Range
- Small battery range: 240km
- Big battery range: 385km
Motor
- Motor: Single motor, rear wheel drive
- Power: 150kW
- Torque: 264Nm
- 0-100km: 8s
- Top speed: 145km/h
Dimensions
- Bed length: 1.5m
- Vehicle length: 4.4m
- Vehicle height: 1.8m
- Vehicle width: 1.8m
Comparison
- 2025 Kia Niro length: 4.4m
- 2025 Ford Maverick length: 5.1m
- 1985 Toyota Pickup/Hilux length: 4.7m
Weights
- Curb weight 1634kg
- Max payload 650kg
- Max towing 454kg
Charging
- Port: NACS
- Onboard charger: 11kW
- Level 1 AC, 3.6kw, 20-100%: 11h
- Level 2 AC, 11kW, 20-100%: under 5h
- Level 3 DC, 120kW, 20-80%: under 30m
Safety
- Traction Control
- Electronic Stability Control
- Forward Collision Warning
- Automatic Emergency Braking
- 2-stage Driver/Passenger Airbags
- Full Length Side Curtain Airbags (Truck 2) (SUV 4)
- Seat Side Airbags (2)
- Backup Camera
- Pedestrian Identification
- Auto High Beam
More info
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If pickups and other monstrosities were limited to people that can prove they need it, or even just to professionals, we wouldn’t need the stupid paradoxical concept of an EV pickup. Like “oh my flame thrower that I use to light birthday candles runs on biofuel, so we’re good”
What’s wrong with an EV pickup? Pickups are incredibly useful, and if it’s an EV, it could also be a commuter. I don’t need a truck very often, so I tend to rent when I need one, because they’re so terrible on fuel. But if it’s an EV, there’s a chance it’s reasonably efficient, so I could use it as my commuter and occasional dump/furniture store/hardware store/nursury run vehicle.
This isn’t going to attract those dudes who like to lift their trucks and piss off everyone on the road, this is too small for those egos. This is going to appeal to people who need a truck for local use, like small business owners and DIY types.
How many people actually need them though? You are one individual making your case, there are millions on the roads.
I once moved a small fridge in my Honda civic
Millions of 2 passenger trucks that can barely tow an empty trailer? This isn’t something your average “truck enthusiast” will want, this only really appeals to people who will actually use it.
availability slated for Q4 2026
I see what you did there.
Aside from being backed by Bezos, this seems like Lemmy the car. Under 20K, an EV, no stupid touch screen, designed to be repaired and modded, and even crank windows.
I bet the catch, aside from Bezos, is the range or charge speed.
As long as it gets 50+ miles range reliably in winter, it’s perfect as a commuter/weekend project truck. I generally look for 150 miles range for this, since winter can cut effective range in half. I don’t care about charge speed since I’ll just plug it in at night.
Good news, its range is 150 miles.
well its less it doesnt have a touch screen, the touch screen is an optional purchase.
the range iirc in some overview is 2 options, one was i think 150mi, the other was 240mi
From my other link, I don’t think that the touch screen is an optional purchase. I don’t think that they’re selling any entertainment computer to have a screen on. It says that they come standard with a smartphone mounting point or optionally with a tablet mounting point. But the car computer is bring-your-own, and not built into the car. Which…is what I’ve wanted, because computers age out a lot more quickly than cars do.
I assume that there’ll be an OBD-II slot that one can hook up to to feed data about the car to the phone/tablet. There’s software that can make use of that. Dunno if there’s any other data typically exposed to car computers other than what that provides.
China is already making better cars for way less, but I guess the good thing for them is that they won’t sell to the US.
No, there is no optional touch screen. The one featured in their media is a phone/iPad running the Slate app.
I mean Bezos backed Rivian too. Or Amazon did, anyway.
Standard Range (52.7 kWh) (est.): 150 miles
seems like but manageable for most people
That’s not 150 miles of actual driving range, it’s more like 75-100miles of actual range.
They do say that they also offer a larger battery pack with a 240 mi range, but yeah, even so, it’s not gonna be a great vehicle for long-distance highway travel compared to a current ICE vehicle. Fine for a commuter, though.
