This $24,950 Electric Pickup Is Betting That Simple Sells

Slate Auto, the Bezos-backed EV startup, opened preorders on June 24 and confirmed what its radically stripped-down electric pickup will actually cost: $24,950 before taxes and fees. The truck first showed up publicly at a Long Beach reveal back in April 2025, and deliveries are now expected to begin between January and March 2027. A single rear-mounted motor makes 181 hp, drawing from a 65 kWh LFP battery (about 63 kWh usable) for an estimated 205 miles of range, with towing capacity up to 2,000 lb and 1,550 lb of payload.

The pitch is deliberate bareness: no infotainment screen, no speakers, no power windows come standard. Slate's whole bet is that buyers would rather pay less upfront and add exactly the accessories and customization they want afterward, instead of paying for a package of factory features they didn't ask for. It's a direct rejection of the industry's drift toward screen-heavy, subscription-laden trucks — a genuinely contrarian position in a market that's mostly been racing the opposite direction.

A demo unit toured the country ahead of the wide preorder opening, including a stop under Seattle's Space Needle in July 2025 where the public could see the truck in person. Whether Slate can actually hold that price once the truck reaches volume production — and whether buyers really want to build their own truck rather than buy one finished — are the two questions that'll define whether this stays a curiosity or becomes something bigger.