The upcoming “Blank Slate” truck looks poised to disrupt the way we buy electric vehicles (EVs). Slate announced the truck with a starting priced below $20,000 after federal EV incentives, however, with the termination of those incentives under the Trump Administration, we now expect to see the 2027 Slate Truck arriving with an incentive-less price tag in the sub-$30K range.
To hit its price target, the 2027 Slate Truck trades from-the-factory options like touchscreens and paint (seriously) for a bare-bones interior and color-injected body panels. Production is tentatively slated to begin in 2026 at the company's Warsaw, Indiana plant, with sales of the 2027 Slate Truck expected to begin later that year.
2027 Slate Truck Pricing, Specs, and Release Date
- What’s New for the 2027 Slate Truck
- Design
- Powertrain
- Interior
- Technology
- Safety
- Pricing and Release Date
- Further Research
What’s New for the 2027 Slate Truck
In short, everything. The 2027 Slate Truck isn’t just a new vehicle, it’s a new brand and a new way of buying cars. A two-door, two-seat, pickup truck, it operates with a single electric motor and offers 150 miles of range (or 240 with the optional larger battery pack). Most interestingly, it can be transformed from a simple pickup to a simple SUV thanks to two available conversion kits and a bolt-in rear bench seat.
But changing into an SUV isn’t the Truck’s only trick. The Jeff Bezos-backed company calls its base configuration the “Blank Slate.” Built with modularity and customization in mind, the Truck can be personalized to every individual shopper. The only option out-of-the-box is the upsized battery, but nearly every other aspect of the truck can be adjusted with optional add-ons and accessories.
Design
Steel wheels, two doors, and a 60-inch bed: Slate’s little truck is the closest thing America will have to a Japanese Kei Truck. It stretches less than 15 feet from tip to tail and is only as wide as a Toyota Corolla. Without a doubt, this is the most stripped-down, barebones consumer vehicle to be built and sold in the United States in decades.
The Truck’s body panels are not made of metal. Instead, they are a dent-resistant composite injected with the Slate Gray color. If you want a Truck in a different color, the company will sell you wraps in any hue, which can be installed by a pro but are said to be easy enough to apply that it can be a DIY job, too. Key to the wraps' easy installation is the truck's grid of coachlines crisscrossing the body. These lines allow the wraps to be placed in pieces, rather than all in one, intimidating sheet.
In addition to the wraps, Slate will offer decals, roof racks, headlight and grille insert replacements, wheel covers and wheel decals (like a toy Hot Wheels car–seriously!). Most vehicles boast consistent design language across their various trim levels that can be summarized and described in a few paragraphs. With the Slate Truck and its astonishing degree of customization, it would take pages.
As if to underscore the truck's modularity, Slate teased its launch with a particularly clever marketing campaign, dropping various Slate builds on a public, Los Angeles street. There was no fanfare or press release accompanying these parking jobs, but they drew plenty of curiosity nonetheless. Each truck was designed to support a different business, it's just that each business was very, very fake. From CryShare (when baby drives you crazy, we drive them to sleep) to Rare and Raw Catering Company (serving up exotic animals and wild nights) to Taxider-My-Family (no tagline needed), the gag demonstrated just how customizable each Blank Slate could be, and it drummed up plenty of buzz in the process.
Powertrain
The Slate Truck will be many things. As of now, however, a performance vehicle is not one of them. Powered by a single 150-kW motor, the Truck is offered with only rear-wheel drive (RWD) and delivers 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. The company claims a max payload rating of 1,433 pounds, but towing capacity will cap out at only 1,000 pounds, making it a particularly light-duty pickup. A zero-to-60-mph time of eight seconds is encouraging, if not thrilling, but the Truck’s top speed is limited (either by a governor or physics) to 90 mph.
Charging will be quick, thanks in part to the small standard battery. The 52.7-kWh battery should fill from 20 to 100% on a Level 1 AC wall outlet in 11 hours. Upgrading to a Level 2 AC charger will drop the time to five hours, and a Level 3 DC fast charger will fill up the Slate’s standard battery from 20 to 80% in less than 30 minutes. Conveniently, the Slate Truck will employ a Tesla-style NACS charging port as standard and it will be able to charge on Tesla's Supercharger network.
With regards to reliability and repairs, Slate has partnered with RepairPal to help with maintenance and accessory installation. RepairPal network of nearly 4,000 service points will be prepared to work on Slate Trucks, and over 200 of those service points will also be equipped to handle repairs on the battery and electrical systems.
Interior
At least in Blank Slate specification, the Truck’s interior is nearly as spartan as its exterior. You’ll find manual-wind windows, dead-simple climate control knobs, but no touchscreen. Instead, Slate includes a smartphone mount that connects with the car’s electrical system, allowing you to play music through the speakers–that is, if you purchase the optional integrated speakers. As a Blank Slate, it doesn’t come with any.
The dashboard and door panels can be wrapped in a couple of colors and materials, and you can add seat covers, floor mats, a center console, and numerous other accessories. You can even change the color of the key fob. And, yes, you can upgrade to power windows, too.
Technology
Tech is minimal. As noted, the Slate Truck doesn’t even come standard with speakers. The dashboard panel is hollow, however, and can be opened to easily add integrated speakers at the time of–or after–purchase. A tablet mount is also available, and Slate sells a “bring your own” mount for a Bluetooth speaker. Finally, steering wheel Bluetooth controls are also available.
Safety
The Slate Truck comes with up to eight airbags and offers a couple of advanced driver-assistance features: Active Emergency Braking and Forward Collision Warning. Production has not yet started on this little vehicle, so no crash-testing scores are available from either the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Pricing and Release Date
As of this writing, Slate is advertising the Blank Slate with a price tag in the "mid-twenties." While the company had hoped to market a sub-$20,000 truck, those dreams have been dashed with the Trump Administration's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which cancelled all federal EV tax credits as of September 30, 2025. State-level tax incentives may still be available, depending on location.
Even still, a price in the mid-twenties is astonishing for any new vehicle, let alone a pickup truck. Sales will be handled direct-to-consumer, bypassing the traditional dealership experience. Reservations for the truck are currently open with a refundable $50 deposit, and as of summer 2025, Slate was reporting that more than 100,000 deposits had been submitted. Shoppers can customize their dream Slate on the company’s website, although pricing is not currently live on any of the accessories, from the flatpack SUV conversion kits to the magma-colored key fob.