My car doesn’t even go >200mi but I’ve driven it on multi-thousand mile trips with no problem.
I do have a concern about that; a lot of pickup truck missions are go-and-get-it. The best lumber yard in my area just happens to be about 75 miles away. Not a problem for my S10, right on the cusp of what this thing can do.
That’s 150 miles round trip, if you stop once to pee or whatever you can charge and boom, not on the cusp anymore
If you’re the rare person who does 3 hours of driving without stopping then… Well, you do you
I’ve done that by car, motorcycle and airplane. Did two 3-hour legs on a motorcycle in the same day, out and back.
Don’t buy a truck if you’re just a daily commuter, that’s just plain dumb. Get a BEV with much better efficiency and a tow hitch for the occasional needs.
Point me to an electric sedan I can buy for $20k and I will.
A GWM Ora is about the equivalent of US$20K in Australia (no subsidies). So its doable.
The truck form is just one of the body options for it. I mean, you can’t get it in sedan form, but the website configurator thing has options for small SUV and fastback.
All are tall models with shit efficiency.
A bacon egg vehicle?
Battery Electric Vehicle
But…it has a battery? What makes the difference?
I very much doubt their target market is people commuting to the office.
I want it as a commuter because it’s cheap and can be used as a weekend project truck. The second part isn’t necessary, but it’s nice to not need to rent one.
A lot closer to 125 miles of real driving range on my 2018 leaf, and that’s an older car on older tech in not-quite-snow and on hills in the winter
It’s 150 miles of rated range, presumably according to the EPA standard, just like every other EV is rated. The EPA standards have recently been updated to reflect more accurately.
Yes, and yet it is still so very far from reality when it comes to BEVs. It’s fine when comparing cars because it’s a well defined standard, but it’s terrible at indicating actual range especially if you don’t live in dry warm climate.
It’s really not. You can’t account for climate with a single number. That’s why standards exist.
No, the catch is that it isn’t real.
@ me when it’s rolling off the production line.
Until then…it will have
you will be able todeleted by creator
Yeah they said they’re hoping to be producing them by 2026. So likely won’t be available till 2027/28
I love this truck. I want one. It’s just that it’s a VC pump and dump.
I don’t think that it has a cell modem, either, because it sounds like it eschews a baked-in entertainment computer:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64564869/2027-slate-truck-revealed/
Roll-down windows come standard, as do manually adjustable rearview mirrors. An audio or infotainment system is noticeably missing, too. Instead, your cellphone or tablet serves these functions, with a dock for the former included and one for the latter available as an optional accessory. Better like the sound coming out from your phone or tablet’s speakers, too, because the Slate lacks speakers, though the brand’s accessory division will gladly hook you up with a set.
Honestly, if you took my last year of comments complaining about privacy-infringing cars and those complaining about changes to what a truck is, this does kind of look to be addressing both. Gotta see what the actual production vehicle is like in real life, of course, but…
When I say the truck is small, I mean it. At 174.6 inches, it’s about 2 feet shorter in overall length than the 2025 Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. And to use the Wayback Machine to a time when compact pickups were actually compact, it’s roughly the same size as the compact pickups of 1980: the Toyota truck, Chevy LUV and Ford Courier. Notably, no other automakers have offered trucks of this size in America since the mid 1990s.
Yeah, like the “inexpensive, no-frills utility vehicle” that pickups originally were.
I don’t think that it has a cell modem, either
So it’s not coming to Europe then.
Is there a requirement for big brother data tracking over there?
No but the emergency assistant system is required, and for that you need a cell modem.
Cars must be able to autonomously call emergency services. You don’t need a SIM for that, or for that matter have the modem switched on all the time.
I’m from the states, but what’s stopping one from removing the modem or snipping the antenna?
Possibly, technical inspections. I’m not sure whether it’s a requirement for cars to be street legal or just a requirement for cars to be sold on the market. The regulation only mentions that it’s about type approval but it’s not like modifying a car automatically nullifies its type approval.
Certainly would be hard to argue for authorities that snipping the eCall would endanger others, similar situation as with seat belts I don’t think legislation is unified there.
Why would you?
