Slate's Sub-$20k EV Won't Come Close To That Price
After Slate announced its initial targeted starting price, it amassed over 100,000 reservations in just two weeks. Guessing how much an EV can be sold for long before production begins is extremely difficult, but buyers are clearly starved for affordable options. Now that the price is set to increase by several thousand dollars (or, more accurately, the price will not be discounted by $7,500), Slate will likely lose many of those pre-orders.
Between now and Slate's targeted initial delivery date of late 2026, plenty can change, including the cost of batteries, so the start-up may still find a way to keep pricing competitive, but there are pressures from other areas, too.
Related: 2026 Nissan Leaf Revealed: Exciting, Affordable, and More Practical Than Ever
The Slate EV starts out with just the essentials, which means that many of the everyday features that appear in most mainstream cars will be missing or optional, and once those options are totted up, the price will likely inch closer to $30,000 than many had originally hoped, and that puts the truck in a very competitive range. Chevrolet is building two affordable EVs that are expected to cost around $30k, Nissan is almost ready to bring the new Leaf to customers at an affordable price, and Kia is working on a $30k electric SUV of its own, but even without EVs in the conversation, a mid-$20,000 MSRP puts the Slate truck in the crosshairs of the Ford Maverick, which starts at $28,145 for 2025. By the time Slate begins deliveries, even more rivals will be vying for a piece of the same pie, so this needs to be a compelling product. At over $25,000, is it? We're betting some of our readers put down a deposit, so let us know below if you intend to follow through with the higher pricing if it doesn't swell any further.
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