as my “kei truck” for doing little truck things occasionally.
A John Deere two seat electric Gator is over 20K out the door including an optional windshield but no windows and a 19.5mph top speed. The cargo box is 46 inches long. Range? Doesn’t matter unless one happens to be the dearly departed George Jones and desires to drive a lawn mower to the liquor store***. If Slate can sell a pickup that operates legally on the road, gets somebody to work, hauls stuff at work, and gets that somebody home for less than 30K there could very well be demand. Apparently there’s demand for Gators.
***https://savingcountrymusic.com/george-jones-his-notorious-riding-lawnmower/
Looking at the pictures, especially the two-tone green one, nobody in this universe could convince me that Slate did not take inspiration from the 1st gen Ford Bronco with the pickup cab option. The general shape is 1G Bronco. The size appears similar. The taillights… THE TAILLIGHTS…. look like the early Bronco. Even the front looks kinda like the Bronco.
I think people talk about wanting cheap basic cars, but the cheap basic cars keep disappearing because no one buys them.
At sub 20k (with EV rebate), this was a cheap basic car.
At 25k+ (without the EV rebate), this is an expensive basic car.
I plunked down $50 when it was sounding possible to be in this thing for 20k out the door. 30k out the door is completely noncompetitive.
$23k is literally the cheapest new car MSRP in the US right now.
Which is why the Slate was so compelling at announcement. A bare bones car with a price to match. Sounds fantastic!
Now it’s a bare bones car without a price to match.
So yes it is still a “cheap” car, and a basic car, but it is not a cheap basic car.
No one knows the price yet.
We know the price was announced as below 20k with EV rebates. The rebates are gone, and so is the sub 20k price.
Now, lightly used Mavericks are competitors. Before they were not. And lightly used Mavericks do everything a Slate does and more for the same price.
You can’t buy a $20k car if it actually costs $30k. Notice how much a Maverick is now? The manufacturer wants to make as much money as possible, so the Maverick being so successful resulted in it increasing in price by $10k. You can’t buy a cheap car if they don’t make a cheap car.
I live in a small town adjacent to a larger (but still small by most standards) city, and this truck would cover a LOT of the regular driving that I do.
Groceries, hardware store, post office/UPS store, picking a kid up from school… Shoot, even fast-food runs, which (especially with gas prices at their current levels) bug me to know I’m sitting there idling away money in the drive-thru line. It would probably cover most people’s daily commute, too.
On the other hand, it can’t cover 100% of my driving needs, because sometimes I need to take both kids somewhere, and sometimes we go on long road-trips, so it would have to be an “extra” vehicle. And even if they keep it in the mid-20-thousand range, that’s a lot to spend (for me) on what would be a “luxury.”
I am fully rooting for it to succeed; it’s just not a purchase I could justify for myself.
This is my thought too. I have a 70ish mile total commute to/from work, so the base model would need to get plugged in every night if I wanted to do that. But I would certainly use this for grocerys, Lowes/Depot, hauling a deer to the processor instead of mafia-ing the back of my outback with contractor bags, etc. But at 25k? That’s a lot of contractor bags.
This would be fine as a second vehicle and would replace ~80% of what my 1995 F-150 does (95% if it had a bigger bed, which isn’t that the entire point of a pickup?)
But not for $30,000. If they pull a rabbit out of their hat and sell it for $20,000 they would sell a lot.
$32K is my guess for the opening price.
No, no, no. $29,999 (plus destination)
I think you’re right, unfortunately.
If I were in the market, I’d certainly consider this. However, I now know from experience that the smaller battery won’t be sufficient for my use case – especially in winter. There’s a difference between “can” charge overnight every day and “must” charge overnight every day and I’m currently competing for a garage spot and the charger because my daughter suddenly has a much longer commute in her Leaf and “must” charge every night.
So, I’d be looking at the bigger battery and then you are left comparing included features between vehicles at the same price and that’s where they are going to start losing people. A feature-loaded vehicle with lots of bells and whistles will be more appealing than a stripped down model for the same price.
