Slate Electric Pickup Truck Is The Anti-Cybertruck

Sign up for CleanTechnica’s Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott’s in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and/or follow us on Google News!

By every measure, the electric pickup truck from Slate is the exact opposite of the Tesla Cybertruck. It is light, affordable, and basic where the Cybertruck is heavy, expensive, and loaded with technology. The Slate emerged from stealth mode this week, and so we know a lot more about it now than we did two weeks ago when the rumors first started.

The Slate business model is straightforward. Start with a basic product that is tough, rugged, and affordable and give customers a smorgasbord of options they can choose from if they wish. Inside, there are two seats, no radio, no Bluetooth, and no speakers of any kind beyond for those required to play basic warning chimes. There is, however, a cellphone holder molded into the dash. Jeremy Snyder, the chief commercial officer for the company who once was a global operations manager for Tesla, told The Verge that while some will think this is taking cost cutting too far, the interior was designed for ease of upgrading, with easy mounting space for anything from a simple soundbar to a full sound system.

Start Simple And Customize

Slate says more than 100 accessory items will be available when deliveries begin at the end of 2026 and there will be accessory bundles customers can select. Most of the accessories are designed to so owners can install them themselves if they have their own tools. If not, Slate says it has arranged with a major national auto repair chain to assist with installation and warranty repairs. The accessories available will range from power windows to a 2-inch lift and 1-inch lowering kit. There is even an SUV kit that adds a roof panel over the load bed that comes complete with a three person bench seat, a roll bar, seat belts, and airbags. The SUV package is easy to install and easy to uninstall if the owner wants to revert to the basic truck package.

The simplicity of the whole Slate concept has benefits that may not be immediately obvious. “Seventy percent of repeat warranty claims are based on infotainment currently because there’s so much tech in the car that it’s created a very unstable environment in the vehicle,” Snyder said “From the very beginning, our business model has been such that we reach cash flow positivity very shortly after start of production. And so from an investment standpoint, we are far less cash-reliant than any other EV startup that has ever existed, as far as I know,” he added.

How affordable will it be? Assuming the federal EV tax incentive stays in effect (not a sure bet by any means), its net cost will be under $20,000, making it one of the least expensive vehicles available in the US. “We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never been delivered,” CEO Chris Barman said during the live stream introduction for the Slate truck this week.

How basic is basic? Very basic. Conceptually, it reminds me of the original Ford Bronco, International Harvester Scout, or Willys Overland. But there is one feature of the Slate trucklet that the automotive world has never seen before. Do you know what it is?

No paint. That’s right. Instead of steel, stainless steel, or aluminum, the Slate pickemup will be clad in panels made of “injection molded polypropylene composite material.” That’s the stuff Saturn used for its body panels 40 years ago. It took a lot of grief for doing that because the material expands and shrinks ever so slightly with changes in temperature, which means the panel gaps have to be a little larger than is standard in the industry, but those panels were virtually indestructible.

When I was managing a Saturn store, a customer traded in a Saturn coupe with 114,000 miles on it. The car had no obvious body damage, so instead of sending it to auction, I ran it though the recon shop and it came out looking very, very close to brand new. I put it in the showroom with a sign that said, “Will your new car look this good after 114,000 miles?” That sold a few people on the idea of buying a Saturn. It seems some people liked the idea of not driving a car with dings and dents, even if the panel gaps were a little larger than the other cars they were looking at.

The Verge visited the Slate design center recently, where the company featured an image of a big, gray shark, covered in scrapes and scars. “It looks like a shark that has definitely been in more than one brawl and clearly has come out ahead because it’s still swimming,” said Tisha Johnson. She is the head of design at Slate after spending a decade designing cars at Volvo. Highlighting rather than hiding battle scars is key to the Slate ethos, she said.

Here’s the thing. That body cladding is gray. It’s gray on the outside. It’s gray on the inside. And if it gets scratched or gouged, it’s gray in the middle. So the basic Slate — known as the Blank Slate — is grey. The factory has no paint shop, which in today’s world can cost as much as billion dollars to build. No paint means lower production costs, although the company will be happy to sell its customers wraps that can be applied to the exterior either by the buyer or a local wrap shop. Slate will even wrap the truck for you at the factory if you prefer. “We have no paint shop, we have no stamping,” says Jeremy Snyder, Slate’s chief commercial officer who formerly led Tesla’s global business operations.

So what do you get for your (approximately) $27,500 investment in a Slate pickup? You get a truck with a wheelbase of 108.9 inches and an overall length of 174.6 inches. In comparison, the Ford Maverick is built on a 121.1 inch wheelbase and is 199.7 inches long. The Slate is the size of the compact trucks that Datsun, Toyota, Chevrolet, and Ford once sold in America two generations ago before trucks became a status symbol.

The standard battery has a projected range of 150 miles while the optional battery should be good for about 240 miles. The payload is 1400 pounds and the towing capacity is listed at 1,000 pounds. Up front, there is a frunk with 7 cubic feet of cargo space and drain holes in case you want to fill it with ice to keep your brewskis cold. The Slate will be fitted with a NACS charging port and can charge at up to 125 kW.

Some of those specs may be a little disappointing, particularly the low towing capacity, but there is a lot to like about the Slate. The Verge points out the company is actually promoting the owner’s right to repair. Many warranty repairs, if needed, can be performed by owners themselves. “If you’re not going to break the vehicle and you’re not going to injure yourself, meaning high voltage, you can do service and warranty service on your vehicle yourself and have the videos and the helpline to support you to do that work,” Snyder says.

There will be an owner support network called Slate University that will teach people everything they need to know  to do basic repairs. Slate also has a partnership with established nationwide service centers for more complex repairs and upgrades can be performed. “At start of production, we will have coverage across the country for servicing your vehicle,” Snyder says.

It should come as no surprise that Slate will follow Tesla’s lead by offering direct sales. No nationwide network of dealerships is planned. Instead, a limited set of pickup centers will pop up as needed based on preorder data. Or, if you don’t mind paying a little more, home delivery will be available. Pre-orders are just $50 on the Slate website, with deliveries expected to start in late 2026.

“The Slate Truck is a rolling rejection of the current, bloated state of American motoring, but it’s consumer demand that’s driven the market down this dark alley. Are those consumers ready for a rolling digital detox?” The Verge asked. There is no way to answer that question but there are precedents in the industry that offer clues. I was discussing this with a neighbor who drives a Ford F-150 for business. He had looked at the F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T but was put off by the prices of those vehicles. When I told him about the Slate, I could tell it was something he wanted to know more about, despite its obvious limitations.

That got me thinking about other bare bones vehicles that have enjoyed enormous success, like the original Volkswagen Beetle and Transporter. Today, there is also a cult-like aura around the tiny kei-class pickup trucks that Americans are importing from Japan. Is there a place for the Slate in the US? I asked around the CleanTechnica writers lounge today and most of us thought the answer was a definite yes. Call it the Anti-Cybertruck if you will, the antidote to bloat. We think that’s a good thing. Check out this video below.