Our First Look at the 2027 Slate Auto Truck, Er, SUV, or Both?

If you’re anything like me, you yearn for the days of cheap two-door pickup trucks that used to exist through the 1990s and early 2000s. It was easy to find a Ford Ranger or Chevrolet S-10 that didn’t start at over $25,000 because it was packed with a four-banger mated to a manual transmission, six-foot bed, and manual crank windows. It was the ideal starter truck for teenagers and businesses alike because it gave you a no-frills package that you weren’t afraid of beating up or worked as that perfect blank canvas for modifying. That’s the exact promise that’s being made by the Jeff Bezos funded Slate Auto and its “Truck.” Let’s see if it will really bring back those days and, hopefully, force other OEMs to develop cheaper entry-level vehicles again.

Before We Go Further

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There is a Need

Just look around at what’s being offered right now. The only small pickup truck that can even be classified as “affordable” is the Ford Maverick. At the lowest price, the 2026 Ford Maverick will start around $29,000 as a FWD 2.0-liter EcoBoost I4. Even as basic as it is, that price is a bit on the steep side and the competition from Hyundai–the only other small truck builder–is only more expensive at just over $30,000. Both help show that OEMs are starting to lose touch on just how much a basic, starter truck should cost and the need that Slate Auto might fulfill.

The Truck–it doesn’t have any other name–is an absolutely simplified two-door pickup that promises cheap driving with basic amenities like air conditioning, manual crank windows, and steel wheels. What also makes it unique is that it’s an all-electric pickup and comes standard as a rear-wheel drive whereas Ford and Hyundai are offering their basic trucks as front-wheel drive units without any sort of electrification at that price point. The Truck also comes with the advantage that only an all-electric can offer: a frunk–front trunk for those who don’t know–as there isn’t any sort of inverter, engine, or much of anything under the hood.

Tricks Up Its Sleeve

There’s another unique promise being made by Slate Auto: it can be converted into two types of five-seat SUVs. One with a more traditional flat back and another with a notchback style. These conversions don’t need to be done the moment you buy your Truck. Slate will offer these conversions as a flat-pack you can buy later that add in a roll cage (with airbags), rear seat, and the rear shell. The rear glass and mid-body panel of the truck can be removed and the rear glass re-used as the upper hatch for both types of SUV bodies.

Further, Slate Auto promises that this truck can be modified in a wide number of ways and not by downloading new software. Body wraps, suspension heights, and about a hundred other items can be added and removed as you see fit for the life of the Truck. In a time when OEMs are locking down their software and making modifications harder without OE tool support, this is a refreshing thing to hear from a new OEM.

There will also be the option of battery size, with the standard range battery being a 52.7-kWh pack that is expected to give the Slate Truck around 150-miles for its 201 hp, 195 ft-lb of torque motor mounted on the rear axle. Slate says that an optional 84.3-kWh pack with an expected 240-miles range will also be offered as another accessory. It will be supported by a 120-kW rate DC fast charge capability using a NACS port, offering 20 to 80% range charge times of under 30 minutes. Of course, if you have an exterior outlet at your home, work, or apartment complex, you can use overnight or daytime AC charging instead.

The Catches

With all this good news, it’s going to be perfect. Right? Before you plunk down your $50 refundable reservation, here are some things to consider. The biggest being that this is a brand-new manufacturer without a proven track record in the industry. Slate comes with a couple of good things to compensate for this in the form of funding from Jeff Bezos and hiring people from traditional and former auto startups like its CEO, Chris Barman. She was once the senior vice president and chief technology officer at Eaton and was global vice president for HCL Technologies for their transportation solutions before being hired by Slate.

Slate is also promising a lot for a company just starting out, especially the sub-$20,000 price tag. In reality, that’s including potential federal tax incentives that might not be here for much longer with the current administrations outlook on tax breaks on environmentally friendly things (among other issues). The actual price is likely to start at $27,000 to $30,000 and much of that will be determined on just how basic you want your Truck to be.

Slate Auto might not be sold traditionally, depending on state laws. Much like Rivian and Scout Motors, Slate vehicles will most likely not be sold by dealerships. For many people–largely due to dealers marking up prices during the pandemic and afterwards–this will be a welcome point. What we don’t know is how Slate will sell its Truck and future vehicles. Being tied in with Jeff Bezos and having (sort of) done auto sales with Hyundai before, don’t be surprised that Slate sells everything, including whole Trucks, on Amazon. There’s also the option of just buying off its website like you can with Rivian right now and having it delivered to your house or apartment by rollback.

Towing is a weak point for any all-electric vehicle, but the Slate Truck really isn’t selling a towing vehicle, either. Its payload for the cargo area is just 1,433-pounds and will only tow up to 1,000-pounds. Again, it’s a small truck and the Ford and Hyundai equivalents start at around 2,000-pounds with the Maverick coming with a 5,000-pound package for the AWD version and trailer brake system.

It will only be RWD, despite some off-road looking ideas presented by the Slate Auto website. Depending on how the front end is packaged, maybe Slate will offer an AWD pack but there is no mention of such a thing, just to be clear. It also uses a DeDion rear suspension on coil springs, which I have some thoughts on for a follow-up story. Just note that it’s a strange combination of live axle and independent axle. It’s been used in the past, but there are good reasons not many OEMs use this design. Personally, I would have liked to have seen either a traditional live solid axle like Scout Motors is doing or just go fully independent rear suspension. Hopefully, Slate will offer some sort of upgrade down the line to change the DeDion to IRS, but we’ll have to see. There’s always the aftermarket for that, too.

Electrics are starting to lose some favor in the public, but that’s mostly because of the pricing of EVs. The Slate Auto Truck could force a fix for that. Currently, the cheapest EV on sale new is the Nissan Leaf and the next cheapest is well beyond the $4,500 mark. If Slate can hold on to the $27,000 price, it would be cheaper than the current $29,280 Leaf and leaps cheaper than the next cheapest EV, the $34,425 Hyundai Kona Electric. With the Leaf also going to a bigger SUV body, expect that price to climb to potentially equal the Kona Electric.

The range of the basic Slate Truck is also not great at 150-miles of range and would only just beat the S trim Leaf by only one mile. The more expensive Kona Electric gets 200-miles of range out of its 48.6-kWh battery pack. Granted, the Kona EV is only powered by a 133 hp, 188 lb-ft of torque motor, but the Slate Truck should shoot for that 200-mile range as only a start.

Finally, it’s a bit of a surprise that Slate Auto didn’t offer some sort of range extender pack like Scout Motors is offering for its truck and SUV. It wouldn’t need to be much like a simple two-cylinder generator with a small fuel tank for an extra 50-miles range can be packaged very neatly. I’d say it could potentially fit within the frunk space with a small amount of room to spare for day bags. Granted, that does take away the frunk party trick, but it would give some potential owners who don’t have the luxury of home or apartment electrical access an option and it wouldn’t take away from the fact that it will be electric first like the Scout Motors vehicles. Again, hopefully Slate is thinking about this. There is still a long time between now and any running preproduction vehicles to start running around for testing and media driving.

We should start hearing more details on the Slate Auto Truck, how everything will work, and the final pricing closer to that late 2026 date that it’s expected to begin production. The first bits of updates will probably start rolling out towards the end of this year and, if the timeline holds, expect media drives and reviews of preproduction Trucks to start between quarter two or early quarter three of 2026. Carbage will be a part of those reviews, so look forward to seeing more about it, soon.