Why Slate Automotive says it has cracked the code to affordable EVs

The Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Automotive says it can sell an American-made electric vehicle pickup truck for about half of the average transaction price in the U.S.

Slate’s pitch is keep the vehicle as simple as possible to save on manufacturing costs, and then let owners add on and customize the truck however they want.

The Slate Truck is compact — two doors and two seats in its most basic form. It is spare — if you want an infotainment system, you have to add that yourself. And, you can. The vehicle is almost endlessly customizable.

Slate plans to sell more than 100 accessories for its truck, including a kit that will convert it to a 5-seat SUV. But Slate also wants to make the truck “open source,” meaning anyone could make accessories for the pickup.

So far, more than 100,000 people have made reservations for Slate’s small barebones truck.

Price has been Slate’s big selling point. Nearly half of American car shoppers say the top drawback to EVs is sticker price, according to a May 2025 survey by J.D. Power. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has been levying tariffs on foreign automakers and slashed federal incentives for EVs, making it more difficult for consumers to buy EVs.

Earlier in 2025, the company advertised that its truck would start below $20,000 with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. It then wiped that language from its website around the time the Trump Administration issued an executive order in July that began the rollback of EV incentives.

The company says the case for its cheap truck will remain strong after federal EV tax credits expire in September.

The question for Slate is whether the vehicle is still compelling at around $27,000 or $28,000 as it would be around $20,000. There is only one vehicle in the United States transacting below $20,000 — the Mitsubishi Mirage. But below $30,000 there are about 20 models, according to Cox Automotive. One of those is the Ford Maverick, which comes with either a straight internal combustion engine or a hybrid powertrain, and has many of the features the Slate lacks.

“All of a sudden, that price point just doesn’t look very competitive anymore,” said Market Research Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid, adding that Slate could lower its price to appeal to consumers. “But now you start to eat into that profit margin.”

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