Slate's bare-bones electric pickup undercuts the market at $24,950

Slate is selling a deliberately stripped-down electric truck it calls the Blank Slate, starting at $24,950. The pitch is minimalism as a feature: buyers get a basic two-seat pickup and add everything else themselves, choosing from more than 200 accessories, body wraps, and starter packs. The same platform can be reconfigured into a five-seat SUV or a Fastback, so the single base vehicle covers several use cases.

Repairability is the other core selling point. Slate says body panels swap out, parts are accessible, and service manuals are free — a pitch aimed squarely at owners who want to maintain and modify the vehicle themselves, plus fleet operators who value cheap upkeep and easy spec’ing. Charging works off a standard 120V wall outlet, a 240V dryer outlet, or any of roughly 29,000 Tesla Superchargers, with the needed hardware included.

The significance is positioning rather than technology: at well under half the price of most EV trucks, Slate is betting that a barebones, owner-serviceable vehicle with à la carte upgrades can carve out a market that premium, locked-down EVs have ignored. The page is currently a pre-order and email-signup funnel, signaling the product is still ramping rather than widely shipping.