The Slate Truck‘s headline price, $24,950, buys a two-seat electric pickup with gray plastic body panels, hand-crank windows, and no infotainment screen. That spare configuration is the entire idea. Slate sells a deliberately bare vehicle and lets each buyer add back only what they want.
Add back enough of it and the number moves quickly. When reviewers ran Slate’s configurator to its ceiling this month, a fully optioned Fastback SUV reached $46,493. A more restrained build of the same vehicle still cleared $40,000.
There is a second number the headline hides. Slate spent its first year in public promising a truck that would land under $20,000 after the federal EV tax credit. The credit expired at the end of September 2025, and the sub-$20,000 pitch went with it.
Key Takeaways
- The base Slate Truck starts at $24,950, a two-seat pickup with unpainted composite panels, manual windows, and no center screen.
- A loaded Fastback SUV reached $46,493 when one outlet maxed the configurator. A heavily optioned but less extreme build came to $40,603.
- The five-seat SUV conversion starts at $29,950, roughly $5,000 over the base truck, and it is the version most families will actually order.
- Slate originally promoted a price under $20,000 after the $7,500 federal credit. That credit ended September 30, 2025, and Slate removed the sub-$20,000 language from its site in July 2025.
- Slate dropped the planned extended-range battery. Every truck now ships with one LFP pack rated at 205 miles.
- Switching to a lithium-iron-phosphate battery is what let Slate hold the base at $24,950 even after losing the tax credit, down from an earlier $27,500 estimate.
What $24,950 Buys
Slate calls the base truck the Blank Slate, and the name is literal. The body panels are injection-molded gray composite, unpainted by design, so there is no paint shop and no color to pay for.
The windows crank by hand. There is no touchscreen, no built-in navigation, and no factory stereo.
Slate expects you to mount your own phone or tablet and bring your own sound.
Underneath, the mechanical package is fixed and honest. A single rear motor makes 181 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque, enough for a zero-to-60 run of about eight seconds. A 65-kWh lithium-iron-phosphate pack, 63 usable, delivers a Slate-estimated 205 miles. Payload is rated at 1,550 pounds and towing at 2,000. Standard safety equipment includes six airbags, automated emergency braking, stability control, and a backup camera.
What you give up at $24,950 is not performance. It is finish and convenience. Paint, rear seats, a screen, power windows, upgraded wheels, and most of the creature comforts a buyer expects on a modern vehicle all sit on the options side of the ledger.
The Price Ladder
How far the advertised price sits from a realistic out-the-door price is the whole story here. Here is how the number climbs from the bare truck to the configurations reviewers built.
| Configuration | What it adds | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Base Truck (Blank Slate) | 2 seats, 205 miles, no paint, no screen | $24,950 |
| SUV / Fastback kit | Rear seats for five, roll structure, roof, rear glass | from $29,950 |
| Loaded Fastback (CarBuzz build) | Wrap, wheels, speakers, bumpers, lighting | $40,603 |
| Maxed configurator (Autoblog build) | Nearly the full accessory catalog | $46,493 |
Slate has not yet announced a destination or delivery fee, so every figure above is before whatever it costs to get the truck to you. The real transaction price sits somewhere north of each number.
The Options That Move the Number
Slate says it will offer more than 200 accessories at launch, with over 160 of them priced under $500. Individually most are cheap. Stacked together, they are how a $24,950 truck becomes a $46,493 one.
Seats and body. By far the largest jump is the SUV kit, which converts the two-seat pickup into a five-seat wagon with a roll-bar structure and enclosed rear cabin. It starts around $29,950, so roughly $5,000 over the base truck before any trim. For a family, it is not optional.
Paint you cannot get. Because the panels come raw, color means a factory wrap. Slate’s basic wrap kits start near $500, and the flashier patterns run to about $1,400. A wrap is also a consumable. It will not last the life of the truck the way paint does.
A stereo and a screen. Sound is a build-your-own affair. A pair of dash speakers runs $149.99, a center speaker $249.99, and Slate has floated a three-piece 400-watt system around $400. The infotainment screen is your own device on a mount, which keeps cost down but leaves integration to you.
Wheels, tires, and hardware. A set of accessory wheels lists at $1,399.99, off-road tires at $1,099.99, front and rear bumper upgrades at $499.99 and $599.99, running boards at $349.99, and a rooftop light bar just under $800. None of it is required. All of it is on the menu, and it adds up fast.
The $20,000 Truck That Never Arrived
When Slate came out of stealth in April 2025, the pitch that drew the headlines was a starting price under $20,000. That figure always assumed the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. That math worked only with the government covering part of the bill.
The reconciliation package signed in the summer of 2025 ended the consumer EV credit effective September 30 of that year. Slate had not built a single customer truck yet, with production still more than a year out, so it lost the incentive before it ever delivered a vehicle that could use it.
In early July 2025, Slate quietly removed every mention of the under-$20,000 price from its website and began describing the truck as a mid-twenties vehicle instead.
What gets lost in the disappointment is that Slate did not pocket the difference. To hold the price down after losing the credit, the company re-engineered the battery, moving to cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry. That switch is why the base sits at $24,950 today rather than the $27,500 floated a year ago. The truck got less expensive on its own merits even as the subsidy vanished. It just never got as inexpensive as the original promise.
What Happened to the Long-Range Battery
Slate’s early plan called for two battery choices, a standard pack and an upsized one good for around 240 miles.
That option is gone.
The company settled on a single LFP pack estimated at 205 miles, and it has said the pack already fills the available battery space, so a longer-range version would require sourcing a different cell from a different supplier.
