The $20,000 American-Made Electric Pickup With No Paint, No Stereo, and No Touchscreen Transpo /Cars /Electric Cars

The $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen

Is the market ready for a four-wheeled digital detox?

by Tim Stevens

Apr 25, 2025, 2:20 AM UTCLinkFacebookThreadsThe Slate Truck is an electric two-seater with 150 miles of range and no stereo. | Image: Slate AutoTranspo /Cars /Electric Cars

The $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen

Is the market ready for a four-wheeled digital detox?

by Tim Stevens

Apr 25, 2025, 2:20 AM UTCLinkFacebookThreads

Ask just about anybody, and they’ll tell you that new cars are too expensive. Changing that overly spendy status quo is going to take something radical, and it’s hard to get more radical than what Slate Auto has planned.

Meet the Slate Truck, a sub-$20,000 (after federal incentives) electric vehicle that enters production next year. In the wake of tariffs shaking the auto industry and with the Trump administration pledging to kill the federal EV incentive, that situation isn’t looking to get better soon, especially for anyone wanting something battery-powered. Read more about it here.

In Defense of Cheap Things Future Perfect

The Trump administration says cheap goods aren’t part of the American dream. She explores wide-ranging topics like climate change, artificial intelligence, vaccine development, and factory farms, and also writes the Future Perfect newsletter.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. They’re wrong.

In defense of cheap stuff.

by Kelsey Piper

Apr 11, 2025, 12:30 PM UTCFacebookLinkAmazon boxes during a delivery in New York in 2020. Victor J. Read more about it here.