The Slate is real! | Drive The Future

Even though I can’t convert my Slate pickup truck reservation into an order yet (still have a year and half left on my 2025 Tesla Model 3 lease) others can. As of June 24, 2026, reservation holders are able to convert there reservations into pre-orders. My brother has an August reservation and his order status is now mid-2027. My reservation, which I won’t be converting for $250, is June, so I would likely have gotten an earlier delivery. OK, but why am I even writing about this when I already talked about the Slate in my previous post: Back to basics, and the future? Answer: Because the Slate is real, unlike other notable startups, and it looks like it’s going to be fantastic! A great value and good execution. It’s just a no-frills EV pickup truck! Perfect for my needs.

A blank Slate costs $24,950. That was the expected price point, so no surprises there. What I am pleasantly surprised about is their battery selection. Initially they were going with a 52 kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery built by SK On, with 150 miles of range. Slate will now use a 65 kWh (63 kWh usable) lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery pack supplied by Gotion, with an expected driving range to 205 miles (unverified). For cost, usability and durability I’m very pleased with this change and the LFP battery’s associated range.

As I write this, there are many YouTube influencers talking about and test driving the Slate:

The excitement and number of positive reviews is incredible. I will agree that the Slate is not for everyone, but I believe there is a significant untapped market for this ‘basic’ and affordable truck. It certainly is for me. My ’86 Toyota pickup was one of the best vehicles I ever owned, and I miss it. My Slate will probably end up looking like my ’86 pickup when I’m done wrapping and tweaking it’s aesthetic. Mine will stay a pickup, but it will have a nice sound system and probably an iPad display instead of smartphone so I don’t experience severe desiderium having moved on from a Tesla with a big center screen to the Slate.

So, here’s a question. The buy-out amount for my 2025 Tesla Model 3 RWD Long Range (a totally amazing vehicle, one of the best in the world, and the ‘most American made car in the US’) is $27,000 and change. Will I spend an equal amount on a 3 year-old Model 3 with 30k on the clock, or spring for a spanking new Slate? I really don’t know, and fortunately I have 18 or so months to think about it.

Now back to the World Cup games: Ecuador vs. Germany. 1-1 after half-time. Two good teams. Can’t call it yet…

** update **

I did it! My Tesla lease is up in March 2028, so even though I paid the extra $250 to secure my delivery window for my new Slate which puts my delivery in the July-September 2027 timeframe, I don’t want to take delivery then. So what to do? Here’s Slate’s answer to that question (Aug. 5, 2026):

“What we can suggest is keeping your spot and simply delaying when you’re ready to finalize and take delivery when your window arrives. If September 2027 comes and you’re not ready, we can work with you on pushing the actual delivery back to fit your timeline around the March 2028 lease end.”

Cool! That works for me. I won’t have to put the full purchase price down earlier and I won’t have to finalize my build for a while. Plus it gives Slate a few more months to work out some more ‘first model year’ bugs.