Slate Auto – which said earlier this year it would manufacture a battery powered device made to look like a small truck that would sell for “under $20,000 – now says it won’t, on account of Trump’s elimination of the federal $7,500 tax rebate available to some affluent buyers. (Italics added; more about that in a moment.)
Well, it doesn’t actually say it.
The company’s web site just no longer says it will sell the thing for “under $20,000.” That promise went the way of Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine – or at least, America’s endless financing of it – on “day one.”
Instead it says:
“A radically simple electric pickup truck that can change into whatever you need it to be – even an SUV. Made in the USA at a price that’s actually affordable (no really, for real).”
No definition given.
In fact, the device – which Slate has yet to actually manufacture – would never have sold for “under $20,000.” That’s a deliberate lie. It would have sold for whatever the price was – and the buyer might have qualified for the $7,500 tax rebate that’s been used for years as a way to make EVs appear “actually affordable.”
Well, sort of.
It is not commonly explained that the cost of a device might be reduced by $7,500 – before Trump ended the tax rebate. A buyer had to have paid enough in federal income tax to qualify for the rebate. If not, no rebate. This excluded people of modest means, precisely the demographic Slate – ostensibly – is (was) marketing to. Basically, the rebate was a gift to affluent virtue-signalers who want to signal their virtue via the purchase of a device but still need to be bribed (effectively) to buy one.
EVXL says “The loss of the tax credit complicates” Slate’s heavily lauded promise made earlier this year to offer its device for “under $20,000.” EVXL anticipates that the base model will end up listing for “closer to $27,500 before options.” One of those options likely being a battery pack with sufficient range to make the device even plausibly usable for other than very short-distance use (more about that below).
The relevant thing as regards the vaporware device Slate said it would sell for “under $20,000” at some indeterminate point in the future is an ironic thing, in that the people who might be most interested in an affordable device – because they cannot afford an expensive device – is that most such people do not qualify for the $7,500 tax rebate anyhow because a typical 20-something first-time buyer probably didn’t pay enough federal taxes to qualify for it. The tax rebate is for higher-income people only. Kind of like EVs themselves.
So even if the rebate were still available, it would still not matter to those young/first-time buyers because they’d still be looking at paying close to $30,000 rather than “under $20,000.” At that price point, you’re close to what it costs to buy a current model non-device pickup such as Ford Maverick hybrid, which isn’t gimped by short range or the endless aggravation of having to find time for a charge. The Maverick also has room for five rather than just two. People pushing 30 generally need that because by then they tend to have a family and kids or at least are married. Two seaters like the Slate are are fine when you’re and single. But young singles generally can’t afford a $30,000 device especially when it’s gimped by a driving range equivalent to about four gallon of gas sloshing around in the nearly empty tank of a non-device.
Regardless, either number is dubious as regards the Slate’s “affordable” price.
The least expensive EV available right now is the 2025 Nissan Leaf. This small EV stickers for $28,140 and comes standard with just 149 miles of (best-case) advertised range. This is almost exactly as much standard range Slate says the device it’s got in the works will come standard with. A Leaf with the optional higher-capacity battery lists for $36,190 – making it substantially more expensive than a Maverick hybrid.
Slate’s device has about the same footprint as the Versa, which is 176.4 inches long vs. 174.6 inches for the EV truck – and is said to weigh slightly more (3,602 lbs. bvs. 3,509 lbs.). Given how small it is, that means the Slate must have a huge battery pack and the battery pack is the most expensive part of any EV.
So the promise that Slate could make a similar device shaped differently and sell it for “under $20,000” ought to have been laughed off the Internet.
Nissan has also reportedly lost money on every Leaf sold thus far. It has had to resort to massive discounting just to get rid of the things. 
It is hard to see how Slate could even do what Nissan has done; i.e., manufacture a money-losing EV as a kind of vanity project – because Nissan sells other models that are profitable that can offset the losses incurred by “selling” Leafs. Even so, Nissan is in not-so-good-shape right now. You may have read the news stories about possible mergers (read: buy-outs) involving Honda, among others. There are other reasons than the money-losing Leaf that account for Nissan’s troubles. But the Leaf Situation hasn’t helped.
