Obviously, I drove the new Slate EV, which is a big deal, but Slate also announced that its $24,950 electric pickup truck will not have a range of 150 miles, but rather 205. This bump, a result of a larger battery pack (and some small improvements in overall vehicle efficiency), leads me to a question: Does this change your opinion on whether the Slate truck — a regular cab, back-to-basics pickup truck with crank windows, no radio and no paint — is going to be competitive?
Two weeks ago The Autopian published exclusive photos of a prototype Ford Universal EV truck out testing in Long Beach. The images of the small four-door pickup that Ford claims will have a range of 300 miles and cost $30,000 got everyone talking about Slate, since it’s the other company with well-publicized plans to offer an inexpensive EV truck.
All this chatter led me to write the article “How Cheap Does The Slate Truck Have To Be To Be Competitive?” With that story having 249 comments and counting, it’s clear that people have opinions about the Jeff Bezos-backed (ish) EV startup, which is why it was such a big deal when, last week, The Autopian received a tip from someone who noticed an apparent error on Slate’s website. In the source code for the Slate’s “how to pre-order” page was this:
“26102SLATE_EXPLODED-HERO_v013_1400x800.mp4\”,\”contentType\”:\”video/mp4\”}}}]}},\”headline\”:\”THE MOST AFFORDABLE NEW \\\\nPICKUP TRUCK IN AMERICA.*\”,\”body\”:\”The Slate Truck has all the essentials for the CONFIDENTIAL price of $24,950 (reminder: we’re all still under NDA and prohibited from sharing this).**\”,\”cta\”:{\”metadata\”:
After giving Slate a courtesy heads-up, we wrote “The Slate Truck Will Cost $24,950 According To An Apparent Website Mistake.” In that story, we admitted that we had no clue if that leaked price was a legitimate mistake or Slate was playing some kind of game to perhaps surprise the world with a lower price later. It turns out, the answer appears to be “neither.”
Slate invited me to its headquarters on Monday, and though the company wouldn’t admit that it had something to do with that leak, I know a smirk when I see one. And what’s more, it turns out, the leaked price was real. Here’s a very cool display Slate had on hand at the Monday media event:
So yes, the $24,950 leaked price is legit, and while many of you likely already wrote your opinions of that price in the comments of our price-leak story, there was one crucial piece we were all missing: The actual range.
When Slate announced its truck about 15 months ago, it said the vehicle would come with a standard 52.7 kWh battery that would offer 150 miles of range or an upgraded 84.3 kWh battery, which would crank range up to 240 miles. Due largely to lopsided demand for the battery upgrade (which made justifying the added complexity of a two-battery option a challenge), Slate decided to offer a single, 65 kWh (63 kWh usable) LFP battery pack. Range for that pack? 205 miles. Top charging speed? 120 kW, or 20% to 80% in about 30 minutes.
Does this new range change the calculus for you?
On one hand, Slate initially promised this truck would be under $20,000. Then the tax credit went away, highlighting the risks of marketing around a volatile, highly political incentive. Still, even without the incentive, the truck was expected to be somewhere around $27,500. Now the price sans incentive is $24,950, and instead of the range being 150 miles, it’s expected to be 205. So, in a way, Slate is over-delivering.
But is it enough? If you compare it to other cars on the market, there are some vulnerabilities. The four-door, power window and radio-equipped Chevy Bolt costs $29,000, and it has the same battery size as the Slate. With its more efficient vehicle shape, it manages a range of 259 miles.
The Hyundai Venue is a gas car, but it’s got four doors, power windows, alloy wheels and standard wireless Apple Carplay/Android Auto — all for the low price of $22,650.
If you consider that, in order to seat more than two passengers, a Slate buyer has to choose the $29,950 SUV version (the hard top costs $5,000 on top of the base Slate truck), the financial cases become challenging to make. The Slate SUV costs about a grand more than the Bolt and $7,000 more than that Venue, and yet it’s not as well equipped as either.
But are these fair comparisons? The slate is a completely different animal than the Bolt and Hyundai Venue. Between its looks and its modularity, it’s just a much more fun proposition, and given how irrational car buying is, doesn’t that matter? Not to mention, for those who don’t need a second row or who need a 5ft truck bed, there’s no other game in town at this price point, gas or electric.
