Range
- Small battery range: 240km
- Big battery range: 385km
Motor
- Motor: Single motor, rear wheel drive
- Power: 150kW
- Torque: 264Nm
- 0-100km: 8s
- Top speed: 145km/h
Dimensions
- Bed length: 1.5m
- Vehicle length: 4.4m
- Vehicle height: 1.8m
- Vehicle width: 1.8m
Comparison
- 2025 Kia Niro length: 4.4m
- 2025 Ford Maverick length: 5.1m
- 1985 Toyota Pickup/Hilux length: 4.7m
Weights
- Curb weight 1634kg
- Max payload 650kg
- Max towing 454kg
Charging
- Port: NACS
- Onboard charger: 11kW
- Level 1 AC, 3.6kw, 20-100%: 11h
- Level 2 AC, 11kW, 20-100%: under 5h
- Level 3 DC, 120kW, 20-80%: under 30m
Safety
- Traction Control
- Electronic Stability Control
- Forward Collision Warning
- Automatic Emergency Braking
- 2-stage Driver/Passenger Airbags
- Full Length Side Curtain Airbags (Truck 2) (SUV 4)
- Seat Side Airbags (2)
- Backup Camera
- Pedestrian Identification
- Auto High Beam
More info
You must log in or register to comment.
It’s not a truck to me if the bed can’t fit a sheet of plywood.
It can fit a sheet of plywood.
https://www.theverge.com/electric-cars/655527/slate-electric-truck-price-paint-radio-bezos
Look closer and read the dimensions. The Verge say “it can hold a sheet of plywood” in text but if you look at the dimensions, there isn’t 48” of space between the wheel wells, so it has to be propped up on them seesawing back and forth. And there is not 96” of length to support it, even with the tailgate down. At best you could limp home with one sheet rocking around, sticking out behind you. Forget transporting a stack.
It’s yet another urban toy truck that’s not equipped for actual utility.
Ahh, I see. That is a shame. The Verge should have pointed that out
That’s it right here boys and girls. The only defining factor for utility: Can it fit a sheet of plywood. God help you if you just prop it up - you gotta limp it home if you do that! Needs to sit flat in the bed!
Everything else is a fucking toy.
not equipped for actual utility
Doesn’t that guy know?! He’s not getting any actual utility from this truck! 😱
I might be impressed by a truck that could haul a cooler, an empty plastic barrel, and a crate at once. But the lack of any tie-downs for those straps makes my point well for me. Thanks.
You can get it equipped with tie bars, or hooks that attach to the linear mounts lining the inside
You could maybe interest me in a compact pickup truck that has a bed designed to hold plywood flat on a sort of shelf around the perimeter at the height of the top of the wheel wells, maybe with some kind of support that can span the space between the wheel wells, leaving space beneath for studs. But with a 5 foot bed…yeah remember the Geo Tracker?
Yeah, that’s disappointing, and the maximum payload/tow capacity significantly under a ton is also a bummer. I may still need to rent a truck if I get this, but it could handle a lot of my local hauling needs.
Toyota Tacoma didn’t exist in 1985. The first model year was 1995. Did you mean a 1985 toyota pickup/hilux?
Whoops! I did mean the Toyota Pickup. Thanks! https://www.iseecars.com/car/1985-toyota-pickup-dimensions
No mention of safety in the article. Does a manufacturer of this size have to do crash tests?
Also, this sounds like the Spirit/Ryanair of cars. Everything costs extra.
For years, I drove ~10-20 minutes to and from work. Mostly stroads and freeway. I could never justify buying an extra nice car because I didn’t use it that much. Same for a nice car stereo. I’d just listen to NPR and talk radio for news, traffic reports, and maybe a quirky story about some cultural oddity or eclectic artist. If I spend thousands on a sound system it goes in my house, where I live and vibe. Now I work from home, ride my bike everywhere, and a tank of gas can easily last me a month. My current car was purchased for about $20k. If my car died for some reason, I don’t even know if I’d be willing to part with 20k to replace it. I appreciate that these guys are building something for ordinary people and not another faux luxury lifted minivan the size of a garbage truck.
