2027 Slate Truck First Look America s New Cheapest Pickup

This is the Slate Truck, and it's a small, American-made, inexpensive electric pickup. And the reason it's inexpensive is because it doesn't come with much. It only comes in this one color, and it even has crank windows inside. But that's where the beauty of the Slate Truck begins, because what Slate is all about is developing an accessory ecosystem for you to design and build and customize your truck into whatever you want it to be. Let's take a look. The Slate Truck is going to leave the factory just one way, and you're looking at it here. It's a two-seat cab with a four-by-five-foot bed and a single-motor electric powertrain. From there, Slate is going to offer a huge range of accessories for you to customize the truck how you want it. Different color wraps, different wheels, even a bed cap. You can turn this into a five-seat SUV. That's what Slate is all about, is letting you customize and build the car however you want. Slate has looked at the market and seen a lot of bulk and overhead go into cars, making them unaffordable for average Americans. But with federal tax incentives, Slate is targeting a starting price of under $20,000 for the truck, saving you money for you to build it however you want. Whether that's for fun or for business or somewhere in between, you can customize and modify it however you like to suit those needs. So this being an EV, there is a spacious frunk under the hood. And I want to point out that there are some molded-in beverage holders here, so when you are wrenching on your Slate truck, you have a place to put your drink. And I want to call your attention to some other key customization areas for the Slate, like this front panel and these running light covers. Both of these can be taken off and modified, adjusted, redesigned to put them in your business or your favorite sports team, or to put a design that you love right here. It's all part of the interchangeable, customizable nature of the Slate truck. The Slate is a compact pickup truck with a bed that measures 4x5 feet. In overall length, the truck is even smaller than a Ford Maverick, but still has this spacious bed. And part of Slate's vision with affordability and keeping things simple is in their design and engineering. And what I want to call out for that is with these taillights. These are actually the exact same unit on either side, just flipped upside down with some very small modifications, so that things can be taken apart, interchanged, and even from the factory built in the most simple and cost-effective way possible. Crank windows. When was the last time you saw a new car with crank windows? But if you don't want crank windows, Slate is going to give you that option. They will sell you a module that allows you to install yourself power windows for that level of convenience. And that's just the start of what you can do with your Slate truck. So look at this interior. It is just incredibly simplistic. You don't see a lot of things that you really do see as standard in a lot of modern cars. The only screen you have is this teeny tiny little thing right here. That's going to function as your main gauge display and your backup camera when the vehicle goes in reverse. There's no touchscreen whatsoever. You can add one if you want, but what's going to come as standard if you take a closer look here is just above these analog HVAC controls, there's this phone mount here that will allow you to dock your device, whatever it may be, and use that for all of your navigation needs or infotainment needs, as well as some extra bins and storage in the dashboard. But again, you can add accessories and customize this space however you want with additional storage solutions, Bluetooth speakers, decorative accessories up here in the air vents. The Slate is all about making it what you want it to be. Every Slate truck is going to leave the factory just one way with a single motor rear-wheel drive powertrain. A dual motor all-wheel drive powertrain could come at some point in the future, but for now, Slate is targeting a 52.7 kilowatt hour battery that will deliver about 150 miles of range, and it's all going to recharge with the NACS, North American Charging Standard plug pioneered by Tesla that's becoming more common among today's EVs. So Slate is all about accessorization and personalization, and I'm not just talking about wheels and tires. It's going to go a lot beyond that. So what we're looking at here are different covers for the running lights. These are 3D printed, and Slate is going to make these open source so that you can design and fabricate these yourself if you so choose, and it extends beyond just the outside as we move into the inside of the vehicle too. Here we're looking at some more premium materials that you can upfit and option into your Slate to have a different feel and look. So this is a lot nicer than the basic black plastics and gray plastics that we're seeing inside the base spec model that we sat in. And again, this is all going to be open source so that you can design these yourself if you want to do a one-off or even tool up for your own small production run to share with others in the Slate community. I want to highlight the level of detail and granularity that you can get in the Slate and just how basic it comes off the factory line. This is interior trim. So this is just one little strip that you can use to add some color to the inside of your Slate. And here is an iPad type device, like if you wanted to add an infotainment system. This is just a simple Bluetooth speaker right here. Maybe you have one that you at home already. You can just choose to put it in this holder, which mounts to the bottom side of the dashboard. And look down here as well. These are enlarged door panel pockets. So if you want to have a cup holder or a phone holder, a math pocket, that's the type of thing that you can add to your Slate. Even here, 3D printed decorations to slide into the air vents of the dashboard and different buttons that connect through Bluetooth. So you can actually control the screen that you put into your Slate. And even down to accessorizing the key with functions like a small screwdriver that you can use to add all the exterior panels and accessories that you want. These are wraps that the company is going to offer pre-cut on templatized decals. So it's really easy for you to apply yourself. Now, if you've never wrapped a vehicle, it's quite an involved process. But Slate, like with these wraps and any other accessory that you might want to add to your truck, they're going to have an online library of videos and support that you can access so that you have the skills and aptitude and confidence to take on these projects on your own and really make this truck yours. So to highlight the reconfigurability of the blank Slate, this is the exact same vehicle as that we were looking at a little while ago, but it's been completely transformed. It's no longer a gray pickup truck, but it's sort of a beige SUV with new wheels and tires, all-terrain, as well as a whole bunch of other accessories inside. So let's take a closer look in there. Back inside the Slate, it's been completely transformed from the truck we were sitting in a little while ago. You can see that there's some more upscale materials now applied, some nice green textures and browns on the doors as well. Slate has also added a built-in speaker to these empty cubbies in the dashboard, along with some extra storage and the smartphone built-in for navigation. But what's really key here is that this is now an SUV, no longer a pickup truck. So this seats five people. And if we just scoot the seat forward a little bit, you can see that there's space for some passengers in the back too. So it's really all about building the vehicle to your needs, whether it's a pickup truck or an SUV or somewhere in between. You will be able to change that at any given time, depending on what you needed to do. Take fit with a grain of salt. I'm 6'10", so you're probably going to fit in here a lot better than I do, but it really just shows the versatility of this platform. There are some now armrests with door bins installed, along with some glass windows and a removable roof. This is all about personalization and customization, depending on your own needs. And this is absolutely a platform for anyone to build out a small electric vehicle to serve exactly the function that you need it to. We've seen two configurations of the Slate built in different forms, but the company's also provided some renderings of ideas of how the truck can be built, ranging from a stylish street truck to a work truck to an adventurous SUV. More of a street-styled SUV here. We have an SUV cap and a fastback cap to give the vehicle a different look. Here's another truck built for a small business owner. And at the end here, here's a sporty street-styled truck that's been lowered, so it has a higher level of performance. It's all just giving you ideas of how the Slate can be built, depending on your own dreams, wishes, and desires. With this SUV, you've now seen the Slate transform, so you get an idea of the vast potential that this vehicle platform offers. And you have a little bit of time to think about how you're going to configure your dream build as the company gears up to start production by the end of 2026. Until then, head to Motortrend.com for the full story on the Slate truck.