They sell emergency car lights that you pop up on top of the car ala secret police (but yellow). They have a modem that when activated automatically notifies the road services of you being there stopped.
…and that system is only activated in case of an accident. The spec explicitly states that there is no continuous tracking of vehicle position or other parameters.
100% in agreement with all your points. Simplicity and modular! Look how well the original mustang did, because you could actually get what you wanted. That has disappeared completely now
because the Slate lacks speakers,
I mean, I get they need to cut costs, but come on… a damn radio wouldnt have killed them
Didn’t some Scions come with no radio? The idea being they were targeted at younger folks who were more likely to customize their stereo, so “no stereo, but all the speaker grilles and mount points for one” is a bit like the “no operating system -$211” option on a Laptop. Happy Linux user noises.
You can get them, but I kind of like the idea of just a Bluetooth third-party speaker
Honestly, as long as it’s easily DIY upgradable (accessible speaker mounting locations, standard DIN panels, etc) I am all for this. Most OEM audio systems are stupidly overpriced and suck complete donkey balls compared to what you can get for a few hundred bucks at Crutchfield and install in an afternoon.
For the last 20 years or so, most factory audio systems are so integrated into the rest of the electronics that they can be an absolute nightmare to upgrade unless you are a pro, which means you get the worst of both worlds: garbage audio, AND a steep upgrade path.
I agree, and everyone basically want Apple/Android CarPlay units anyway. The hard part will be getting a wiring harness installed, unless there is some space provided in the dash (putting speakers or anything else in a door is really annoying for the experienced, and too tall an order for the beginner.
The Citroen AMI doesn’t have speakers either, it comes with a Bluetooth speaker instead, which you can use outside the car. It makes sense if you just think of the entertainment stuff as something that shouldn’t be part of the car and can easily be upgraded/replaced down the line.
Agreed. It’s a car. I have an entertainment system at home and great speakers for listening. Cars suck for actual listening quality anyways.
You spent hours in that thing and phone speakers are not made to be louder than traffic and drive noises, especially not for so long. Also a radio offers traffic and accident news from local stations. And if they cheap out on speakers I am quite sure they also don’t offer USB ports to charge the phone you run in lieu of a build in system
I am quite sure they also don’t offer USB ports to charge the phone you run in lieu of a build in system
I definitely read an article somewhere where it says that they provide USB power for the tablet/phone.
kagis
This article has it:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a64580484/slate-truck-ev-pickup-truck-suv/
The Truck will come with a phone mount and convenient USB power to mount your phone or a tablet to the dash.
EDIT: I think that a better criticism is that this thing is just a prototype, still almost two years away from mass production, assuming everything goes right for them. Like, they could have any number of things go wrong (the Trump tariff situation, for one…hard to have any idea where things will be). It could be that they crash into problems trying to get mass production going. It could be that they can’t hit their target price point.
Speakers are optional. I built one on their site. Speakers are available.
They shouldn’t be an upgrade. Basic speakers are like 50 bucks, for an item that costs 20k, thats a drop in the bucket
This vehicle is clearly meant as an errand truck, not a roadtripper. It wasn’t that long ago when base model work trucks didn’t have a radio or speakers installed.
Quit getting pissy over something that doesn’t even exist yet.
You can buy a mid-range loudspeaker for like $5 at an electronics store.
It will need to have a screen to comply with safety standards. A back up camera is mandatory.
The Citroen Ami is a “cycle car” under French law and doesn’t have to meet the same standards.
Supposedly, there’s a display on the instrument cluster for the backup camera.
It has a camera on the tailgate and the instrument cluster is a display.
Please keep in mind that this is after tax incentives. So let’s just assume the tax incentives are zero and call it 27,000 just to be on the safe side.
Elon: I’m going to rule America to make people buy my shit.
Trump: I’m removing EV tax credits.
Elon: Why is nobody buying my overpriced deathtraps?
Looks about right.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64564869/2027-slate-truck-revealed/
The Slate Truck is a bare-bones EV that’s expected to cost a little under $27,500, which can drop to less than $20,000 with the federal EV tax credit included.
a little under $27,500
Soooo $27,499?
