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Slate Truck is a $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen (www.theverge.com)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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 manufacturing that has caught the eye of major investors, reportedly including Jeff Bezos. It's been engineered and will be manufactured in America, but is this extreme simplification too much for American consumers?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

It's also 20ish" shorter, seats 5 with a 5 foot bed, can carry 4x8 sheets flat between the wheel wells (and tailgate closed if the midgate is open), tows a bit over 3 tons, has an AWD option, and the base range beats the maxed out range on the Slate. They aren't really competitors beyond "small truck." Telo is absolutely maxed out for it's size, Slate is as cheap as cheap can go.