BrandsSlate Reveals $24,950 Price for America's Cheapest Electric Truck
Official press image of the Slate electric pickup truck. | © Slate Auto
No paint. No touchscreen. No radio. Crank-up windows. Slate Auto, the Jeff Bezos-backed startup, has finally revealed what its stripped-down electric pickup will actually cost — and at $24,950, it's now officially the cheapest new EV money can buy in America, beating even the Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf. This is everything confirmed about the truck that's betting affordability still matters more than features.
Slate opened preorders this week with a $300 non-refundable deposit, confirming the bare-bones Blank Slate pickup starts at $24,950 before taxes, title, registration and destination charges. That undercuts every other new EV on sale in the US — the Chevrolet Bolt starts around $29,000, and the Nissan Leaf around $32,000. Slate isn't just selling a truck either: two SUV variants, the Squareback and Fastback, will start at $29,950 and $31,950 respectively, and the company says truck buyers can convert to an SUV body style after purchase if they change their mind.
Edmunds director of insights Ivan Drury called the reveal "a real test of how much affordability still matters to today's buyers," noting that the appealing base price comes paired with an unconventional build and a powertrain that's proven harder to sell in the current market. Whether the price alone is enough to overcome that, he said, is the real open question.
The base Blank Slate is deliberately spartan. There's no touchscreen, no radio, no speakers, and no paint — every truck leaves the Indiana factory in the same grey hue, dyed directly into its plastic body panels rather than sprayed on. Windows are hand-cranked. At 174.6 inches long, the truck is roughly two feet shorter than a Ford Maverick, but it still packs a five-foot bed and a 7.0-cubic-foot front trunk.
Battery specifications changed since Slate's original announcement. Rather than offering two NMC packs as initially planned, Slate has settled on a single 63kWh LFP battery rated at 205 miles of range — up from the previously announced 150-mile base figure, though the larger 250-mile pack option has been dropped entirely due to demand patterns. DC fast-charging has also improved, rising from 120kW to 150kW, enough for a 20-to-80 percent charge in roughly 30 minutes. Output from the single rear-mounted motor has actually dropped slightly, from 201 horsepower to 181 horsepower, while torque holds steady at 195 lb-ft. Towing and payload capacity both increased, now rated at 2,000 and 1,500 pounds respectively.
| Starting Price (Truck) | $24,950 |
| Starting Price (Squareback SUV) | $29,950 |
| Starting Price (Fastback SUV) | $31,950 |
| Battery | 63kWh LFP (single option) |
| Range | 205 miles |
| Motor Output | 181 hp / 195 lb-ft (rear-motor, single) |
| DC Fast Charging | 150kW — 20-80% in ~30 minutes |
| Level 2 Home Charging | Full charge in 4-8 hours |
| Towing Capacity | 2,000 lbs |
| Payload Capacity | 1,500 lbs |
| Length | 174.6 inches |
| Bed Length | 5 feet |
| Front Trunk | 7.0 cubic feet |
| Warranty | 10-year / 110,000-mile battery and powertrain |
| Build Location | Warsaw, Indiana |
| Deposit | $300, non-refundable |
| Deliveries Begin | Q4 2026 (Jan–Mar 2027 per some preorder timelines) |
The base pricing is the headline, but the entry-level price point is paired with an unconventional build and a powertrain that has proven harder to sell today.
— Ivan Drury, Director of Insights, EdmundsSlate executives have repeatedly described customization, not the base vehicle, as the company's actual profit driver. The Slate Marketplace launches with over 175 accessories, more than 80 of them priced under $500, spanning roof racks, stereo systems, seat covers and light covers. General vinyl wraps start at $160, with premium "Signature" wraps reaching up to $1,400, while headlight customization can range from $50 to well over $1,000 depending on options like animated light sequences. Every Slate ships in the same factory grey, meaning a wrap is effectively the only way to add color at all.
The company has also begun publishing "Slate University" how-to videos, walking owners through tasks like the truck-to-SUV conversion or installing headlight covers themselves — reinforcing the brand's deliberate do-it-yourself, repairability-first identity. A 10-year, 110,000-mile battery and powertrain warranty backs every vehicle regardless of configuration.
Slate's debut arrives during a genuinely difficult stretch for the EV market. New EV sales fell 27 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026 to roughly 216,400 units, according to Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book data, with the expiration of the federal $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of Q3 widely cited as the main cause. Several major automakers have posted EV sales declines of 60 to 70 percent or more and have throttled back production in response.
Slate's bet is that a genuinely low price — without relying on a tax credit that no longer exists — can succeed where feature-rich, more expensive EVs have struggled. The company says its Indiana plant will create more than 2,000 jobs and contribute up to $39 billion to the state's economy over 20 years, with nearly $400 million in direct investment. It also stands to benefit from a notable strategic relationship: Slate has granted used-car retailer Carvana a warrant to purchase shares in the company, and Carvana — which recently announced plans to sell new vehicles for the first time — could become a key sales channel for the low-cost truck.
Slate's pricing reveal lands directly in the crosshairs of Ford's own affordable electric pickup, which the company has been teasing under a "Project Unicorn" codename and is targeting a roughly $30,000 starting price when it arrives in 2027. Slate getting official pricing out first — and undercutting Ford's target by over $5,000 — gives it a meaningful head start in the conversation around who can actually deliver an affordable American electric truck first.
Slate deserves real credit simply for hitting a number close to what it originally promised, in a market where EV pricing promises routinely slip upward — the mid-$20,000s target from over a year ago has landed at $24,950, not far off at all. The bigger question Edmunds raised is the right one: does a genuinely low price overcome a powertrain and a stripped-down build that buyers have historically found harder to embrace? The accessory-driven business model is a genuinely novel bet, and the 205-mile range upgrade from the original 150-mile base figure is a meaningful improvement that makes the truck considerably more usable day to day. Whether American buyers are actually ready to trade touchscreens and paint for a sub-$25,000 price tag is something we'll only know once real delivery numbers start coming in early next year.