The Slate electric truck preorder window opens June 24 for the Bezos-backed EV startup’s stripped-down pickup. Over 160,000 people have already put down a refundable $50 deposit just to hold a place in line, which says a lot about the appetite for a genuinely basic, genuinely cheap new vehicle in 2026.
What You’re Actually Buying
Slate calls its base trim the “Blank Slate,” and it means it. There are no power windows, no infotainment screen, and no speakers. Unpainted composite body panels. Heating and air conditioning are the only real comforts standard. Final pricing lands in the mid-$20,000 range, reportedly around $24,950 before any accessories.
Two battery sizes are available: a 52.7-kWh base pack good for roughly 150 miles, or an 84.3-kWh extended pack good for around 240 miles. DC fast charging tops out at 120 kW, enough for a 20-80% charge in about 30 minutes. Power comes from a single rear motor putting out 201 horsepower — two-wheel drive only, no all-wheel-drive option.
Small Truck, Real Numbers
- 174.6 inches long — about 7 inches shorter than a Ford Maverick
- 5-foot bed
- ~1,400-pound payload capacity
- ~1,000-pound tow rating
The Real Pitch: You Build It Out Yourself
The bare-bones starting point is the point. Slate is selling over 100 aftermarket-style accessories through a configurator called “Slate Maker” — colored wraps, wheels, suspension lift or lowering kits, power windows, roof racks, and tire carriers, all designed for owners or third-party shops to install after the fact.
The standout option is a roughly $5,000 SUV conversion kit: a flat-packed roll cage with built-in airbags and a rear seat that turns the two-seat truck into a crash-rated five-seat SUV. Two body styles are planned, one boxy and Defender-like, one with a slanted fastback profile, and both can skip the roof entirely for an open-top look. Slate says the kit installs in a few hours and plans a video series called “Slate University” to walk owners through the process, with professional installation available through service partners for anyone who’d rather not DIY it.
What Happens Next
Anyone who already paid the $50 refundable reservation fee gets first crack at the early production run, as long as they put down a non-refundable $250 deposit and lock in a delivery window within 30 days of preorders opening. New customers can still place a $300 non-refundable preorder starting June 24, just with a later delivery slot, by heading to Slate’s official preorder page. Production begins at Slate’s repurposed printing facility in Warsaw, Indiana, with the first deliveries targeted for late 2026.
Whether the accessory ecosystem lives up to the pitch remains to be seen, but a genuinely cheap, genuinely modifiable new EV is a different kind of bet than anything else on sale right now — and it lands right in the middle of the broader EV price war shaking up the rest of the market.