I think that the biggest positive for me on this is that the manufacturer apparently won’t be tracking my driving through data services. I don’t think privacy issues get enough attention in the automotive arena.
I blame your last article on getting my interested in these. I’ve been following since.
I can live with 150 miles easily, if I can charge it up in the garage overnight. I love the basic design, keep it simple, customize as I want. Keep it cheap & I’m probably in.
People can hate all they want, but there are some of us out there who do not want tech and other crap in our cars. Who pine for a simple vehicle. I cannot wait for this to come out. I understand its a bit of a moon shot, but if half of the elitist people online were truthful and actually did what they said (be frugal, want simple things etc…) it will be a best seller.
Unfortunately, as soon as something comes along people said they want, and theres a possibility of it, most of you clowns now hate it for all these lame, thin reasons. Just admit your a tech junkie who can’t focus on the road and need your nannies. It’s fine if you are like that, but just own it and stop making excuses on why a simple truck that lets you literally customize like 90% of it, is a bad thing.
Thanks for an article on Slate that isn’t totally dooming on them.
Best reply ever! (Though I do find it ironic that an EV is considered simple)
It’s really my only gripe, but if done well, it can reduce a lot of fluid services and hopefully last a long time.
That is true. Wishing you luck.
I’m over 120k miles in my Bolt, and I think I’ve spent about $50 in standard maintenance outside of tires- tires have been normal compared to my last car. There was the battery recall debacle, and some other smaller stuff that wasn’t right from the factory like the blind spot sensors missing parts, but since I had the first model year that’s stuff that should be sorted by now, and maybe not even present in the Slate. Some calendar years my only “maintenance” is a couple of car washes, dumping dust out of the cabin filter, and swapping to/from winter tires in the driveway.
Since the Slate is even simpler, if they can get the major high voltage electronics to be solid, I could see 10+ years/200k miles of nothing but an occasional trip to the tire shop and easy in-the-driveway sort of stuff.
They ARE simple. An EV might have 20 moving parts in its drive train, while an ICE car has 2,000+.
It’s a generational thing.
Please explain to me how a BEV is more complicated than an ICE one. I’ll wait.
How do I work on it using a set of Craftsman tools? Can I just change out the spark plugs and fuel filter or do I have to break down and respool the loom of wire like on an alternator?
Can you replace a headgasket with a set of Craftsman tools? How about a main bearing?
Have you ever seen the insides of an engine or work on them? and have you seen an electric motor?
If you have a proper breaker bar and torque wrench, yes.
And yes to both.
EV’s are modularized. When something breaks, you don’t repair it, you replace it. Once you disconnect the battery, you can do anything you want to it safely. They are super easy to work on, with the exception of swapping a battery because of the weight. Suspension and brakes are all identical to what you are used to, with the only difference being that you pretty much will never replace anything due to regen braking. Eventually things wear out like your ICE vehicle, at which point your are using your Craftsman tools to replace things. Trust me, repairing EV’s is going to be super easy once you get familiar with the architecture.
It’ll be interesting to see how this goes twenty years down the road.
I hope you’re right.
You don’t need to do any of those things. An electric motor has ONE moving part. The transmission, which is a simple (albeit strong) reduction gearbox and a differential has maybe three or four compared to a modern automatic that has gods knows how many parts.
Will I need a special volt meter?
No, just a standard one, in general. I can see a tool being developed in the open source community that would be able to connect to EV’s that allows one to diagnose them. I mean, they already do exist with code scanners. But, I can see this evolving rapidly as the community realizes just how easy things are to work on and parts become available.
AKA – hook up, see what is broken, replace it. No need to worry about valve guides wearing, timing belts breaking, vanos valves clogging, etc….
Mostly copying my comment from elsewhere…
At sub 20k (with EV rebate) this is a compelling car.
At 25k+ (without the EV rebate), it is completely noncompetitive.
I plunked down $50 when it was sounding possible to be in this thing for 20k out the door. 30k out the door is a nonstarter.
