These days, it doesn’t feel like $25,000 gets you much of anything when you’re shopping for a new car. Blame inflation, America’s love of giant trucks and SUVs or automakers that need to keep delivering those record profits. (And that’s all before you throw tariffs into the mix.)
The situation is even worse in the electric vehicle arena. Prices are going down as batteries get cheaper, but they’re still about $59,000 on average in the United States.
This is all why the upcoming Slate Auto brand could be such a big deal. According to early reports, it’s a new EV startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among other people, that’s aiming to make an all-electric truck from the ground up for just around $25,000. What that vehicle even looks like—not to mention its range, battery size and source, performance and other specs—remains a mystery.
But a quick teaser from Newsweek today shows us a little more of the upcoming Slate truck.
And by “a little,” I really mean “a little.” All we see in these teasers (wrapped in a clever Newsweek camouflage wrap) are close-up shots of a boxy body that looks almost Ford Bronco-like, with a wide and rectangular black grille inset with round headlights.
Newsweek offers few other details for now. “Slate aims to beat Tesla to the punch with an inexpensive compact electric vehicle for the everyman,” the magazine reports as part of its new “Disruptors” issues. But if Bezos’ copious Amazon money can really bring a $25,000 pickup truck to market—especially with electric power–it would indeed be a major disruptor in a sea of cars that are more like pricey spaceships than anything that most people actually need.
Newsweek indicates we’ll hear more about Slate Auto on April 24. We’ll have more on this exciting new company as it develops.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
