The Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Automotive says it could actually promote an American-made electrical automobile pickup truck for about half of the typical transaction value within the U.S.
Slate’s pitch is hold the automobile so simple as potential to save lots of on manufacturing prices, after which let house owners add on and customise the truck nonetheless they need.
The Slate Truck is compact — two doorways and two seats in its most elementary type. It is spare — if you need an infotainment system, it’s a must to add that your self. And, you possibly can. The automobile is sort of endlessly customizable.
Slate plans to promote greater than 100 equipment for its truck, together with a package that may convert it to a 5-seat SUV. But Slate additionally needs to make the truck “open source,” which means anybody might make equipment for the pickup.
So far, greater than 100,000 folks have made reservations for Slate’s small barebones truck.
Price has been Slate’s huge promoting level. Nearly half of American automobile customers say the highest disadvantage to EVs is sticker value, in response to a May 2025 survey by J.D. Power. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has been levying tariffs on international automakers and slashed federal incentives for EVs, making it harder for customers to purchase EVs.
Earlier in 2025, the corporate marketed that its truck would begin under $20,000 with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. It then wiped that language from its web site across the time the Trump Administration issued an govt order in July that started the rollback of EV incentives.
The firm says the case for its low-cost truck will stay sturdy after federal EV tax credit expire in September.
The query for Slate is whether or not the automobile remains to be compelling at round $27,000 or $28,000 as it could be round $20,000. There is just one automobile within the United States transacting under $20,000 — the Mitsubishi Mirage. But under $30,000 there are about 20 fashions, in response to Cox Automotive. One of these is the Ford Maverick, which comes with both a straight inside combustion engine or a hybrid powertrain, and has most of the options the Slate lacks.
“All of a sudden, that price point just doesn’t look very competitive anymore,” stated Market Research Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid, including that Slate might decrease its value to attraction to customers. “But now you start to eat into that profit margin.”
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