Slate Auto’s radically simple electric truck starts at $24,950

Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has finally revealed the starting price of its electric truck: $24,950. That’s excluding taxes, title, license, registration, governmental fees, destination charges, documentation fees, and any optional equipment, according to the company. Slate started taking pre-orders for the truck on Wednesday. Crucially, Slate also said that it has boosted the estimated range of its base model from 150 miles to around 205 miles. The aggressive pricing — half the average cost of a new car in the United States — puts Slate in position to capture a share of the lowest end of the new car market, which has few gas and fewer electric options these days. The Chevrolet Bolt is one of Slate’s closest EV competitors on price, starting at around $29,000, while the Nissan Leaf starts at around $32,000. Ford has been teasing a $30,000 electric truck that’s due in 2027. The price reveal comes more than a year after Slate Auto emerged from stealth. Since then, the company has been steadily detailing the extremely basic, transforming EV, which starts as a two-seater pickup truck, but can be modified into a five-seater SUV. The SUV version will start at $29,950, Slate said Wednesday. Slate has said the conversion can be done by professionals or by owners themselves. …