I can see a lot of retired people buying one of these to drive to their once a week bridge tournament or bingo night.
They say they’re shooting for a 5 star crash rating.
I believe so if they want to be highway legal.
I want this to be successful
Whoa, now that raised an eyebrow. Doesn’t look like the truck bed is ridiculously high. This checks a lot of boxes, and my crap vertebrae agree.
Definitely following this company.
It’s smaller than the Hyundai Santa Cruz; my dad has one of those, and it’s not very big (smaller than a Ranger).
This truck is positively tiny.
I want one.
I struggle to understand the point of a truck that can only tow 500kg… that and such awful range. If the range were doubled this would be a great deal, but as is it’s just dead in the water.
$20k with some cargo for a car is pretty good. If you need a F150, then you’ll have to pay for one.
I mean, are there any cars available in the US for just $20k? I’m pretty sure a base Mazda 3 was more than that when we bought ours five years ago (before the pandemic, and ours is a higher trim model). I don’t think they’re making the really small cars any more (like the Toyota Yaris).
Short version, I’m skeptical of this price point for even a small pickup. Great if they can do it.
Electric? Nothing under 20k that’s new. We had a Chevy Bolt on the market at 28k, but it’s discontinued now.
That’s because you’re thinking of trucks used first and foremost for heavy duty “truck stuff.” That is not the only market for trucks, at least in the US: https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
According to Edwards’ data, 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling—putting something in the bed, its ostensible raison d’être—once a year or less.
It can probably tow more, usually 500 kg is like the bare minimum for American cars. Also us towing standards are a bit more strict. A car in the EU is rated to tow more than a car in the US, even if it’s identical.
Even if it were 1000kg, that’s still way below what a truck would want to tow though.
Depends on the truck owner. It’s not going to haul a boat, but it can probably do lumber (though the bed is kinda short and narrow), gardening stuff, and camping gear. That’s basically what I’d want a truck for, plus the odd piece of furniture.
Low towing capacity and an outrageously miserable bed size. Less than five feet? The powertrain of this should have been put in a station wagon, not a “truck.”
There used to be a market for small trucks which has all largely evaporated. I’m all in favour of a smaller utility truck with limited range. Something like this would be ideal for my business.
Very interesting, but please give me power windows and a dumb infotainment unit that does Android Auto/CarPlay. No Internet connection. No integration with the rest of the car.
Available as optional extras
and lose the blinding headlights and automatic high beams
Cool but now I’m worried this is being spammed everywhere. New capitalism marketing at foot?
yea im already slightly tired of seeing this truck after the day(s) it’s been promoted.
Really? This is the first place I’ve seen it. Then again, I use an ad blocker everywhere.
Every news website is covering it. I think I’ve spotted most of 10 articles around the place.
The law of well-marketed unreleased goods dictates that this vehicle is not going to meet any of the promises mentioned in the articles. I hope to be proven wrong, but just like video games: don’t pre-order, wait for it to come out and be reviewed.
Can someone please convert some of these numbers to freedom units? Specifically the range, horsepower, torque, and 0-60 numbers?
I actually think for once, you guys do it
0-60mph is mostly deprecated these days in favor of 0-62mph, which just so happens to be the same as 0-100km/h — what a coincidence!
I’m aware of this, and it’s not the same because there is a 2 MPH difference. So the 0-60 number will be smaller, albeit slightly.
They specified 1 significant figure — at that level it’s the same.
Everyone seems to hate this thing based on marketing but I actually kind of liked the looks of it, sigh.
Yeah, what’s wrong with it? It looks like a simple truck for around town use, and it’s fairly cheap.
My only deal breaker is the lack of 4x4. I love this truck, but I will not buy a truck without 4 wheel drive.
What do you need 4x4 in a truck this small for?
Rwd is shit in the snow and other low traction environments. Also, just to take out in the woods and have fun beating it up overlanding.
Are you really going to take it into the woods with just two seats, mediocre suspension (likely, given the limited payload and towing), and limited range? Just get a Polaris side-by-side or something, they’re built for that.
