Test Drive Review: I drove the Slate truck. Its toy-like looks hide a surprisingly serious pickup (Business Insider)

[kvermeer]

In the end It's going to be about range, particularly in a vehicle that doesn't have a pile of $70k battery capacity to waste.

I think that a lot of first-time EV buyers have unnecessary range anxiety. In real life, we typically charge overnight and drive less than 50 miles a day, it's just not a problem. And with a tiny bit of planning and a 20 minute charge stop, you can make a much longer trip.

But yeah, it would be bad for them to find that out concurrently with noticing their 205 mile range EV actually got 160 due to their driving preferences...

 

[Locust]

I drove the Slate truck. Its toy-like looks hide a surprisingly serious pickup.

July 30, 2026

Cheap cars typically suck.

Consider the Mitsubishi Mirage. During its final decade in the US, the roughly $17,000 hatchback achieved its low price through obvious trade-offs: an engine that whined at highway speeds, a punishing suspension, and an interior so cramped that occupants rubbed shoulders.

Its 2024 discontinuation helped usher in the first period in modern US automotive history without a new car priced below $20,000.

So, when Slate announced a $24,950 starting price for a 2027 model, I assumed the low cost would come with plenty of compromises.

“Building an affordable EV is difficult enough. Building one profitably — without making it miserable to drive — seemed even harder.

Then, on Tuesday, I became one of only a handful of people in the world who have driven a Slate prototype. I sat behind the wheel of the base truck for about 45 minutes and guided it through the windy, oceanfront roads of Newport, Rhode Island.

My skepticism didn't survive the experience.”


Impressions behind the wheel

“I've driven plenty of different kinds of trucks in my career — everything from the Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss to the Honda Ridgeline to the Ford Ranger Raptor.

The Slate is smaller and far less powerful than any of them. It still feels plenty truck-ish from behind the wheel.”

“Its big-nosed hood — which covers a seven-cubic-foot frunk, enough to fit roughly two medium-sized check-in bags — gives the driver the commanding view Americans expect from a pickup. It took me a moment to judge where the bumper ended, but it also made the Slate feel more substantial than its toy-like exterior suggests.

The two-person cabin gives both occupants more than enough room. At an aggressively average 5 feet 9 inches tall, I had what felt like a mile of space above my head. Slate says one of its 6-foot-8 engineers fits comfortably, though he wasn't around for me to verify that claim.

The truck also drives better than its specifications suggest. Slate says it takes more than eight seconds to reach 60 mph, but the electric motor's immediate punch keeps it from feeling slow. With the battery mounted beneath the floor, it also felt balanced and impressively composed when accelerating through high-degree corners.

Its aggressive, Tesla-like regenerative braking initially made my inputs jerky. Once I learned to feather the accelerator, however, the one-pedal driving felt natural, and I rarely touched the brake.

“That is, until we stopped on an incline. The prototype rolled backward before its hill-hold system caught it, an awkward behavior Slate says it is still refining.

I also heard a few rattles over larger bumps, and the range display wasn't fully functional. Slate attributed both issues to the truck's prototype status.

Should those rough edges disappear before deliveries begin later this year, the Slate will be an impressive truck for the money. Its handling, space, and genuine truck-like feel frequently made me forget that affordability is its main pitch.”


Who is the Slate for? We will see soon.

Slate is making a series of wagers that the rest of the auto industry has largely abandoned.

It bet Americans want a smaller truck, can live with two doors, and that drivers are tired of touchscreens, subscriptions, and paying for self-driving options.

“Most importantly, it is betting that enough people want a new vehicle starting at $24,950 — roughly half the average price Americans now pay at a new-car dealership.

That makes the Slate easy to explain but strangely difficult to place.

Detroit has spent years prioritizing enormous four-door pickups. Two-door trucks have largely disappeared from the US market, and even Slate buyers who add the company's SUV conversion and rear seats will have to climb through the front doors to reach them.”

“Its business model is equally unconventional. Slate hopes customers will keep spending after buying the truck, but not through the monthly software subscriptions that Detroit has recently fallen in love with.

Instead, owners can add speakers, new upholstery, storage accessories, body wraps, and the parts needed to turn the pickup into an SUV. The pitch is less "pay to unlock this software feature" and more "physically build the vehicle you want."

Slate is applying the same less-is-more philosophy to its cabin presentation. A company representative told me modern, screen-heavy cars have become too distracting, even at the cheaper end of the market.

