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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I don’t remember reading an 8-ft bed. I only remember reading that it could haul a sheet of plywood.
That phraseology heavily implies 4 feet between the wheel wells and 8 feet between the bulkhead and tailgate, the definition of a “full size” truck bed.
My S10 is not that large in either direction; the wheel wells are about 6 inches narrower and the bed is 6 feet long. I’ve hauled a bunch of plywood in it… awkwardly resting against the bulkhead, balanced on the wheel wells and tailgate, with about a foot and a half sticking out past the bumper. Can my S10’s bed “hold” a sheet of plywood?
Hell, even in a truck that’s got narrow hips, embrace the tiny and put a lip/shelf around the perimeter that supports plywood sheets from the edges so they sit flat above the wheel wells. You’d have room for studs underneath on the floor. Just make the box long enough to close the fucking tailgate.