Take A Behind-The-Scenes Look At Slate’s Winter Testing

• The American-made Slate electric truck is going through all the necessary testing procedures before deliveries start later this year.
• After testing the EV’s towing capabilities in the scorching heat, Slate put its truck to the test in freezing temperatures.
• The two-door pickup was deep-frozen after driving through slush.

The Slate truck is less than a year away from going into production, so the company is kicking development and testing into high gear before the first customers get their cars toward the end of 2026.

This winter, the Jeff Bezos-backed startup that came out of stealth about a year ago put several of its prototypes through some real-world testing procedures at freezing temperatures. It all went down at the Keweenaw Research Center cold-weather test facility in Houghton County, Michigan.

Here, several prototypes were draped in sensors and other measuring equipment to see how the cars would fare. They were soaked in slush, then flash-frozen in cold containers that dropped the temperature down to -11°F. This hardened the slush, but the good news is that the EVs came out of the cold chambers under their own power, and everything worked as intended.

That said, even if something were to go wrong, this would be the best time. The idea of these grueling tests is to bring all the components to their limits, so that defects and issues can be caught and remedied before series production starts.

Last year, the bare-bones Slate truck was put through its paces in one of the hottest places on earth. Several mules were loaded up to their towing and payload limits and driven up a 3,500-foot grade to see how their thermal systems would perform.

All respectable car manufacturers do these tests, but no other name in the American car industry is promising a sub-$30,000 work truck that can also be dependable. Whether or not the Slate truck will live up to the expectations is another story.

Deliveries of the no-frills electric pickup truck are set to begin by the end of this year, with an estimated starting price in the mid-$20,000 range. Pricing details will be revealed in late June, but one thing has been clear from the get-go: the Slate is cheap because it’s simple. Its body panels are unpainted, and its most basic configuration lacks power windows, though they can be added as an optional extra. 

It comes standard with a Tesla-style NACS port, a single rear electric motor that makes 201 horsepower (150 kilowatts), and a 52.7-kilowatt-hour pack that enables an estimated range of 150 miles. A larger, 84.3-kWh extended-range battery will boost the estimated range to 240 miles.