Perhaps some buyers really are ready for a car that does less in our increasingly AI-ified world — and costs less because of it.

My drive largely resolves one of my biggest questions about the truck's composure. The Slate is fun, roomy, and far more convincing behind the wheel than its appearance suggests. I could imagine it appealing to fleet operators, small businesses, and buyers who want an inexpensive vehicle they will not feel precious about.

The harder question is whether those groups add up to a mass market.

Slate says its factory will eventually be capable of producing 150,000 trucks a year. Reaching anything close to that number would require the startup to survive an EV market that has already buried Fisker, Lordstown Motors, and Nikola, strained Lucid and Rivian, and cost Detroit automakers billions. Only one automaker — Tesla — has successfully traversed America's so-called "EV valley of death" to consistent, visible profitability.


Slate believes the industry left several openings that it can follow Tesla's lead in.

Whether those were genuine gaps — or warnings that other automakers already noticed — will determine what happens next.

https://www.businessinsider.com/slate-truck-test-drive-electric-pickup-ev-2026-7

Those of us who grew up driving manuals, can understand the getting used to the "aggressive" regen braking. Only, we'll be training the right foot not the left.

 

[E90400K]

You obviously weren't around for the VW Thing. That thing was "personalizable" and was advertised as such. It flopped.

I finally had time to Googleit. At age 10, I really didn't look into the Thing in its era (1973) so, yup I don't remember the marketing campaign for the Thing. But Google does.

I found a 1973 TV commercial for the Thing. The personalization was touted as, removeable doors and roof, and foldable windshield. Nothing more than the CJ-5 of the same era. The commercial also showed a few with different paint jobs (much like the Slate's wrap theme in 2026). But the Thing was no more personalizable than my 2022 Bronco is today (okay, the Bronco's windshield is fixed-in-place). In 2026, any car can be decoratively wrapped, the Thing, well that was a bit more of a commitment in 1973 to decorate the body.

Bottomline is the Slate, with over 200 planned wraps and three SUV kits, is much more personalizable than the Thing ever was.

 

[E90400K]

Counterpoint: The Thing is a vehicle that millions of people know by name, and it's now a treasured collectible people are still talking about more than 50 years later. Even today one is worth more than 10x its original price (1.5x its inflation-adjusted value).

I really hope Slate is as successfull as, say, Tesla or Rivian, making vehicles for decades instead of just a 2-year production run, but if they only flop as successfully as the Thing then they'll have done very well.

Also, I think it flopped due to not meeting even 70s safety regulations so VW was forced to cancel it, not entirely because it wasn't as unpopular as it needed to be.

The only difference being with the Thing, it remained in production basically unchanged from 1968 to 1980 and it was based on mechanicals from other VW models (mainly the Bug - "Type 1"), so parts availability was not an issue during one's ownership lifetime (approx. 15 years). If the Slate dies two years after startup with a few hundred thousand sold, parts will become an issue. More importantly, software...

 

[tubes]

All I know is that 13 year old me was pretty interested in seeing superhero Isis driving The Thing on that long forgotten show "Secrets of Isis". Isis was pretty hot, and I was surprised she would drive such a homely car. I guess it was misdirection Clark Kent style.

 

[Visualvalhalla]

That's not a pizza topping that I've tried...

Pineapple on pizza... what are your thoughts? Go!

 

[BodogThiccNecc]

Nice article!

> Its aggressive, Tesla-like regenerative braking initially made my inputs jerky. Once I learned to feather the accelerator, however, the one-pedal driving felt natural, and I rarely touched the brake.

I find the other threads on this forum that describe mandatory 1PD as a deal breaker, that the old dogs could never learn new 1PD tricks to be embarrassing. If he only drove it for 45 minutes, that can barely count as a learning curve! No, when you were 16, your first starts off the line were probably a little jerky. You learned and adjusted. You can learn again.

Looking back through his review history, I don't see that he's ever driven a Tesla. He's got articles on the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV9, Polestar 2, Fiat 500e, and Rivian R1T, all of which have significantly adjustable (or even optional) 1PD modes.

> Its big-nosed hood — which covers a seven-cubic-foot frunk, enough to fit roughly two medium-sized check-in bags — gives the driver the commanding view Americans expect from a pickup.

