2027 Slate EV pickup: $25K+ prices, delivery by end of year, 205-mile range and more

Slate’s 180,000-plus reservation holders can now configure their trucks; here’s what they get.

Slate Auto, the improbable electric-truck startup, says it will deliver its first vehicles before the end of the year—and at the promised price of $25,000 (with one asterisk).

Slate unveiled its design for a small electric pickup truck in April 2024. The “Blank Slate” base model, built in just one color (grey), promised a back-to-basics pickup that blended small-truck design chops of the Eighties and Nineties with a very modern battery-electric powertrain.

This week, Slate announced more details about the truck—most importantly, its price—at a media event in Southern California. More than 180,000 reservation holders, who have put down a $50 deposit any time since April 2025, can now configure their specific vehicle online for an additional $250. Slate confirmed it will deliver its first customer vehicles in the fourth quarter of this year.

Here’s what we learned at the event.

MODELS and PRICING

The Blank Slate is a two-door, standard-cab pickup truck; its price will start at $24,950 before options and accessories. But two additional body styles are also offered, both SUVs, a fact that was somewhat lost in all the “small pickup” publicity.

Beyond the pickup comes the “Squareback” wagon. Cleverly, this is an add-on panel kit that removes the cab back, remounts it at the end of a longer roof panel to act as the tailgate, and adds a second-row seat. The result is a two-door wagon with a square roofline—a body style essentially lost to U.S. buyers. The cost is $5,000 higher, at $29,950.

The third version is the “Fastback”, a more sloping version of the Squareback idea that resembles the International Scout ‘Sportop’ accessory shell. The Fastback adds $7,000 to the Blank Slate, taking it to $31,950.

* The big asterisk on those prices

Slate confirmed that all three versions, built in the factory, will be available at launch for reservation holders to choose. Earlier, the company said the two SUV body styles would be available as flat-pack kits that could be shipped directly to owners who want to modify their pickups as a DIY project. (Auto enthusiast site The Autopian has suggested two further Slate alternatives: an extended cab back and a convertible pickup.)

Here’s the caveat on the prices above, however: They do not include the Destination or Delivery fee that every maker adds on top of the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, or MSRP. Those fees can range from $1,150 to more than $3,000. Slate told Charged it will reveal that fee closer to the time of its first deliveries.

But if it goes with the lowest $1,150 now on the market, the cost of a Blank Slate (before taxes and registration) would be $26,100. Could the company keep it down to, say, $995, so the price would be $25,945? We’ll have to wait and see.

The pricing and the two-door cab remains a bold gamble in small trucks. “Slate is making a $25,000 bet that drivers still want something simple,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at auto-data firm Edmunds. “Our data show the market quietly walked away from that price years ago, so this is a real test of how much affordability still matters to today’s buyers.”

Powertrain, charging

All Slates will be powered by a rear-mounted motor producing 135 kilowatts (181 horsepower) and torque of 264 Nm (195 lb-ft). The company quotes a 0-to-60-mph acceleration time of 8.0 seconds, respectable if hardly Tesla Plaid performance.

The motor is powered by a 65 kilowatt-hour battery pack (63 kWh usable) that uses lithium-iron-phosphate cells supplied by Gotion, in packs assembled in Illinois. The completed packs are then shipped to the company’s assembly plant in Warsaw, Illinois.

Slate estimates the range of the Blank Slate will be 205 miles. When it unveiled its early prototypes more than a year ago, Slate said it would offer two battery capacities: a standard-range pack for 150 miles of range, and an Extended Range version for 240 miles. Those packs would have used NMCA cells from SK-On. That plan has been tossed; only the single LFP pack, estimated at 205 miles, will be offered.

Charging is done through a NACS port on the left-rear fender, with an onboard 11-kW AC charger that can take the pack from 20 to 100 percent in 4 hours. (LFP cells should regularly be charged to 100 percent, unlike NMCA chemistries, generally recommended to charge only to 80 percent where possible.) Slate’s fast charging isn’t the fastest we’ve seen, at up to 120 kW; recharging the pack from 20 to 80 percent will take 30 minutes.

Truck stuff stats

It’s a compact pickup, so the Slate is never going to tow an Airstream. But it’s rated to tow 2,000 pounds, meaning one or two riding mowers or motorcycles or jet skis or quad ATVs (depending on the trailer weight). Payload capacity is 1,550 pounds. Curb weight is 4,050 pounds for the pickup truck, which rises to 4,335 lbs for the two SUV models.

The pickup bed length is 5 feet (60.5 inches), which rises to 80.7 inches with the tailgate down. Every Slate has a front trunk holding 7 cubic feet, and the SUV models can hold up to 34 cubic feet behind the rear seat, or 58.4 cu ft with the second row folded down. All Slates come with 17-inch steel wheels.

Customized, personalized, unique

If you believe the marketing, the Slate isn’t actually a truck at all. It’s an innovative, modular platform for customization. Over time, Slate expects the majority of buyers to make their trucks or SUVs unique by choosing accessories galore—starting with full-vehicle wraps under $500 for customers who don’t want a grey truck. More than 100 colors will be available at launch, the company promises.

The Slate Marketplace will open with more than 200 accessories—and more than 80 percent of them will cost less than $500 apiece. (This is, presumably, how a $25,000 truck becomes profitable.) They include useful interior items like cupholders, consoles, mobile-phone mounts, power windows, zip-on seat covers, and stereos. You can get a roof rack, or multiple dress-up items like light covers.

Slate provided airfare, lodging, and meals to enable Charged to bring you this first-person report.