I get it, a cheap truck is appealing, but at this price target, it’s going to make a lot of compromises. It should do fine in plowed roads (might need sandbags in the back though), so it’ll probably be fine for around town use, which seems to be its target.
With the motors and battery being on the backend of the truck, wouldn’t that give you better traction on the back wheels over the front wheels?
I’m not sure how the weight is distributed, so maybe? Maybe it needs sandbags in the front?
Either way, it sounds workable as an around town truck, even in snow, without 4WD.
Something like this I imagine I’d be happy with. A sedan/crossover and this. Wouldn’t take it out the county. Just trips to hardware/gardening stores and moving furniture. More than enough range and speed to go to work too. Any long drive I’d probably get an Accord hybrid or something. 2 vehicle family
Same. We have two cars and three kids. One needs to be comfortable for longer trips, camping, etc, and the other just needs to go to work and back. This would be perfect for the second, and double as a furniture, garden stuff , dump, etc hauler around town.
I personally hate trucks, but this is in the price range and could be handy.
If pickups and other monstrosities were limited to people that can prove they need it, or even just to professionals, we wouldn’t need the stupid paradoxical concept of an EV pickup. Like “oh my flame thrower that I use to light birthday candles runs on biofuel, so we’re good”
What’s wrong with an EV pickup? Pickups are incredibly useful, and if it’s an EV, it could also be a commuter. I don’t need a truck very often, so I tend to rent when I need one, because they’re so terrible on fuel. But if it’s an EV, there’s a chance it’s reasonably efficient, so I could use it as my commuter and occasional dump/furniture store/hardware store/nursury run vehicle.
This isn’t going to attract those dudes who like to lift their trucks and piss off everyone on the road, this is too small for those egos. This is going to appeal to people who need a truck for local use, like small business owners and DIY types.
How many people actually need them though? You are one individual making your case, there are millions on the roads.
I once moved a small fridge in my Honda civic
Millions of 2 passenger trucks that can barely tow an empty trailer? This isn’t something your average “truck enthusiast” will want, this only really appeals to people who will actually use it.
150kWatt and a top speed of 145? That’s kind of insane?
Wait a minute, mph not km/h I guess.
Yeah, 145km/h might be a liiitle under powered. I drive between 120km/h to 130km/h on the US interstates.
How are you doing kph in the US?
Squinting your eyes on the smaller numbers on the speedometer. I do it all the time!
Be careful, you might get pulled over for doing kph instead of mph in the US.
Every car I’ve owned has had a way to change the speedometer from freedom units to ✨ metric ✨ .
For knowing what speed I should be going, I roughly follow these numbers. (Note, these are not equivalent.)
- 35mph -> 50km/h
- 60mph -> 100km/h
- 70mph ->110km/h
Also, very roughly 10km ≈ 5mi.
However, most of the time I just follow the flow of traffic.
I voluntarily switched to metric like 10 years ago, so meters, celsius, grams, etc make more sense to me now.
Sounds like the non-commercial version of the DHL StreetScooter Work (L), with those even the passenger seat is an optional extra. Trouble was that while it’s the perfect vehicle for last-mile distribution routes most companies doing that kind of thing (like bakeries) don’t have the finances to back up an actual car producer, and DHL didn’t want to become a car producer. Taking over the company to get their hands on the trucks, yes, but bringing it to scale so they wouldn’t have to subsidise it? Not their business. And German car manufactures don’t want to build it because small bare-bones vehicles don’t have margin, anything smaller and less fancy than an actual van doesn’t make sense to them given the fixed cost of their production lines. Don’t worry, though, the inventor got the rights back, production is moving to Thailand, new vehicle is in the pipeline, with the core components (chassis etc.) designed for a 50 year lifetime. I’m sure DHL will figure out how to deliver delivery vans.
Absolute dream. Please build it!!
Car dependency is a dead end for humanity regardless of what shit-boxes they manufacture.
Some of us live in spread out communities or rural areas. You don’t expect all humans to live in a 2x2 ft cube in a 30 story tall building do you? Also, I guarantee not everyone else wants to live right next to other humans. I try to get as far as possible so I can do anything I want (be loud, be outside at any time, have parties etc). There is actually enough livable land on the planet for every single human to have 2 acres worth. Now, should people have children when there is already billions of us, that’s another question.
