In May of last year I stood here in front of the camera and announced I had placed my reservation for the all-new Slate EV pickup truck. Now today I am sharing that I have upped the game and have placed an official pre-order for the compact electric truck. According to Slate, my delivery window is sometime between April and June of 2027.
Just like last year I am going to share with you my rationale for exactly why I am all-in for the new Slate EV pickup truck – starting with its price tag. It was announced at the end of June the official starting price will be $24,950 for the blank Slate pickup, $20,950 for the square-back SUV and $31,950 for the fastback SUV.
Last year the projected pricing was “under $20,000” after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. As most know that tax credit went away shortly after the Slate EV was announced, leaving questions as to what the price would actually be. At $24,950 the company has held the line on what it would have been, if not beat expectations by a couple thousand dollars.
The main hook for me here is that this is an ultra stripped-down EV pickup. I love that there are no mandatory equipment levels, option packages, driving assistance features, or infotainment systems that I don’t really need or want – nothing. The trucks ALL roll off the assembly line one way, in one trim, with a single SKU number – period.
Slate however does know most people want their vehicles their way, with over 200 accessories and color wraps you can add now or later. You can put them on yourself, pay someone to do it, or pay one of their approved delivery centers put them on before you take it home.
The biggest news aside the price tag is that its base range is up to 205 miles from the original projection 150. This is because they chose to spec a larger standard 65 kWh LFP battery underneath the floor instead of the original plan of a smaller 52.7 kWh unit.
The original plan was to offer a larger 84.3 kWh battery option for a 250 mile range, but for now the upgraded battery option has been shelved in lieu of the single medium sized unit. As a result of the larger standard battery spec and finalized build materials, curb weight is up from the initial estimate of about 3,600 pounds now to 4048.
Now that the final specs are out, power comes from a single rear mounted DC motor with 181 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. A zero-to-sixty time of 8-seconds is quoted by Slate which sounds about right for the horsepower to weight ratio.
The front suspension is MacPherson struts with an electrically powered steering rack. Rear suspension is a DeDion rear axle located by trailing arms and a panhard rod with coil springs. Suspension height can be both lowered and raised with available kits from Slate
It’s constructed with a sub-frame of steel and high strength steel stampings like most vehicles but all of the exterior panels are composite plastic much like how Smart cars or first generation Saturns were built. The panels are molded only in the color of slate gray. That’s one of the reasons the cost is low – no paint shop, no paint.
There are all the expected safety features including a full suite of air-bags all around – even for the SUV version. There’s forward emergency braking, and rear-view camera that displays on the center instrument cluster.
Its warranty is a 4 year/50,000 mile bumper to bumper with a powertrain and battery warranty of 10-years/110,000 miles – to be serviced at a projected 3000+ partner repair shops around the country.
I originally reserved with Slate last year with a refundable $50 bucks. Now that pre-orders are open I added $250 to the pot to secure my delivery window for April to June of next year. That $300 is now non-refundable as it would be for anyone pre-ordering online at this point.
For now that pre-order is just a placeholder. Final ordering, specing out and locking in the total price along with the process of payment and/or financing comes much later when it’s time to build the truck.
Do I trust it’s not going to be vaporware that will never happen from a startup company that will not exist next year? I am pretty confident gambling my non-refundable $300 deposit as the company is backed by big players like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
A new factory in Warsaw, Indiana does exist. It has been tooling up and getting ready for production since the last time we talked. Several pre-production trucks exist in the flesh, they are all around the country testing. It coming together, it’s happening.
In the meantime I’ve got almost a year to decide which accessories or wrap package to get delivered with my truck. My intention is to accessorize and customize it with videos and how-to content along every step of the way. That means most likely, a very plain and blank Slate will be delivered with all the bells and whistles to come later. Time will tell.
