Slate Auto’s $25K Electric Pickup Is Here: Pricing, Specs, Range, Release Date

The Blank Slate volition person a curb value of 3,600 pounds, with a payload capableness of 1,430 pounds. Rated towing capableness is listed astatine 1,000 pounds—significantly little than the 4,000-pound maximum towing capableness successful the caller 2025 Ford Maverick Hybrid AWD, which has a smaller cargo furniture but 4 doors for the larger cab.

Visually, the Slate follows the upright, horizontal, square-edged illustration of the classical two-seat American pickup truck—though rendered successful miniature erstwhile compared to the full-size US pickups from Ford, GM, and Ram that collectively merchantability astir 3 cardinal units per year. It looks thing similar a retro Ford Ranger from the 1980s, versus the much car-like styling of the Hyundai Santa Fe, the lone different tiny pickup offered successful the US too the Ford Maverick.

Dimensionally, the Slate is smaller than the Maverick: It’s 175 inches long, 71 inches wide (not including the mirrors), and 69 inches tall. That compares to the Maverick’s 200-inch length, 73-inch width (again without mirrors), and 68- oregon 69-inch height. Slate offers a afloat 60-inch (5-foot) bed, versus the Maverick’s 54 inches. (Both measurements are with the tailgate raised.) While the Maverick has nary beforehand trunk (it has an motor instead), the Slate’s beforehand trunk offers 7 cubic feet of retention connected apical of the 37 cubic feet successful the cargo furniture (or 34 cubic feet successful the SUV’s load bay).

Customer Satisfaction

Barman said Slate volition people retail buyers to found the marque and get arsenic galore personalized trucks connected the roadworthy arsenic imaginable to boost nationalist awareness. Slate’s EVs volition besides beryllium sold to firm customers purchasing the vehicles for fleets, Barman says, though she declined to connection a breakdown of what percentages of income Slate estimates volition spell to those 2 sectors.

We besides didn’t speech astir this, but it’s worthy mentioning: Slate trucks whitethorn conceivably besides beryllium sold to Amazon. The transportation makes sense, since Slate Auto emerged from a startup laboratory partially funded by Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. The online retailer already deploys tens of thousands of Rivian EV transportation vans, but a smaller EV could service its purposes for circumstantial uses arsenic well.

Echoes of the Past

As Mark Twain erstwhile quipped, possibly apocryphally: History doesn’t repetition itself, but it often rhymes. Anyone who’s been pursuing the car concern for astir 20 years whitethorn person work Slate’s quality and sensed a faint echo, a distant and long-forgotten representation tugging astatine the corners of their minds.