Slate's Big Market Research Experiment

The Slate truck in pickup and SUV form

Sam Abuelsamid

A new automotive startup called Slate emerged from stealth mode this week and garnered a huge amount of attention for creating what many have been clamoring for — the sort of cheap, electric vehicle that is widespread in China. While Slate is getting lots of coverage and will probably rack up a huge number of $50 reservations in the coming days and weeks, whether that translates into actual sales will be a fascinating market research experiment. 

The Slate truck (it doesn’t appear to actually have a model name) takes a fundamentally minimalist approach to features and technology. While even the cheapest cars on sale in the U.S. today, like the Nissan Versa, include touchscreens with phone projection, power windows, and a range of other features, the Slate offers none of it. It's literally a clean slate approach to manufacturing and marketing. 

The core vehicle is a compact two-door, two-seat pickup truck with a 5-foot-long bed, 201-hp rear electric motor, and 150 miles of range. Teslas have often been called minimalist for their lack of buttons, switches, or even vent controls. However, they still have lots of features; they just have to be managed through a large touchscreen. The Slate does not. No audio system, no power windows, no navigation — just a steering wheel with turn signal and shifter stalks, a small instrument cluster display, three rotary knobs for heating and air conditioning, and a port to plug in your phone or tablet. 

Pretty much everything else is à la carte, or bring your own. If you want any color but grey for the plastic body panels, Slate will sell you a wrap kit. If you want to make it into an SUV, Slate will sell you a rear top kit and seats. Steering wheel button controls? Slate will sell you those too. If you want to install speakers in the dash, they will provide 3D models that you can modify, print out, and install. Or you can bring your own Bluetooth speakers and devices. It can be whatever you want it to be. Much like Ikea, owners will do much of the work, or they can hire others to do it for them. 

At the heart of it all is Slate's offer of a low-ball price of entry. While it was originally reported to be just $25,000, that has risen to $27,500, and depending on what happens with the trade war between now and late 2026, when it's scheduled to go into production in Indiana, it may well climb higher still. As EV makers like to do, Slate is emphasizing the $20,000 price after federal tax incentives, but if President Trump gets his way, that will disappear long before the Slate truck gets into consumer hands. 

This leaves lots of questions unanswered. 

Many Americans like the idea of a small, cheap pickup. I drove a stripped-down GMC S15 all through college in the late-1980s that wasn’t that different from what Slate is offering — it was even grey. But automakers stopped building those because, aside from commercial users, few retail customers actually bought them. Realistically, by the time most customers are done customizing their Slate, it will probably be somewhere in the mid-$30,000 range, especially if incentives go away. 

Most Americans can certainly get by with a two-seat standard cab pickup, but so few have bought them in the last two decades that automakers have pretty much stopped offering them, except for full-size work trucks. That’s why Ford and Hyundai only build the Maverick and Santa Cruz with four doors. Most Slate customers are probably going to add back seats, which won’t actually be that accessible through the two short doors and will consume most of the bed. 

Most Americans can absolutely get by with an EV with a 150-mile range. There are 150-mile EVs on the market today, like the base Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e, and Mini SE. But they don’t sell in significant numbers except when insanely cheap lease deals in places like Colorado stack state and federal tax incentives to move the metal for essentially nothing per month after $1,500 to $2,000 per month for down payments and acquisition fees. But again, there are those pesky incentives that might not be available anymore in Q4 of 2026. Not many people pay $35,000 for a 500e, will they pay that much for a Slate?

I’d love for this experiment to work. It brings a whole new spin to auto manufacturing and marketing in America. I’d love to see car buyers move away from overbuying. But as always, the devil is in the details, and when you start looking at the details of the Slate, it’s unclear if the value proposition is actually as good as the headlines make it out to be. I genuinely hope this experiment works, but I’m not holding my breath.