Whoa, now that raised an eyebrow. Doesn’t look like the truck bed is ridiculously high. This checks a lot of boxes, and my crap vertebrae agree.
Definitely following this company.
It’s smaller than the Hyundai Santa Cruz; my dad has one of those, and it’s not very big (smaller than a Ranger).
This truck is positively tiny.
I want one.
What if, and here me out here, what if, and that’s a crazy thought, what if cars don’t have be ridicules in size and battery capacity is actually used more efficiently rather than carrying dead weight.
what if cars don’t have be ridicules in size
Then you may be interested in this vehicle. It’s about as long as the Kia Niro at 4.4m.
carrying dead weight
I mean, even in a 5 seater sedan, you’re gonna be carrying dead weight. Are you suggesting everyone ride bikes or motorcycles instead?
But I need my land barge to potentially carry 9000 pounds and 6 people for at least 400 miles without a break, even if I can barely manage to satisfy one of those criteria once a year. Otherwise it’s a miserable failure that must be mocked.
Fuckin’ seriously. I’ve got friends who are like “I wouldn’t even consider an electric car until they have 1000 miles of range and can charge in fifteen minutes,” like bruh, you make two road trips a year and have four kids; even if we pretend you weren’t a two car family that takes the minivan anyway when you’re traveling, there’s no way your kids are making it a quarter of the range you “need” without stopping.
Is this a $20k kit car or a $20k truck that they build for you?
Both options available
Hmm, apparently so. I am going to assume if they build it for you it’ll cost more. Also I found the configurator
This is my ideal build: https://www.slate.auto/share/5VXBMW
I could barely make it out, but the tires on this build here are 255/70R17, which are effectively 31" tires. Great size. I was just talking to my wife last night about how I’d absolutely DD an older Jeep Cherokee XJ, slightly lifted on 31s (I used to have a 1998 XJ just like that), but the fuel economy would be abysmal at best. This thing, however, optioned with the big battery, would cost me roughly $10 at most to charge from empty to full, which is really nice.
The lack of AWD is a bummer, but not entirely a deal-breaker. I’d absolutely rock this little thing on some of the local 4WD trails.
No mention of safety in the article. Does a manufacturer of this size have to do crash tests?
Also, this sounds like the Spirit/Ryanair of cars. Everything costs extra.
For years, I drove ~10-20 minutes to and from work. Mostly stroads and freeway. I could never justify buying an extra nice car because I didn’t use it that much. Same for a nice car stereo. I’d just listen to NPR and talk radio for news, traffic reports, and maybe a quirky story about some cultural oddity or eclectic artist. If I spend thousands on a sound system it goes in my house, where I live and vibe. Now I work from home, ride my bike everywhere, and a tank of gas can easily last me a month. My current car was purchased for about $20k. If my car died for some reason, I don’t even know if I’d be willing to part with 20k to replace it. I appreciate that these guys are building something for ordinary people and not another faux luxury lifted minivan the size of a garbage truck.
I can see a lot of retired people buying one of these to drive to their once a week bridge tournament or bingo night.
I believe so if they want to be highway legal.
I want this to be successful
They say they’re shooting for a 5 star crash rating.
I can see a lot of retired people buying one of these to drive to their once a week bridge tournament or bingo night.
They would be far better served with a regular car instead of a pickup
Luckily you can add a hardtop and seats (and airbags!) to the rear to make it into an SUV. Appears to be a modular design.
I would seriously consider this little thing if 1) it actually happens at that price point and 2) retains this modular design (lmao)
Though I would prefer an AWD option. I do like to take my vehicles off-road…
If you need a car just once a week you shouldn’t own a car at all. Take the bus!
Taxi
You are assuming everyone lives within a mile of a bus stop and has a safe road with sidewalks or bike lanes to get to that bus stop.
Indeed
The majority of people in the US don’t have access to busing.
What is up with those pickup trucks anyway? Why do so many people in the U.S. (and elsewhere) buy them?
Everything that you put in the back is subjected to weather and one of first additions people buy is a cover.
Compare that to a mini bus or transporter, you can transport as much or more than with a pickup truck, protected from weather, and you can add or remove chairs, if you need to transport people.