Slate does have the advantage of being a project of big money guy Jeff Bezos (the Amazon guy) and so can afford to lose money. Even so, it has the same problem Nissan has in that what it’s trying to sell most people either do not want or cannot afford. Bezos – being able to afford anything – probably does not understand this because he cannot relate to this. For him, $30,000 is what three cents is to the rest of us. Literally pocket change.
The tragedy is the concept is sound. A basic little truck that can be configured into a little SUV. All it needs is a small engine instead of a big, heavy and expensive battery pack. Then it could be sold for “under $20,000.”
Just ask Toyota – which sells a truck like that for $13,000. It goes a lot farther than 150 miles, too.
Of course, Americans aren’t allowed to buy it. The federal government says it isn’t “safe.” The real problem is it’s something any American could afford to buy. Unlike the device Slate is trying to sell them.
. . .
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“It is hard to see how Slate could even do what Nissan has done; i.e., manufacture a money-losing EV as a kind of vanity project…”
You don’t need a profitable product if you can do an Elon.
In other words, you sell shares and ‘carbon credits’, plus lobby the government to force people into your devices and give you lots and lots of subsidies. And last but by no means least, you spin endless reams of BS about ‘smacking gasoline cars’ and ‘full self-driving’.
Making an actual profit is so yesterday!
They could’ve sold this shit-piece for cheaper. I don’t believe they couldn’t for a second.
Again there is the example of the HiLux Champ, as Eric and others have pointed out. If that can be sold for $13k, this much less robust, ugly, plastic Tonka-toy could likely be built for much the same, even with the price of batteries.
The Slate is said to have a 52.7 kWh battery back, and I can go to eBay right now and buy that for less than $4,200. And I’d be buying LiFePO4 batteries, not the typical self-immolating Li-ion batteries that they’re putting in the Slate.
Sooo… Some bullshit. I think…
1. They want you to finance. They’re not selling cars anymore. They’re selling financing.
2. They really don’t want you driving, no matter what you’d choose to drive.
This is Thai review of Hilux Champ. Toyota have not sell them in Singapore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l5P7G05SSM
Good stuff, Mr. Chia – thanks for posting this!
Eric – I know you’re a champion of the Hi-Lux but would really like to know if you’re willing to live with this vehicle? Do you really think the Murican public would accept a vehicle like this?
Reviewer is 6’ tall and cab doesn’t fit him very well. No beer belly there to rub the steering wheel.
To call the Interior and instrumentation spartan would be a compliment.
The tail lamps and exposed wiring on the tail lamps would be a huge warranty cost and would be about 1 year before NHTSA instituted a recall.
Don’t get me wrong – I’d love this vehicle. But the average Murican . . . Never gonna’ fly.
I have a 1993 Toyota truck that was dad’s and I’m fixing back up (slowly, ugh). It has stock AM/FM radio, A/C (a $745 option), PS, simple 60/40 split bench that tilt/recline (it’s an XtraCab, so sufficient space for a 6′ Merican but you had to crawl over the seats to get in back).
The overall construction was much better, like tail lights inside the bed walls. I mean, it’s rusty and needs love but it made it 32 years just being driven, which from the looks of it I’m not as sure about with the Hilux Champ.
Even back then this was a pretty spartan and small truck, although the S10 and Ranger weren’t much bigger. This was the first Toyota cab that was large enough you’d call comfortable for more than commercial and in town use.
Dad bought it new, the window sticker for it (a lower DLX trim, 2.4L 22R-E) was $17,642. This was in 1993 Dollars so now this is a $40,387 truck in 2025 Monopoly money.
Even figuring they overbuilt the trucks back then so there was fluff to take out do you seriously compare this to what we know as historically economy trucks? This thing has got to look and feel cheap. No way it would sell here. People pay a lot more than this for their side-by-sides and farm UTVs.
