{"id":8150,"date":"2026-08-27T11:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/2026\/08\/27\/is-slate-autos-new-electric-truck-the-ev-americans-need\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:00:42","slug":"is-slate-autos-new-electric-truck-the-ev-americans-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/2026\/08\/27\/is-slate-autos-new-electric-truck-the-ev-americans-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Slate Auto\u2019s new electric truck the EV Americans need?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EVs account for under 10% of total new-vehicle sales in the US, and the numbers are declining. From a climate perspective, that\u2019s pretty dismal, especially because the transportation sector is the single biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions in the country. <\/p>\n

One thing that could help turn that around? Slate Auto\u2019s new truck\u2014a vehicle that seems to buck every convention about selling cars in the fully loaded, range-obsessed US market.  <\/p>\n

The company is going all in on simplicity, to the point of austerity. The Slate is a tiny, two-door pickup that\u2019s shorter than a Honda Civic. Much of the media coverage has obsessed over the fact that the base model\u2019s windows use hand cranks, a feature straight out of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Slate is also breaking away from other EV manufacturers\u2019 efforts to compete with gas-powered vehicles on range. The truck sports a small lithium iron phosphate battery, ringing in at 65 kilowatt-hours, and its quoted top range is just 205 miles. For comparison, the most basic Tesla Model 3 can go over 320 miles on a charge.<\/p>\n

By accepting a shorter range and forgoing the frills that Americans have come to expect in vehicles, Slate is able to offer the base model of its truck for less than $25,000. Some customers will choose to upgrade their truck with optional add-ons, like a Bluetooth stereo system, vinyl wraps, or even power windows. But the price will still likely come in well below the roughly $50,000 average for a new vehicle in the US.<\/p>\n

It might seem an odd choice to go so small and simple in a market that\u2019s increasingly sizing up\u2014but the status quo hasn\u2019t exactly been working for EV makers. A few years back, the hero for US automotive electrification was supposed to be the Ford F-150 Lightning. Announced in 2021, it was an electric version of the country\u2019s best-selling vehicle. <\/p>\n

But Ford discontinued the truck in December 2025, just four years after its introduction. It\u2019s not entirely the Lightning\u2019s fault: The second Trump administration slashed tax credits and other support designed to boost EVs. <\/p>\n

The Lightning was also plagued by price increases. The base model cost roughly $40,000 when shipments started in 2022; during its final year, prices topped $54,000. One factor behind the increase was its massive battery; to reach an almost 300-mile range, the truck needed a battery with a capacity roughly twice that of Slate\u2019s truck. <\/p>\n

That obsession with range is largely unwarranted. While Americans have historically chased distance, the average driver puts under 35 miles a day on the odometer, and nearly 90% of trips in a personal vehicle are 20 miles or less<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surveys of EV drivers show a similar trend: One recent study<\/a> found that people tend to use less than 20% of their EV\u2019s range on a typical day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The notion that drivers need far less range than they think they do might sound a lot more persuasive these days\u2014even for Americans who tend to buy cars for their longest road trip instead of their everyday errands. Roughly half the country is struggling to pay for basic necessities<\/a> such as gas and groceries, and 95% of Americans believe we\u2019re in an affordability crisis, according to a recent Harris poll<\/a>. An inexpensive vehicle that allows you to skip the gas station sounds like an attractive prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Affordable EVs have already found willing buyers in other parts of the world\u2014even with reduced range. China currently has over 40 million EVs and plug-in hybrids on the roads, and roughly half of new vehicles sold are electric. On average, new EVs sold in China in 2025 had a range of just 247 miles. For the US over the same period, the average was 329 miles. (Europe falls between the two, at 281 miles.)<\/p>\n

Slate is set to start delivering on preorders in late 2026. Its factory will have a capacity of 100,000 vehicles in the first year and 150,000 soon after. Thousands of customers have already put in preorders, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Some people obviously believe in the truck\u2019s prospects: Investors, including Jeff Bezos, have put nearly $1.4 billion into the company over three major funding rounds. Ford is jumping (back) into this space soon too. The automaker is working on its own small electric truck<\/a>, which is expected to debut in 2027 at a retail price of around $30,000.<\/p>\n

The key question that will determine Slate\u2019s success or failure is whether drivers can get on board with a small, short-range vehicle for the sake of its price tag. At this moment, I\u2019d bet the answer is yes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVs account for under 10% of total new-vehicle sales in the US, and the numbers are declining. From a climate perspective, that\u2019s pretty dismal, especially because the transportation sector is the single biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions in the country.  One thing that could help turn that around? Slate Auto\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-8150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mit-feed","tag-mit-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}