If you have a transporter, you can also much easier furnish the inside with racks etc, to improve space use.
- Sometimes you need to move a thing that is oddly shaped and doesn’t fit within the confines of an enclosure
- Depending on what you’re hauling, you may want separation between the cab and the payload. Like if I’m moving dirt, I’d rather not have it rolling around my cabin
- Easier to clean, just take a hose to it without needing to worry about soaking the cabin
- Access isn’t limited to just the door, which can be useful when unloading something
- Sometimes you need to move a thing that is oddly shaped and doesn’t fit within the confines of an enclosure
Like what? And is that a common use case?
- Depending on what you’re hauling, you may want separation between the cab and the payload. Like if I’m moving dirt, I’d rather not have it rolling around my cabin
Or just put down a nylon sheet, put the dirt on top, fold the nylon sheet over it and bind it down. Now it is covered under and over and will not fly around.
In most cases I guess people will just buy prepackaged earth in bags. That also doesn’t fly around.
Sure, if you are one of the very few people that work in the woods or on a field, where this common use case, then alright. But that would not explain why those cars are so common.
- Easier to clean, just take a hose to it without needing to worry about soaking the cabin
Buy a bus with removable carpet, then you can just hose it down as well. Many buses have a small step, which separates the cabin from the back, so water will not flow into the cabin.
- Access isn’t limited to just the door, which can be useful when unloading something
There are many different rear door types and sliding side doors on the side that provide ample and easy access. This isn’t difficult or complicated.
That didn’t convince me that pickup trucks are not a very specialized vehicle for just some uses, while transporters and mini busses are much more useful for all kinds of purposes. Be it furniture, tools, sport equipment, electronics and other sensitive equipment, and people. While also being good at hauling the occasional dirty stuff, if you just put something underneath.
Like what? And is that a common use case?
Furniture is what comes to mind
Or just put down a nylon sheet, put the dirt on top, fold the nylon sheet over it and bind it down. … Buy a bus with removable carpet, then you can just hose it down as well.
Sure, you could do that, or you could use the right vehicle for the job.
There are many different rear door types and sliding side doors on the side that provide ample and easy access. This isn’t difficult or complicated.
Until you want a pallet of something. Would be nice if that van had a removable roof so they could just drop it in there 😉
What it comes down to is that trucks are versatile and people like them for it. If you don’t see utility in having open access, then that’s fine, but a lot of people do.
Sounds like the consumer version of the DHL StreetScooter Work (L), with those even the passenger seat is an optional extra. Trouble was that while it’s the perfect vehicle for last-mile distribution routes most companies doing that kind of thing (like bakeries) don’t have the finances to back up an actual car producer, and DHL didn’t want to become a car producer. Taking over the company to get their hands on the trucks, yes, but bringing it to scale so they wouldn’t have to subsidise it? Not their business. And German car manufactures don’t want to build it because small bare-bones vehicles don’t have margin, anything smaller and less fancy than an actual van doesn’t make sense to them given the fixed cost of their production lines. Don’t worry, though, the inventor got the rights back, production is moving to Thailand, new vehicle is in the pipeline, with the core components (chassis etc.) designed for a 50 year lifetime. I’m sure DHL will figure out how to deliver delivery vans.
Car dependency is a dead end for humanity regardless of what shit-boxes they manufacture.
What’s the solution for transport around farms and factories and such then? Trucks will always be needed.
Or for people in rural areas? Its 10 miles to the grocery store for me, if there was a bike lane or something I’d love to ride an ebike when I have the time and in the summer. But certainly not in the winter, or when I’m short on time and don’t have 1+ hours to bike there.
Some of us live in spread out communities or rural areas. You don’t expect all humans to live in a 2x2 ft cube in a 30 story tall building do you? Also, I guarantee not everyone else wants to live right next to other humans. I try to get as far as possible so I can do anything I want (be loud, be outside at any time, have parties etc). There is actually enough livable land on the planet for every single human to have 2 acres worth. Now, should people have children when there is already billions of us, that’s another question.