It's a good thing that the author lists a Ridgeline among the trucks he's driven. I've got a Ford Superduty F250, a Silverado 2500HD, a Ram 4500, and a couple F350/F450 flatbeds in my more recent past that threaten to crowd out familiarity with the '93 Ranger in my profile photo. I cannot imagine the view from the Slate truck being described as the "commanding view Americans expect." If it really is a hideously gargantuan vehicle as I might expect from those other modern American trucks... ick, I'm going to want the lowering kit more than I already do.

> Slate hopes customers will keep spending after buying the truck, but not through the monthly software subscriptions that Detroit has recently fallen in love with. ... The pitch is less "pay to unlock this software feature" and more "physically build the vehicle you want."

Thank you, Slate! I'm aggressively, vehemently, combatatively not in love with those pay-to-play features. Many years ago, I read an article by Joel Spoelsky (a writer/tech entrepeneur, founder of StackOverflow) in which he wrote:

> Working my way backwards, this business about segmenting? It pisses the heck off of people. People want to feel they’re paying a fair price. ... customers had no loyalty whatsover to the legacy airlines that had been trying to pick their pockets for all those years.

> And God help you if an A-list blogger finds out that your premium printer is identical to the cheap printer, with the speed inhibitor turned off.

We frogs have been thoroughly boiled, today no one would be surprised to have to pay a monthly subscription and keep the printer connected to the Internet where it can sell your print history if you want to keep the speed inhibitor turned off.

I'm buying Slate in large part because it rejects those hostile trends!

I'm so used to driving a car, I feel like the lowering kit will be a must for me. I wish we could have the pricing information on it, I'm hoping it will be at or under $1k.

 

[KevinRS]

I'm so used to driving a car, I feel like the lowering kit will be a must for me. I wish we could have the pricing information on it, I'm hoping it will be at or under $1k.

Actually, depending on price, and what impact it has on range etc, I might consider it, if it's going to make it easier for an occasional passenger to get in the truck.

 

[BodogThiccNecc]

Actually, depending on price, and what impact it has on range etc, I might consider it, if it's going to make it easier for an occasional passenger to get in the truck.

I also will be hauling my dogs around in the SUV, so I'm sure they will appreciate the lower entry. The range should improve slightly, I would think. Lower is usually more aerodynamic.

 

[atx_ev]

It makes sense to just have just one, aggressive regen. That's where you're going to get the range. If you gave people the option to shut it off from the start they would never use it (because that's what they're used to) and then complain about the range. That takes all the variables out of determining range and reviews. Familiar with people driving the Mach-E and people would often just shut it off from the start or the dealership would do test drives with it off not to scare people with something new.... But then how many people are actually going to set it to the most efficient and learn to use it. In the end It's going to be about range, particularly in a vehicle that doesn't have a pile of $70k battery capacity to waste.

agree. I got used to regen in my daughters bolt euv on the drive home from the dealer. She is only 18 but wouldnt drive with it on for 6 months. My wife also doesnt like it.

My wifes PHEV has a very light regen, basically no regen, light regen, medium regen. I find it annoying and my brain thinks that mercedes just wants those sweet service dollars to replace brake pads. The car always defaults to automatic regen where it adjusts the regen based on what it thinks you should want. If you want it to be in medium regen you have to constantly reset it.

Im fine with fulltime max regen. It takes like 15 minutes to get used to.

 

[Freyar]

Scares me to think that the throttle/brake response could be different without notice in some cars.

 

[Paul]

agree. I got used to regen in my daughters bolt euv on the drive home from the dealer. She is only 18 but wouldnt drive with it on for 6 months. My wife also doesnt like it.

My wifes PHEV has a very light regen, basically no regen, light regen, medium regen. I find it annoying and my brain thinks that mercedes just wants those sweet service dollars to replace brake pads. The car always defaults to automatic regen where it adjusts the regen based on what it thinks you should want. If you want it to be in medium regen you have to constantly reset it.

Im fine with fulltime max regen. It takes like 15 minutes to get used to.

I'm guessing MB figures their customers are rich enough to afford gas and don't care and just want maximum personal comfort haha. There is a "L" for low gear button on my Maverick hybrid which basically pushes it into full regen manually and an eco mode that makes the regen stronger.. I'd like the option just to Max it out or one pedal. It's probably more of a transition issue with a hybrid sharing the gas engine And a full regen wouldn't work with one pedal... ? I've liked one petal on EVS I've driven. And I'm so cheap. I'll do anything to save some brake wear.