Hi BID,
Yes, absolutely. I currently own something similar – my ’02 Frontier. Very basic little truck. Manual windows, manual transmission. When it was new, it listed for about $13k. That’s about $23k today, according to CPI.
Fair enough about the Hi-lux but I think you and I would be in the minority setting aside issues like the exposed wiring.
I think about the Dodge Neon that was about $9k in 1995 which is about $19.3k per BLS inflation calculator which chronically understates inflation.
Could barely sell the base version of those Neon’s back then. Even fewer today know how to drive a manual transmission or to roll up windows manually.
Then add in the compliance costs that weren’t there in 1995:
Passenger air bags (1998)
Side impact air bags (not mandated per se but can’t meet regs without – 2011 to 2017ish)
ABS & ESC (2012)
TPMS (2007)
Backup camera (2018)
Really the list goes on endlessly and I didn’t even touch on CAFE or emissions aspects.
You couldn’t build that Neon at a $20k price point with current mandated content.
And people wouldn’t buy that sort of economy car any more readily today than they did in 1995 even at a $20k price point.
Burn it,
I’d love this truck too, and I think it would sell like meth.
It looks like you’d have to have an immense beer-belly to prevent you from steering this truck. The 6′ man here still has at least a good 4″ of room for his head. Yeah, it’s not roomy, but looks comparable to my ’94 S-10, and anyone who could keep one of those running has (which isn’t that difficult). That’s because they love it. It’s no hot-rod (unless you made it into a hot-rod), but it’s simple, practical and robust.
That’s what the HiLux Champ appears to be. Spartan? Yes. Good. ‘Bout fuckin’ time. (“NHTSA… Come and take them!”) Not a bunch of prissy poppycock to malfunction and cost more money.
Also, this is a 1-TON pickup. My S-10 is only a quarter-ton. The bed with the foldable sides is sex on the flag. Picture the ease of loading and unloading bags of concrete. Try that with an F-150, with 3-foot sidewalls and 5′ off the ground.
I fervently disagree that this wouldn’t sell here. For $13k or even $15k, like this one? Are you nuts? And with that attitude, I’m almost suspecting that you work for vested interests who’d very much like to see to it that we never find out how well it would sell here. Perhaps not, but I’m very much having difficulty seeing things through your glasses.
I work for no one – I’ve left the industry and am not trying to protect any vested interest.
Just sharing the reality of the industry & US market which is the Hilux can’t be produced anywhere near that price point with the regulatory content that is mandated here in the land of the free.
Those tail lamps and the associated wiring will never hold up to road debris blast and water intrusion in the US market.
US consumers will demand warranty fixes and will eventually file class action lawsuits alleging defective wiring as a safety danger (not stop lamps) and will win in US courts.
Just one example of what I’d be willing to accept but the public at large will not.
“…With the regulatory content that is mandated here in the land of the free.”
Well, that’s it, isn’t it Burn It? That’s the demon that must be exorcised. The cancer that must be excised.
As far as the tail lights and wiring: Probably $30 in a couple of plastic boxes, plastic conduit and zip-ties will get that well past the warranty period. Not a significant obstacle.
Even at 2OK they’d fly off of the lot. Even though its not a truck, the demand for Mavericks proved that. Sad that Ford, in their desire to suck globalist donkey dick made them unobtainable [mostly] and jacked the prices up on those they did build.
I’d buy a champ in a heart beat if the price was right. Been getting serious about picking up an older Ranger. For 2OK you can find some really nice ones. Bronco II’s as well.
Hey Norman,
There is no doubt.
And I’m keeping my Ranger and S-10 running as long as humanly possibly. Still have to revive my ’90 Chevy Silverado, but I have confidence due to its simplicity. May the immortal 350 never cease its roar.
Since the push from our overlords for EV’s is to eliminate the dreaded trace gas of CO2 I wonder how much the Canadian wildfires are pumping into the atmosphere these days. Could barely see the sun here this morning due to that smoky haze drifting this way. Then there’s that volcano that just blasted off in Russia after sitting still for 500 years. I would bet that just those two things have pumped more CO2 (and lots of other nasty stuff) into the air than the totality of all vehicles combined since the inception of the internal combustion engine.
