Slate electric trucks will cost less than an average used car, even without tax credits

The federal $7,500 EV tax credit likely won’t be around when the first Slate Auto electric truck rolls off its Indiana lot at the end of 2026, but even still, the so-called Blank Slate is expected to not only cost less than most new vehicles (both electric and gas), but many used cars, too.

Slate’s head of public relations, Jeff Jablansky, said the truck will still cost in the “mid-$20,000s.” The average price of a used car in the US is currently about $25,500, according to Kelley Blue Book, or nearly $28,000, CarGurus shows.

“We’re not just competing with new vehicles,” Jablansky told Sherwood News.

Rather, the new EV company is looking to compete with the used car market, which sells more than twice the number of vehicles as the new car market in the US each year.

“When [consumers] turn to something that is more affordable, it usually has higher miles, probably is older, the condition is not as great,” he said. “So we’re working in that framework.”

Of course, other EV companies have walked back their promises on price before. When Tesla first unveiled its Cybertruck, it was supposed to cost $40,000. The initial release cost was about $100,000, and the trucks, which are piling up for lack of demand, now start at $70,000 without the current tax credit.

Jablansky says that the sub-$30,000 price is firm. He believes the company can pull it off because the truck will be made in Indiana and its parts have been sourced with tariffs, which will cause many other automakers to raise prices, in mind. “ We are fairly insulated from the tariffs, the way we’ve made procurement decisions over the last two and a half years,” he said.

Another thing that will help keep the price down is the bare-bones nature of the truck.

The base model doesn’t have such creature comforts as automatic windows or infotainment systems — pretty standard features these days that contribute heavily to the cost of a car — so it not only costs less to start, but faces less variability in price by including less in its calculations.

With a tiny stature, a tow rating of 1,000 pounds, and a payload of 1,400, the Slate truck is more appropriate for pulling a jet ski than boat, and lends itself more to hauling Facebook Marketplace furniture than fording rivers.

Unlike the Cybertruck, which came out with a lower range than advertised, Slate is confident it can achieve the 150-mile base and 240-mile extended range it’s promised, based on recent testing.

 “We stayed under the radar for basically three years, did a lot of development,” Jablansky said. “The next year and a half, pretty much till delivery, we’re refining what we’ve done. We’re not making big engineering decisions — those have been done already. At this point we’re testing, evaluating, refining.”

That includes taking cues from what people want, which seems to be different for different people.

Besides its price, one thing that’s made the Slate truck so compelling is the ability to customize the truck (which, of course, would make it more expensive). So far, Slate has received more than 100,000 refundable reservations for the truck. Using an online tool called the Slate Maker, people have customized nearly 8 million vehicles so far.

They can add things like roll-up windows or colored wraps to make the truck something other than the standard gray. Customization options range from big — like turning the two-seater into a five-seat SUV — to small additions, like lights and decals.

“It’s not that everyone is shifting toward one preference, that they all want this or they all want that, or no one wants this,” Jablansky said. Nor have the registrations been sequestered to certain demographics or geographic regions in the US.

“This isn’t an EV that’s speaking to just EV people; it’s not a truck, speaking to truck people,” he said.

More than just letting people design their own trucks and customize them with a range of add-ons they can install themselves, the company thinks it can save customers money by allowing them to fix their vehicles, as well.

If someone gets in a fender bender, say, and dents a side panel or the bumper, Slate will send them the part and videos on how to install it through so-called Slate University.

“By and large, people can’t work on their own cars anymore,” Jablansky said. “Through Slate University, Slate owners will be empowered to make repairs.”

Slate won’t have dealerships or shops, but will partner with repair shops nationwide in case the fix is more difficult or you’re not inclined toward DIY.

Jablansky told Sherwood that Slate expects to be profitable within the first year of operation, even if people simply buy the base Blank Slate with no add-ons.

“We expect to make money on each vehicle,” he said.

Of course, a lot can happen between now and then, so we’ll believe all this when we see it.