What do you think? Is the 205-mile, $24,950 Slate truck going to be competitive in the marketplace? What will be its biggest hurdles in reaching the company’s maximum production capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year?
Top graphic image: The Autopian
Slate for Motion
(Apologies to Little Eva and Grand Funk Railroad)
Everybody’s thinking ‘bout taking a chance now
(Come on baby, choose the Slate for motion)
I know you’ll get to like it when you take it to dance now
(Come on baby choose the Slate for motion)
A little baby pickup you can mod with ease
Or keep it nice and simple just however you please
So come on, come on, choose the the Slate for motion with me
You gotta crank your windows
Come on, baby
Crank up
Crank back
Well now, I think you’ve got the knack
Whoa, whoa
Now let’s get right down to it ‘n make it rain now
(Come on, baby, choose the Slate for motion)
There’s so many options out there you could bruise your brain now
(Come on, baby, choose the Slate for motion)
Wrap it like a present ‘neath a Xmas tree
You can do it yourself or let the factory
So come on, come on, and choose the Slate for motion with me
When it comes to drivin’ yeah it’s all rock n’ roll now
(Come on baby choose the Slate for motion)
It’s the little ‘lectric pickup with a lot of soul now
(Come on baby choose the Slate for motion)
There’s never been an EV that’s so made just for you
It even makes you happy when you’re feeling blue
So come on, come on, and choose the Slate for motion with me
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You gotta crank your windows
(Come on, baby, choose the Slate for motion)
That’s right
It’s just so fine
(Come on, choose the Slate for motion)
come on, baby
(Come on, choose the Slate for motion)
Mmm, crank up
(Come on, baby, choose the Slate for motion)
Crank back
It’s looking good
(Come on, choose the Slate for motion)
Mmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
That range estimate is for an EMPTY truck. Load it down and watch what happens.
For around town, these are great. I think these could be a great fit for larger cities, and especially for fleet vehicles. For a family? That’s a much harder sell.
EDIT: plus the fact that the SUV other configurations still only offer two doors makes this a no go for most families.
I’ve been keeping an eye on these for parts delivery, and yes the longer range changes the equation dramatically. Some of our vehicles go 1000 miles a week so that would have been tough on only 150 miles range, especially in the winter. Comparing the Slate to a Bolt or a Venue is a little tougher in our use case, what with bulk items being a frequent thing.
These could find a real niche in light delivery.
I really hope it succeeds – $24,950 could be the ticket if gas prices stay where they’re at. However, after my Volt experience I’m not sure that 97% of my neighbors will ever understand what a kWh is, what it costs, or how to compute that into overall savings of gas v. electric.
For me personally, I only want two options on this thing – the fastback roof (don’t even need the interior seats) and the lowering kit. Those two options and a wrap turn it into something quite appealing looks-wise for me, but then the price jumps well past $32K according to their website (no actual pricing on that lowering kit yet). At that point I feel like going the other direction and picking up a used Cadillac Lyriq. Or just getting a used Bolt and banking the other $12-15K as gas/parts/tires money for my Fleetwood.
The problem is that the truck is useless unless you’re using it for work. If anybody wants to carry more than one other person, and I assume most potential buyers do, they have to get the SUV kit. $30,000 for a four seat, two door SUV you have to put together yourself, with the aerodynamic properties of a brick won’t cut it. They have to up the battery capacity to make up for the poor aero.
Way too expensive for what it is, too new for fleet operators to trust it even if it would be more ideal for them than the average consumer. No established service network, spare parts availability etc. As much as the commentariat here seem to be all in favor of low tech solutions and single cab trucks they just don’t sell anymore in the volumes they used to. Modularity is cool and all but when it costs this much money and there are either already better options or soon to be better ones available then it’s looking dead on arrival with only ~180k hand raisers vs the million plus on the cybertruck and look how that turned out
I think of this vehicle as an around-town runabout or as some sort of light duty work vehicle. For that use case, assuming one has the charger where the vehicle spends the night, that range is more than adequate.
If one is looking at this as an only vehicle that needs to make frequent long trips, and/or will need to be exclusively charged at public chargers, then no.
Makes a lot of sense as a tradesman’s vehicle or fleet vehicle for, say, cable installers. But they should really make a standup-height box for that application.