But, but, but, think of how worse it is with all that man-made CO2 in addition those events.
I just came back from the UK. The climate cult, safety cult and wokeness appears to still be be very strong there.
Isn’t it remarkable how all “new” EVs project pie in the sky low prices and imaginary range?
‘Made in the USA at a price that’s actually affordable (no really, for real).’ — eric
This kindergarten-level chest beating reminds me of my goodself, furiously asserting ‘No Mom, I haven’t been smoking cigarettes — no, really, for real!’ when I reeked of smoke.
It’s the same posturing done by politicians, who every four years make absurd promises (‘a more humble foreign policy;’ ‘peace in Ukraine in 24 hours;’ etc), prompting tens of millions of sheep to furiously rush out and vote at each other, to no avail: the status quo trundles on.
EeeVees are dead meat on a stick. Even the secular religion of CO₂-induced climate change is under attack by a few heretics, to the horror of the Lügenpresse.
The next big tree to fall in the EeeVee forest is Scout Motors, Volkswagen’s multi-billion dollar debacle which South Carolina Repugniclowns foolishly ‘invested’ in. All should be clamped to 400-volt batteries until EeeVee shock therapy jolts some sense into them.
Amen, Jim –
A juvenility enrobes the whole EV marketing pitch; as you say, it come across like a 12-year-old excitedly talking up a Little League game or some such. When will the adults be back in charge?
I’ve never looked into the $7,500 “tax credit” for buying an EV. Here’s what the fedgov says:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/credits-for-new-clean-vehicles-purchased-in-2023-or-after
I’m instantly disqualified based on adjusted gross income. However, the fedgov takes a significant chunk of my AGI to redistribute those “tax credits” to EV buyers. Not for long though. Thankfully the orange man made good on that promise to end the EV scam. Now if he’d only end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. And stop the israeli genocide. And…
Styling and concept (except for the silly EV part) strikes me as early 80s Ford Ranger/Bronco II.
Technology is supposed to get cheaper over time. We were there once with automobiles, in the 1970s. Then came the regulator, and prices went up. Now the regulators run the show. What they want, they get. What we want? doesn’t matter, the regulators have designated themselves our spokesmen. We didn’t ask for a spokesman, but we got one. Good news for the manufacturers too, they don’t have to come up with a new design every 5 years. And they earn more profit from financing than producing product.
EV manufacturing should follow the same lead, selling the car at cost but bake in financing. A 6-7% margin and steady cash flow is always a good story to The Street too. Elon earned a fortune in carbon credits, that’s another revenue source. Maybe they could publish an API and add an App Store to the center console.
Slate was all about marketing the Girl Boss CEO and lead designer.
Empowerment. Their turn.
Not that different than what Nissan did with Brie.
BTW, it looks like Brie’s 15 minutes of fame are over.
I stuck to Camembert the whole time and never even noticed.
I’ll have the Wensleydale, Gromit…
Thing is, that girl boss knows more about the auto industry than you do.
I don’t agree with her decision to go to Slate.
However, the reality is she’s spent her entire working life in the industry as an engineer working her way up to CEO gig since starting within the industry in her 20s.
Hi BID,
The tragic thing here – as I see it – is that there is a crying need for something inexpensive, fun and useful. The Toyota HiLux Champ is an example. So also the old Geo Tracker. Sub-$15k vehicles like these could make driving affordable for people in their ’20s and fun for everyone else. They would also create a supply of even more affordable fun vehicles as used ones, after the first owner gets done with them. Then a teenager could have fun with them. The whole EV thing is both ridiculous and vicious.
What is your opinion on the Geo Storms that I saw running around, Eric? They always looked like a more fun version of the Metro but never looked inside one or drove one.
Hi Shadow,
A buddy of mine’s GF had one; they were cute and fun. I miss them.
