Posted on by RibenaRich

🔍 Is the Slate truck actually cheap, or does it just look cheap?

1. 

Price Context:

  • The sub-$20K price (with tax credits) positions it as ultra-affordable—but that’s relative to a market where:
    • The average new vehicle price in the U.S. is $45K+
    • EVs regularly land in the $50K–$70K range
  • So yes, it looks cheap in contrast to today’s bloated, feature-heavy trucks (e.g., F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, Cybertruck).

2. 

What are you not getting?

  • No luxury or even mid-tier features (likely no infotainment, no leather, basic HVAC, no fancy suspension, etc.)
  • Bare-minimum range and performance
  • Likely uses low-cost materials, modular construction, and commodity components

So: It is both cheap in absolute terms and made to look cheaper by contrast with a bloated market.

đź’° Could this be a 

high-margin

 product?

1. 

Yes—if they stick to the mission:

  • Bare bones = lower development and production costs
  • Small size, simple electronics = cheaper to manufacture and ship
  • Modular platform = shared parts across models = economy of scale
  • No dealers = direct-to-consumer model, reducing markup leakage

This means that if the bill of materials + labor + logistics stays really lean, margins can be surprisingly high.

2. 

But only if:

  • They don’t bloat it later to chase mass appeal
  • The battery cost curve keeps declining
  • Government regulations (crash, emissions, safety) don’t force expensive upgrades

🧠 What’s clever here?

  • They’re not building a truck for today’s consumers.
    • They’re building a utility platform that can be:
      • A last-mile delivery vehicle
      • A fleet workhorse
      • A low-income rural vehicle
      • A modular “add-your-own” solution for DIYers and small businesses
  • It’s the opposite of the Cybertruck or Hummer EV—it’s not selling image, it’s selling function.

🧾 TL;DR:

  • It is cheap—but also smartly framed against a bloated market.
  • If executed right, it could be extremely high-margin—like a Shopify of trucks.
  • The big risk? The moment they start adding features to appease mainstream buyers, that margin disappears.

This could be the Model T of EV trucks if they play it right: minimal, affordable, modular, and scalable

Leave a Reply