According to this guy, you are the reason humans will die
For urban environments I 100% agree, but e-bikes and public transport can’t help farmers* get their produce to market. I don’t know much about this truck, but if it can fill a similar niche as the Japanese kei truck, I think it’s great to provide people who actually need a pickup with an alternative to the F-150+ behemoths currently available stateside.
*Yes there are some urban farms that totally could operate via ebike/other form of micro mobility, however most farms, even small ones, are located >10 miles outside urban centers, usually in areas only accessible by roads and highways that are currently very dangerous for non-motorized transportation modes. Fixing this problem would take decades and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars even if the government were fully on board with the transportation network and/or land use changes necessary to allow for a true car-free society (which of course they aren’t). I’m not such an idealist as to poo-poo a significant short-term improvement to the “oversized working vehicle” problem.
Agreed. Whether everyone should be driving everywhere is a completely separate problem. In the short term, people need replacements for current ICE vehicles, and an inexpensive truck that runs on electricity is fantastic while we figure out the rest of the issues.
I’m guessing eventually farmers won’t need trucks, they’ll need bots that fulfill that need instead.
I don’t think that tractors will ever go the way of the dodo and when you have proper logistics, say a reasonably dense S-Bahn type rail network that can also handle shipping individual containers, a tractor and a trailer is all you need as you only have to haul to the next logistics hub and there’s no truck load even 100 year old tractors can’t tow: When you can pull a plough through soil torque isn’t something you need to worry about, 20 horses at 5km/h go vroom. 20 horses! Do you know how much those eat.
It’s hard to guess the future, but I imagine once we have automated farming, things like tractors will look a lot different. Right now, farmers need versatile equipment for a variety of tasks (plow, till, plant, etc), whereas an automated farm would probably prefer dedicated machines for each. The farmer would become more of a mechanic/planner than the one directly running the equipment.
I don’t know how far out that is, but I imagine once we get reasonable self-driving cars, farming will be the next up.
Modern tractors already self-drive on the field, fertiliser is applied in tightly controlled doses based on aerial analysis, that future is already there. You don’t plant or fertilise at the same time as you plough so it makes sense for those things being attachments, not integrated machines. The reason combine harvesters are dedicated machines is because they do so much in one go it doesn’t fit into a (sensibly sized) attachment.
You could also have drones distribute that fertiliser but you can’t work the soil with them, and you already have a tractor to work the soil with so you can just as well use it to apply the fertiliser. There’s also tons of odd lifting and transporting jobs on farms, that’s why there’s forklift attachments. You’ll need something with torque, low ground pressure, PTO and attachment points and well that’s a tractor.
My understanding is that the current design is merely an evolution of regular human-controlled machines, and they still need to be able to operate w/ a human inside. Once you remove the human from the equation, the design space opens up quite a bit, and you optimize for different things. Since things would likely be battery powered, maybe you’d want more, smaller devices so they don’t take as long to charge.
I don’t know, I’m not a farmer. My point, however, is that once we trust machines to operate w/o humans in control, things are likely to change a lot.
fertiliser is applied in tightly controlled doses based on aerial analysis
Gotta say, this should be a huge red flag for everyone. Soil quality is declining sharply, and fertilizers simply aren’t making up the difference. Switching to robots farming will almost certainly accelerate this.
Under solutions, there, is written “compost” and “animal manure”. That’s fertiliser. Import-dependent agriculture is a whole another topic and I didn’t want to get into it, but long story short, no matter how good and natural your soil management is you can’t expect to export nutrients all the time and not develop a shortage. You can pull nitrogen out of the air, that’s nice, but you can’t do that with phosphate and minerals in general. Good news is that good water treatment plants will pull phosphate out of the waste water.
At least tell me there’s a DIN slot in the dashboard. As long as I can connect my phone via Bluetooth I’m good.
Tbh, I’m super into this. Especially if the range could be extended slightly or if the truck is somewhat hackable.
But then… Bezos. Ugh.
Toyota Tacoma didn’t exist in 1985. The first model year was 1995. Did you mean a 1985 toyota pickup/hilux?
Whoops! I did mean the Toyota Pickup. Thanks! https://www.iseecars.com/car/1985-toyota-pickup-dimensions
Elon now bezo. Noice
