We Ride Along in Slate's $25,000 Electric Pickup

Slate has revealed new details about its ultra-affordable electric pickup, confirming a $24,950 starting price and 205 miles of range from its entry-level battery pack. Betting that buyers are ready to trade touchscreen-heavy interiors for simplicity, the startup is pairing a back-to-basics design with practical EV fundamentals—including a 63 kWh battery, NACS charging, and a modular platform that can be upgraded over time. It's an intriguing take on making electric trucks more accessible without the usual feature overload.

Transcript

00:00:00 Here it is, the $24,950 Slate electric pickup. Well, this is the SUV. This one's a bit more expensive, but we finally have a price tag on the vehicle and we have a range, 205 miles. Originally, Slate was going to offer up two batteries, 150, 120, something or other, and they decided, based on feedback from customers and using their the maker, where people can go in and

00:00:26 build their own Slate, 80% of the people were deciding on the larger battery pack. So, Slate said, "You know what? Why don't we just come up with one battery, over 200 miles of range, for $25,000."
>> [music]
>> With that 205 miles of range, this vehicle is based on a 400-V

00:00:53 architecture, which means the DC fast charging tops out at 120 kilowatts. So, if you're trying to go on long road trips, this probably isn't the ideal EV. Instead, it's great for around town, which is, to be honest, frankly, what most people are doing while they're driving. It has a usable 63-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

00:01:14 It gets over 3 miles per kilowatt-hour, so it's pretty efficient for a vehicle that's essentially pretty flat up front. So, you are getting a pretty efficient vehicle for around town, for fleet management, and what's also interesting is that it offers 11-kilowatt AC charging. So, for a fleet manager, that means you can park this car at an AC charger for 11 kilowatts

00:01:40 during lunch breaks, between shifts, and still keep this vehicle on the road all the time. It is outfitted with SAE J3400, also known as NACS, so you can charge this at all the Tesla stations, and of course, with an adapter, at all the CCS stations out there.
>> [music]
>> In addition to the Slate Marketplace,

00:01:58 the automaker will offer up files for 3D printing, so DIYers, content creators, they can 3D print parts for their vehicle. And if you happen to decide to make a business out of creating a part for the Slate, you can work with Slate and actually have your parts sold on the Slate Marketplace. And it'll go 0 to 60 in 8

00:02:21 seconds. And you know what? Standing next to this vehicle is fine, but I'm going to go and take a ride.
>> [music]
>> All right, so I'm here with Matt. We're here in the Slate truck. This is just the regular Slate, and we're going to go for a little ride.
>> Yes, we are.
>>

00:02:50
>> So, this is a pre-production vehicle, correct?
>> It is a prototype, yep. We're uh bringing them out here to showcase uh how well they ride, the NVH.
>> Mhm.
>> Of course, you can't feel from your side, but it's got one pedal drive with auto hold.
>> Oh, wonderful. I think that's that's a

00:03:09 huge deal for people who used to drive Bolts, used to drive the original Nissan Leafs, so
>> Very smooth transition down to, you know, zero, and then the the brake holds, so it's, you know, very easy drive, very easy to get used to.
>> Is there multiple levels or regen or just a single
>> Single single level. Okay, yeah.

00:03:29 I'll uh punch it a little bit as we get around this corner, just so you're ready for it. This is 0 to 60 in in uh 8 seconds. I'll get going here. Make sure we're clear.
>> So, you can
>> That's slightly over the speed limit.
>> So, you do have you have that EV torque.

00:03:54 [laughter] It's not overwhelming. It's not It's not super quick, but it's definitely quick enough is what it feels like from from the passenger side.
>> Yeah, again you
>> And you could if if if Can you turn off the the the the rear traction control?
>> If you're a weirdo and you want to

00:04:13 drift?
>> Yes.
>> There is a drift. Yeah, yeah, ESC off. Yeah.
>> Right.
>> [laughter]
>> Yep, we have the ESC off button. It's over here on this side.
>> So we didn't we didn't squeal the tires, but if you turn that off that definitely

00:04:25 I I felt like that definitely would have squealed. We would have got some squeals.
>> Yeah.
>> And so the the And what is your position at Slate?
>> I'm the manager of functional sciences. Things like durability, NVH, aero thermal. Do faster engineering.

00:04:41 Weight benchmarking. VSR. I think I didn't forget any. Everything. Yeah.
>> So as you're working on this vehicle when you're thinking about NVH and then we have a little bit of air, but that's it's a pre-production vehicle.
>> Correct. Yeah, yeah.
>> So so so what what what do you what what

00:04:59 is left? What what's left to validate for for you and your team?
>> Well, we've I like to say we've done the homework, we studied for the test, we got to take the final exam. We're going to go through our final round of validation,
>> [music]
>> durability. We're going to go out last and do our our final validation of our

00:05:17 aero thermal system. Yeah, you know, on the classic David Stam run out in Arizona.
>> SAE standard. I'm from SAE.
>> Yeah, okay, cool. Yeah, J2007. Very very familiar. So we'll be doing that.
>>

00:05:34
>> You know, the NVH team is is working diligently to make sure all of the you know, dot the i's and cross the t's with all of our objectives there. So we're we just got to take the final exam and get ready to get ready to launch. Get in there. But this is this is exciting. I think you know, a low-cost EV that's that's a modular truck is And for you for NVH,

00:05:59 how difficult is it when it comes to a vehicle that is essentially a transformer?
>> Uh from an NVH perspective, I mean the the the really important thing is to do the first things first um so that you and do them well so that you know, you're not adding content to mask things that that weren't done correctly. And our team

00:06:18 um are just studs. They they've done that and are continuing to find opportunities. And that way we we get good performance without a lot of content. cost
>> Thank you so much, Matt. I really appreciate it.
>> Yep, you got it.

00:06:35
>> These are comfy seats.
>> Thanks. Thanks.
>> Yeah. Simple and comfortable.
>> Simple and you know, they've got the zip-out um uh seat liner.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> So you can customize those, right? So they're they're built for customization.

00:06:53
>> If you want to use this vehicle to haul things around, essentially just doing truck stuff, it has a payload of 1,500 lb and can tow up to 2,000 lb. The ground clearance for the vehicle for the truck is 7.8 in for the SUV because of the additional weight is 7.6 in. If you do get the lift kit, it increases that by 2 in. inches.

00:07:17 And of course, the big selling point besides the price and the fact that it's an EV is that it is modular. This one is sort of everything. It's got the lift kit. It's got the off-road tires. It's got the SUV kit. It's got the the rails on top. You can do all this You can order all this when you order the vehicle or you can just wait to order it later. Maybe a year or two

00:07:38 from now you decide you don't want a pickup, you want an SUV, you can order that stuff, you can have it either installed by yourself, you can do it with a friend, or you can send it off to one of the partnership service centers that Slate is working with. Um, the company says that it has over 200 accessories, and 80% of those accessories are under

00:07:59 $500. So, the idea is you buy this, and then you just accessorize it like crazy, you mod it, you put wraps on it. The The The default wraps are $500. Of course, that price can climb pretty quickly if you decide to do a custom wrap. But, overall, we live in an era where cars evolve via software, via over-the-air updates. Now, we're

00:08:21 entering the area where a car can evolve in your driveway via hardware updates. And that's pretty exciting. The Slate is expected to start shipping at the end of 2026. For more automotive coverage, be sure to subscribe to SAE Media Group.