For a truck aimed at short-haul and second-vehicle duty, 205 miles is defensible. For anyone who wanted to tow or road-trip in it, the loss of the long-range option closes a door that was open when the reservations started. It also simplifies the buying decision to a single question of body style and trim, which fits Slate’s whole strategy of stripping choices down to the ones that matter.
If you are holding a Slate reservation: Build the exact truck you intend to buy in the configurator before you commit, not the headline base model. Add the SUV kit if you need rear seats, price the wrap and audio you want, and remember that Slate has not published a delivery fee yet. The $24,950 figure describes a two-seat work truck, not the family vehicle most reservation holders are picturing.
Is It Still Worth It?
Even at $46,493 fully loaded, the Slate Truck occupies real estate almost nobody else does. It remains the least expensive new electric vehicle you can order in the United States, and the only new pickup, electric or otherwise, that starts under $25,000. Nearby new gas trucks open higher and climb from there. Nothing else lets a buyer start at bare metal and pay only for the features they choose.
An honest read is that the outrage over the $46,493 number cuts both ways. A maxed-out anything looks expensive next to its base price, and few buyers will tick every box.
The more useful comparison is the SUV kit at roughly $30,000, which is the version most families will order, and which still undercuts nearly every other new EV on the market.
The disappointment is not about the loaded price. It is about the erosion of a $20,000 promise that the tax code, not Slate, ultimately broke.
Bottom Line
The $24,950 headline is accurate and also incomplete. It buys a genuine, if spartan, two-seat electric pickup, and Slate deserves credit for keeping that number intact after the federal credit disappeared. But the truck most people are imagining, the five-seat SUV with a color, a stereo, and decent wheels, starts closer to $30,000 and climbs from there, with a fully loaded Fastback touching $46,493. The extended-range battery that would have made it a road-trip vehicle is gone, and so is the under-$20,000 price that made the early headlines. Read the configurator, not the billboard. Build the truck you plan to drive, then judge whether that number, and 205 miles of range, fits your life. For a lot of second-car and short-commute buyers, it still will. For everyone else, the gap between the promise and the price is worth sitting with before you convert a reservation into an order.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Slate Truck cost?
The base Slate Truck starts at $24,950 before any options or delivery fees. That price covers a two-seat electric pickup with unpainted composite body panels, manual crank windows, and no infotainment screen. Adding the five-seat SUV kit raises the starting point to about $29,950, and a fully optioned Fastback SUV has been configured as high as $46,493.
Why is the loaded Slate Truck so much more expensive than the base price?
Slate sells a deliberately stripped vehicle and treats almost everything else as an option, including paint (via wrap), rear seats, audio, upgraded wheels, and body accessories. The company plans more than 200 accessories at launch. Stacking enough of them onto the SUV body is how the price climbs from $24,950 to the mid-$40,000s.
Does the Slate Truck still qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit?
No. The federal EV tax credit for new vehicles ended September 30, 2025 under the 2025 reconciliation law. Slate had promoted an under-$20,000 price that assumed the credit, then removed that language from its website in July 2025 once the credit’s end was set. Some buyers may still qualify for state or local incentives depending on where they live.
What is the range of the Slate Truck?
Slate estimates 205 miles from its single 65-kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack. The company dropped its earlier plan for an extended-range battery of roughly 240 miles, so 205 miles is the only figure offered. DC fast charging takes the pack from 20 to 80 percent in about 30 minutes.
What happened to the long-range Slate battery option?
Slate canceled it. The original plan included a standard pack and a larger one good for about 240 miles, but the company consolidated to a single LFP pack rated at 205 miles. Slate has said the current pack already uses the available battery space, so a longer-range version would require a different cell supplier and chemistry.
How much is the Slate SUV kit?
The SUV conversion, which turns the two-seat pickup into a five-seat wagon with a roll-bar structure and enclosed rear cabin, starts at about $29,950. Both the squareback SUV and the sloped Fastback roof are offered. For buyers who need rear seats, this kit is part of the base cost rather than an optional extra.
When will the Slate Truck be available?
Slate has targeted production to begin in late 2026, with first customer deliveries expected in early 2027. Reservations are open through Slate’s configurator. As with any startup automaker, timelines can move, so treat the delivery window as a target rather than a guarantee.
What are the Slate Truck’s specifications?
A single rear motor produces 181 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque, good for roughly an eight-second zero-to-60. The 65-kWh LFP pack (63 usable) is rated at 205 miles. Payload is 1,550 pounds and towing capacity is 2,000 pounds. The base truck seats two; the SUV kit seats five.
Is the Slate Truck a good deal?
It depends on the configuration. At about $30,000 for the five-seat SUV, it undercuts nearly every other new EV and remains the least expensive new pickup on the market. Fully loaded at $46,493 it looks less remarkable, though few buyers will select every option. The bigger caveats are the 205-mile range ceiling and the loss of the under-$20,000 pricing that drew early interest.
How does the Slate Truck compare to other electric trucks?
Nothing else competes directly on price. The Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and Tesla Cybertruck all start well above the Slate’s range and offer more power, more range, and far more content. The Slate is a different proposition: a small, light, minimalist EV pickup priced for buyers who want basic electric utility rather than a full-size flagship.
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn is the writer, photographer, and publisher behind The Weekly Driver. He cares about how cars drive and what they're like to own. He covers automobile industry news, car shows and events, and new car reviews. The reviews come from behind the wheel: day trips that favor back routes, treating a good meal as half the reason to go. He directs and produces the visual media, matching each car to a setting and mood that fit it. When he's not reviewing new cars, Michael races paddleboards, camels, and ostriches, along with the occasional exotic car on the racetrack, and has driven in every state and country visited.
https://theweeklydriver.com