I think they said about 25k, maybe 30 with the SUV set up. IMO you are paying 30k to get a modern small truck they don’t make anymore, with modern crash standards, which is impossible to retrofit. It’s not worth it to some, like yourself, but that’s 10k less than a fucking Polaris Ranger EV and a deal to me.
I also don’t see how its non-competitive, as it offers something no one else is willing to offer, its literally the only option for something like that. The other ones A)don’t exist yet either and B) are blobs that will be the same and just sell your data.
The arguments against are silly to me. It’s all cut and paste from the same talking points and they don’t matter to someone who actually wants a simple vehicle they can work on. You are just making excuses.
I’m sorry sir, but you don’t know me.
You say there are no alternatives? Here is a modern small truck, with modern crash standards, with under 30k miles, with many more standard features and comfort than a Slate for likely 30% less than a Slate once you add a topper and rear seats to it. It also can do both a bed and rear seats, so has additional utility:
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/779999892?clickType=listing
Both the Slate and the Maverick meet my requirements for what I was looking for in a small, efficient in-town runabout with a bed. The only pros of the Slate for me are more customization possibility (which also means more $$ as you buy the widgets over time) and engineering simplicity. But a modern car like the Maverick will likely go well past 75k miles without significant work being necessary. I can still wrench on the usual brakes, suspension, etc on the Maverick just like the Slate.
A new Slate for the same price as a gently used Maverick hybrid was appealing. A new Slate for 10k more than a gently used Maverick hybrid is not.
Is it really fair to compare new vehicle prices to used? Obviously there are many buyers who do that very thing, (I’m one of them) but every automobile must be sold or leased new to a paying customer before it can become a “used car”.
I’m fairly convinced this Slate was designed as a commercial fleet vehicle first, and the marketing towards “individuals who want a simple EV truck” is just a side benefit. My opinion is based on the austere interior, lack of range, plastic body panels, 2wd, and single cab.
Think about it- What kind of customer wraps a new vehicle on day one? Doesn’t care if the driver has a radio or infotainment? Buys a *new* single cab truck at all? (According to Ram, single cab trucks represent only 3% of the market.)
The answer is a commercial fleet, and fleets don’t buy used trucks.
There is no way this billionaire-backed enterprise would think they could make money selling new, single-cab trucks to private individuals. That market basically doesn’t exist, at any price.
Hmm… what other small truck recently launched at $20k then rapidly got more expensive?
If people complain about the starting price of Mavericks approaching $30k (which I maintain is still a very good price), I can’t imagine they’ll be happy about a Slate creeping into the $25-28k range.
Especially when the competition at that price point is actually the Mav, which is a frickin’ Lincoln even in base spec compared to the most-loaded Slate you can configure.
It’s going to cost too much, become niche and Slate will bust.
I’ve noticed that Americans aren’t allowed to have actually cheap cars (like other countries) because of our apparent “freedom”.
If Americans really wanted cheap cars the Yugo, Metro, and Mirage would still be here.
Currently the only new car I’d ever buy. However, it’s going to be too expensive.
That’s not to say I think it’ll be priced more than its worth. I think it will be an excellent value.
…I’m just unemployed.
I’m of two minds. On the one hand I’m rooting for it – it looks cool, I think EVs are a net societal benefit, and at least someone is trying to make something affordable. On the other hand, not only is it a tough sell compared to what’s available lightly used, but it’s almost insulting what we are getting here in the USA as a “cheap car” when you look at what a cheap car looks like in the rest of the developed world, particularly China. It’s like Bezos giving us poors the absolute minimum viable product and expecting us to be grateful for it.
It’s not a Bezos project, he’s an investor (presumably influenced by the actual founder’s Amazon ties) – his rep actually left the company to focus on some AI manufacturing nonsense. Slate seems to claim they had some level of “creative freedom” so long as they made an “affordable car”; though I suspect there was a spoken-or-unspoken addition “using the services of our manufacturing business incubator”. It was an internally-created client of sorts.
Point is, if you believe them, Slate Auto made the car they wanted and hoped other people would want.