Slate's $24,950 EV truck has no paint, no screen, and 205 miles of range
The base 'Blank Slate' is a two-seat pickup you wrap yourself and bolt into a five-seat SUV. Then a commenter priced a real build and hit $35k.
Over 80% of Slate's 200-plus accessories cost under $500, and the spec sheet skips paint, a center touchscreen, and even a stated range. Thread sleuths found it: 205 miles on a roughly 63 kWh pack.
An owner-to-be configured a 'hatchback' with ordinary options — speakers, wheels, spare carrier — and watched the sticker climb to $35,000, close to EV sedans with nicer interiors.
A truck that ships as a blank, two-seat box
Slate released pricing for its base truck: $24,950 for the "Blank Slate." The premise is subtraction. No paint — you apply DIY-friendly vinyl wraps. No center touchscreen. Keep it a two-seat pickup, or bolt on the kit to turn it into a five-seat SUV or fastback. More than 80% of its 200-plus accessories cost under $500, manuals are free, and it charges off a 120V outlet, a 240V dryer plug, or 29,000 Tesla Superchargers.
Notably absent from the site: range and battery size. The exploded-view marketing leans hard on swappable panels and accessible parts.
The thread filled in the numbers Slate left off
The missing spec became the thread's project. A commenter dug out the figure and benchmarked it.
"Slate has around 63Kwh battery capacity and a range of 205 miles… chevy bolt has similar battery capacity and a range of 260 miles and similar price range. So basically slate… said we need a better looking chevy bolt even if it sacrifices range." — a commenter who pulled the specs
The $24,950 headline also wobbled once people built one. An owner-to-be configured a sensible version and watched it climb.
"Just built a 'hatchback' Slate with what I guess will be common options… and it came to $35k… getting close to some existing EV sedans that are known entities and have pretty decent interiors." — a commenter who configured a build
That triggered the sharpest pushback in the thread, against the reflex to call $35k cheap.
"Can we stop being so out of touch… to believe $35k is 'pretty inexpensive'… the bottom 90% have a median income of roughly $40,000." — a commenter on the income math
Still, the nostalgia ran deep, with several owners of 1990s Ford Rangers and rebadged Mazdas casting Slate as the small, crank-window pickup the market stopped building. One in the thread called it the real spiritual successor to a B2500, more than the bloated new Ranger or Maverick. The open question is whether a no-features pitch survives contact with a buyer who, options sheet in hand, keeps adding features until the price is no longer the point.
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