I get the feeling that the Big 3 are part of the reason something like the Hi Lux will never see the light of day here. Something under $20K that is popular would just kill them. They’ve spent years convincing people that a pickup has to be well north of $40k. They have huge legacy costs to fund. It could be a fatal blow to some of them.
“Something under $20K that is popular would just kill them.”
The only way the $20k price point works for any OEM is to sell Millions of them.
6% margin on 20k =$1200. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze if the annual sales volume aren’t there.
The problem is right now the labor and materials costs limit what could actually be produced at that $20k price point.
The reality is that the Murican buying public has access to easy financing and won’t settle for vinyl interiors, manual transmissions, manual crank windows, and rubber floor mats instead of plush carpet.
Combine that with the necessity to meet Federal crash standards (ie airbags everywhere) and it becomes an impossibility for Toyota (or anyone else) to offer a Hi-Lux type vehicle.
Between those two constraints (materials and reg’s) and the ease of financing, it all but guarantees that a $20k offering won’t sell in sufficient volume to be profitable.
How many people would buy a Chevette or Yugo (assuming they could comply with regs) when they can easily finance a Silverado? Answer: virtually nobody.
People talk a good game about what they would buy until push comes to shove – they almost always resort to buying more car than they can actually afford via financing.
Welcome to Murica’s automotive paradox.
Hi Burn.
Around 25 years ago or so I worked with a guy that wanted a newer pickup. While he would have been happy with a low mileage late model truck the cost of financing the loan made buying a brand new truck with a full warranty cheaper if you financed it. He bought the new truck of course.
I on the other hand pay cash and drive them longer than almost anyone I know and get rid of them only when they turn into rolling piles of rust held together with pop rivets and good intentions.
Yes. All good points. Lots of people say they would buy a certain vehicle, but talk is cheap. There is one country that can make cheap vehicles that have all the bells and whistles, but they aren’t allowed to sell here. Also, not sure something from BYD could pass the safety regs.
Agree Eric
I’m disappointed to see Chris Barman at slate. EV’s are a giant malinvestment scheme and grift; there is no doubt about that.
Chris’ came up through the ranks at Chrysler and its various incarnations. Now that it’s in a death spiral under the care of Stellantis I can’t blame her for trying something new. I’m sure Slate is throwing money her way along with the impressive title.
The problem is all the OEMs are in decline and there isn’t a great outlet for engineering talent. The imposition of all the regulation has turned the industry into a cut & paste operation.
Really a waste of talent.
good luck to Ford and anyone else building here in the USA now that they’re all paying a 25% import tariff on aluminum & steel.
cheaper for buyers instead to choose a made-in-Japan vehicle with only a 15% import tariff.
Ah, but it’s 4D chess to make Murica great again via tariffs don’t cha’ know!!
We have very few people in this country that actually know what it takes to make a product. Those people are not take seriously.
Instead we have a culture that worships the carnival barkers, sports ball players, and politicians.
We deserve our fate.
Until common sense becomes common again I don’t see anything being affordable. Like that old ad that said “Sometimes you just need a Yugo” as opposed to “You always need a Cadillac”.
Either way the wealthier you are the more you can afford to spend and in the end maybe you should just buy a used car and learn how to do some of your own repairs if you can’t afford to spend what seems like a fortune to buy a used car.
Well said!!
The rebate actually wasn’t available to high income taxpayers. It got phased out when income levels hit a certain amount. I had two libtard clients purchase EVs without consulting me first, thinking they were going to get the rebate but didn’t qualify.
Never mind it being an EV, it is ugly as heLL. And then to actually pay to be seen in one of those things is tragic.
Hi Shadow,
Ugly can be ok. Remember the Geo Tracker? It was ugly but fun – and dirt cheap. It was also everything the Slate isn’t.
Well…I surmise you are right. I had an “05 Geo Metro. It looked like a pregnant roller skate..and I think my snow machine had more engine power. But it got great gas mileage, standard trans and was very reliable. I would have been toast in an accident but it served me well for the years I owned it. However, it was also not an EV, haha.