Slate Auto’s $20K Electric Pickup: The Disruptor Detroit Didn’t See Coming
When Jeff Bezos backs a car company, the industry ought to pay attention—or at least pretend to while quietly sweating into its bespoke suits. Enter Slate Auto, the latest electric upstart determined to do what the major automakers apparently can’t: build a properly affordable EV.
How affordable? Try under $20,000 after federal tax credits—a figure that sounds more like a typo than a business model in today’s $55,000-average EV market.
Q: What sets this pickup apart?
For one, Slate Auto’s debut vehicle is the anti-cybertruck: a small, rugged, subcompact pickup. No bulletproof glass. No falcon doors. Just good old-fashioned steel wheels, hand-crank windows, and a payload capacity of up to 1,400 pounds.
At 201 horsepower, it’s modest but effective. Size-wise, it undercuts the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, creating a new niche: the “urban utility pickup.” You know—the kind of truck that’s actually usable in a Costco parking lot.
Better yet, over 100 accessories will be available at launch, including a kit to convert it into a five-seat SUV, complete with airbags and a roll cage. Your move, Subaru.
Q: How does this affect everyday drivers?
In short: It could finally make EV ownership realistic for the 80% of Americans who’ve been priced out of the electric revolution.
With a starting price around $25,000 before incentives, Slate Auto’s truck slices a full third off the current EV average. Even more critical: it’s refreshingly simple.
Forget 47 driver-assist beeps, bloated touchscreens, or apps that require a PhD in digital frustration. Slate’s base model pairs with your smartphone or tablet instead of burdening the truck with an in-dash infotainment system you’ll hate by year two.
Range anxiety? Take your pick:
- A 52.7-kWh battery for around 150 miles (perfect for city use),
- or an 84.3-kWh pack for up to 240 miles (suburbanites, rejoice).
Fast-charging from 10% to 80% takes under 30 minutes at a DC station, while overnight charging at home requires only the patience of sleep.
And, because Bezos can pull a few favors, the truck will use Tesla’s NACS charging port, giving drivers access to the Tesla Supercharger network—a subtle but deadly blow to rival startups still fumbling with adapters and hopes.
Q: Is this truly a game-changer—or just hype?
If Slate Auto delivers even half of what it promises, it’s a paradigm shift.
Most EV startups have fallen into the same trap: “build a $90,000 spaceship, pray for brand loyalty.” Slate Auto is different. It looks back to move forward, borrowing from the spirit of the Datsun 520 and Chevy LUV—simple, sturdy, honest pickups that didn’t require a second mortgage to buy.
Chris Barman, Slate Auto’s CEO and a former Fiat Chrysler exec, clearly understands something Wall Street forgot: affordability scales faster than luxury.
And while major players wring their hands over “EV hesitancy,” Slate is tackling the real elephant in the showroom: price. It’s almost embarrassingly obvious in hindsight, but when you’re distracted designing hypercars no one can afford, hindsight tends to arrive late and wearing a ‘For Sale’ sign.
Advance reservations are open now at slate.auto. Early indicators suggest demand will be brisk, particularly among younger buyers and small businesses tired of fleet prices ballooning like unchecked soufflés.
A few words of caution:
- No, it’s not a heavy-hauler. If you’re planning to tow a yacht, please, buy a Ford F-450 and be done with it.
- The initial model will be two seats only—unless you add that clever SUV conversion kit.
- And with its minimalist features, Slate’s pickup isn’t going to coddle you with massaging seats or ambient lighting that changes based on your mood. It’s work-first, ego-later.
In Conclusion:
Slate Auto’s tiny truck doesn’t just fill a market gap; it widens it into a canyon and dares Detroit to follow. Whether the company can scale production remains the looming question, but if it succeeds, we could be looking at the Model T moment for electric vehicles.
Not with fireworks. Not with flashy TikToks. Just with good old-fashioned common sense—something the industry has been sorely lacking.