According to this guy, you are the reason humans will die
For urban environments I 100% agree, but e-bikes and public transport can’t help farmers* get their produce to market. I don’t know much about this truck, but if it can fill a similar niche as the Japanese kei truck, I think it’s great to provide people who actually need a pickup with an alternative to the F-150+ behemoths currently available stateside.
*Yes there are some urban farms that totally could operate via ebike/other form of micro mobility, however most farms, even small ones, are located >10 miles outside urban centers, usually in areas only accessible by roads and highways that are currently very dangerous for non-motorized transportation modes. Fixing this problem would take decades and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars even if the government were fully on board with the transportation network and/or land use changes necessary to allow for a true car-free society (which of course they aren’t). I’m not such an idealist as to poo-poo a significant short-term improvement to the “oversized working vehicle” problem.
Agreed. Whether everyone should be driving everywhere is a completely separate problem. In the short term, people need replacements for current ICE vehicles, and an inexpensive truck that runs on electricity is fantastic while we figure out the rest of the issues.
I’m guessing eventually farmers won’t need trucks, they’ll need bots that fulfill that need instead.
I don’t think that tractors will ever go the way of the dodo and when you have proper logistics, say a reasonably dense S-Bahn type rail network that can also handle shipping individual containers, a tractor and a trailer is all you need as you only have to haul to the next logistics hub and there’s no truck load even 100 year old tractors can’t tow: When you can pull a plough through soil torque isn’t something you need to worry about, 20 horses at 5km/h go vroom. 20 horses! Do you know how much those eat.
It’s hard to guess the future, but I imagine once we have automated farming, things like tractors will look a lot different. Right now, farmers need versatile equipment for a variety of tasks (plow, till, plant, etc), whereas an automated farm would probably prefer dedicated machines for each. The farmer would become more of a mechanic/planner than the one directly running the equipment.
I don’t know how far out that is, but I imagine once we get reasonable self-driving cars, farming will be the next up.
Modern tractors already self-drive on the field, fertiliser is applied in tightly controlled doses based on aerial analysis, that future is already there. You don’t plant or fertilise at the same time as you plough so it makes sense for those things being attachments, not integrated machines. The reason combine harvesters are dedicated machines is because they do so much in one go it doesn’t fit into a (sensibly sized) attachment.
You could also have drones distribute that fertiliser but you can’t work the soil with them, and you already have a tractor to work the soil with so you can just as well use it to apply the fertiliser. There’s also tons of odd lifting and transporting jobs on farms, that’s why there’s forklift attachments. You’ll need something with torque, low ground pressure, PTO and attachment points and well that’s a tractor.
My understanding is that the current design is merely an evolution of regular human-controlled machines, and they still need to be able to operate w/ a human inside. Once you remove the human from the equation, the design space opens up quite a bit, and you optimize for different things. Since things would likely be battery powered, maybe you’d want more, smaller devices so they don’t take as long to charge.
I don’t know, I’m not a farmer. My point, however, is that once we trust machines to operate w/o humans in control, things are likely to change a lot.
fertiliser is applied in tightly controlled doses based on aerial analysis
Gotta say, this should be a huge red flag for everyone. Soil quality is declining sharply, and fertilizers simply aren’t making up the difference. Switching to robots farming will almost certainly accelerate this.
Under solutions, there, is written “compost” and “animal manure”. That’s fertiliser. Import-dependent agriculture is a whole another topic and I didn’t want to get into it, but long story short, no matter how good and natural your soil management is you can’t expect to export nutrients all the time and not develop a shortage. You can pull nitrogen out of the air, that’s nice, but you can’t do that with phosphate and minerals in general. Good news is that good water treatment plants will pull phosphate out of the waste water.
What’s the solution for transport around farms and factories and such then? Trucks will always be needed.
Or for people in rural areas? Its 10 miles to the grocery store for me, if there was a bike lane or something I’d love to ride an ebike when I have the time and in the summer. But certainly not in the winter, or when I’m short on time and don’t have 1+ hours to bike there.
