The anti-Cybertruck: Bezos-backed Slate unveils a bare-bones EV truck under $20,000
With a much lower potential price tag, the move puts pressure on Tesla to finally make its own low-cost car.
Last night Slate Auto, the stealth EV startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, formally unveiled a bare-bones, customizable electric pickup that’s supposed to cost less than $20,000 after federal credits when it rolls out at the end of 2026. (InsideEVs has a lot of details here.) Tesla’s cheapest model, the Model 3, which starts at $35,000 after credits, costs about 75% more.
The Slate truck is sort of the opposite of Tesla’s latest new model, the Cybertruck, which after a price reduction now starts at about $70,000, or more than three Slate trucks. For one, it’s minuscule in comparison to the Cybertruck’s huge footprint, with a total length of 174.6 inches versus the Cybertruck’s 223 inches. Unlike the Cybertruck, the Slate truck has no infotainment, its windows are hand-cranked and it definitely doesn’t claim to drive itself. It’s also a lot less powerful and a lot less showy.
Slate Auto’s price point makes it cheaper than any electric vehicle in the US. It also would make it cheaper than most gas vehicles, with the average cost of new vehicles in the US hovering around $50,000.
Tesla investors have long clamored for an affordable model — something the company promised and then walked back. Tesla scrapped the company’s long-awaited $25,000 model last year after deciding to go forward with the self-driving, steering-wheel-less Cybercab instead.
As a concession, the company said it would offer lower-cost versions of existing models. Despite reporting to the contrary, Tesla said during its latest earnings report that the company is still on track to release those models in the first half of this year. It didn’t specify a price but did say that producing these models on existing manufacturing lines “will result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected.”
Of course, a lot can happen between now and late next year. And while both Slate and Tesla are assembled it the US, it’s likely both will be subject to tariffs on imported parts.
Like Tesla, we’ll believe Slate’s affordable mass-market vehicle, when customers can actually buy it.
