The Slate Truck is an electric two-seater with 150 miles of range and no stereo. | Image: Slate Auto
Ask just about anybody, and they’ll tell you that new cars are too expensive. In the wake of tariffs shaking the auto industry and with the Trump administration pledging to kill the federal EV incentive, that situation isn’t looking to get better soon, especially for anyone wanting something battery-powered. Changing that overly spendy status quo is going to take something radical, and it’s hard to get more radical than what Slate Auto has planned.
Meet the Slate Truck, a sub-$20,000 (after federal incentives) electric vehicle that enters production next year. It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood. It only does 150 miles on a charge, only comes in gray, and the only way to listen to music while driving is if you bring along your phone and a Bluetooth speaker. It is the bare minimum of what a modern car can be, and yet it’s taken three years of development to get to this point.
But this is more than bargain-basement motoring. Slate is presenting its truck as minimalist design with DIY purpose, an attempt to not just go cheap but to create a new category of vehicle with a huge focus on personalization. That design also enables a low-cost approach to …
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Not saying you’re not sensible. This is a genuine question. The number of trucks I saw when I visited the US (twice) was insane. Wouldn’t a trailer fulfill the same needs at a much lower price while being much more flexible in day to day use?
No, a trailer does not fit my use case.
Not really, no. When one or two of the legs of your daily commute requires bulk cargo handling, the added issue of “hitch up the trailer. Wait, where is the trailer? Okay, drive there, hitch it up, pull it here, then we’ll go there. Maybe get gas before you get the trailer because it’s a pain in the ass to do the gas station with a trailer hitched.” Yeah no.