Everything We Know About The Sub-$30,000 EV
Pickup trucks are the backbone of America, and the sales figures prove that year after year. That’s why a lot of automakers naturally thought of electrifying their pickups to ride the demand wave. The problem is that things never really took off, and we’re now seeing companies like Ram and Ford canceling their all-electric trucks.
There are several reasons for this shift, but one of the biggest factors is the price. A Tesla Cybertruck, which had appalling sales in 2025, starts at $80,000. The now-dead Ford F-150 Lightning had a starting price of around $57,000, while the fancier Rivian R1T kicks off from $75,000.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Slate Auto, a brand new American car company backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is betting on simplicity and a low price tag to attract customers who just want a basic, no-frills pickup. The startup made quite a stir when it debuted its two-door truck last April, and it has racked up at least 150,000 refundable preorders to date.
With production scheduled to begin by the end of this year, we thought we’d bring you a comprehensive roundup with everything we know so far about the 2027 Slate EV truck.
Photo by: Slate
Slate Truck: The Basics
The Slate is a compact all-electric pickup truck designed, engineered and manufactured in the United States. Its main selling point is the low starting price, which is expected to be in the mid-$20,000 range, but there’s an asterisk attached to that promise. (Slate still hasn’t announced a final price tag.)
To keep costs low, the base truck is… well… very basic. There are no power windows, no infotainment screen, no speakers, and even the composite body panels are unpainted. According to the company, this means production costs can be kept at a minimum because there’s just one configuration that needs to roll off the assembly line.
The Slate truck will offer creature comforts, but they’re all add-ons that will be installed by the owner or at a partnering garage.
Photo by: Slate
Every Slate comes to life as a two-door pickup with two-wheel drive, crank windows and a Tesla-style NACS port. No fancy electronics, no flashy paint—just a basic work truck. A single rear electric motor that makes 201 horsepower (150 kilowatts) is the only motivation option, so extreme off-roading is out of the question.
Even with the available accessories installed, drivers are still expected to use their smartphone or tablet in place of an infotainment screen. There is a small digital instrument cluster that also displays the feed from the backup camera.
Despite the downsizing and cost-cutting, Slate said that its truck was designed to achieve a five-star US NCAP crash rating, thanks to standard features like traction control, electronic stability control, forward collision warning and at least four airbags.
Battery capacity, charging and driving range
Slate plans on offering two battery versions, both using U.S.-made SK On nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells. The base model will come with a 52.7-kilowatt-hour pack, enabling an estimated range of 150 miles. Meanwhile, the 84.3-kWh extended-range battery will boost the estimated range to 240 miles. The two battery sizes will be the only Slate options that get installed at the factory.
Photo by: Slate
The company chose NMC cells over more affordable lithium iron phosphate (LFP) ones for two main reasons, executives told InsideEVs. NMC offers better energy density, which is important in such a small vehicle with limited packaging space. Plus, the NMC supply chain is more mature in the U.S., whereas LFP production is largely based in China.
That decision was made before the $7,500 federal tax credit, which required U.S.-sourced batteries, went out the window. So it will be interesting to see if Slate will offer an LFP version in the future.
Charging is managed through a Tesla-style NACS port on the left rear of the vehicle and tops out at 120 kW. Slate says that a top-up from 20% to 80% will take 30 minutes when connected to a DC fast charger.
How Big Is The Slate Truck?
The Slate truck is 174.6 inches long, 70.6 inches wide and 69.3 inches tall, with a wheelbase of 108.9 inches. In other words, it’s about 7 inches shorter and roughly the same width as a Toyota Corolla. It’s also 25 inches shorter than the Ford Maverick.
In the standard two-door configuration, the bed is 5 feet long and has a 35.1 cubic feet volume. Meanwhile, the front trunk can accommodate 7 cu ft of stuff. That’s better than the Ford Maverick, which has a 4’5” bed length and a total cargo volume of 33.3 cu ft, but it also has four doors.
Slate truck during hot-weather testing in Nevada
Photo by: Slate
Towing and payload
For a compact vehicle, the Slate truck has decent payload and towing specs. According to the company, the two-wheel drive EV can tow around 1,000 pounds and has a maximum payload of approximately 1,400 pounds. That’s on par with the Ford Maverick, which can carry between 1,400 and 1,500 lbs, but falls short in the towing department, as the Maverick has a maximum capacity of 4,000 lbs.
Slate Accessories
The 2027 Slate truck will roll off the assembly line as a very basic vehicle. It’s actually appropriately called the “Blank Slate,” seeing how it doesn’t have painted body panels and very little in the way of creature comforts. The Slate will have heating and air conditioning, but everything else will be available as add-on accessories to keep the production costs as low as possible.
Over 100 accessories will be available, which can be installed by the owner or at third-party shops. That’s because Slate will not have dealers–instead, it will rely on independent shops to handle repairs.
Photo by: Tim Levin/InsideEVs
Among the accessories are colored wraps, decals, chunky wheels, a suspension lift or a suspension lowering kit, power windows and even an SUV conversion kit. This last one is pretty interesting because it will add a bench seat and a couple of airbags, all for the price of around $5,000.
Where Will The Slate Be Made?
Slate’s truck was designed in California and Michigan, and it was engineered in Michigan. Production will take place at a repurposed printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana.
Slate EV Truck Pricing and Availability
The first production-ready Slate EV trucks are scheduled to roll off the assembly line in Indiana by the end of 2026. Pricing is still not set in stone, though.
When the pickup first debuted, it was marketed as a sub-$20,000 EV, but that was only possible with the help of the $7,500 tax credit. Now that the incentive is gone, Slate is touting a starting price in the mid-$20,000 range.
When asked about the price, Slate CEO Chris Barman said there’s still some work to do on this front. “We’re still having discussions on that,” she said on the sidelines of the BloombergNEF Summit in San Francisco in January 2025. “We’re still working really closely with our suppliers to see what opportunities we have to continue to bring costs down, to see what we can do to pass along to the customer before we announce final pricing.”
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Source: Slate
