Tisha Johnson, head of design at Slate Auto, has been working toward one goal since her senior thesis in 1999: deliver genuinely affordable, well-designed vehicles to working people. When she found out about the Slate project, she says she knew immediately it was the one she had been waiting for.
The Slate pickup leaves the factory in a single slate gray. That is not an oversight. The entire vehicle was designed from the ground up to be wrapped, and Johnson describes it as the first production vehicle built with DIY wrapping as a core design principle. The body panels are flat and accessible. The shapes were chosen to make home application straightforward. Slate will offer more than 100 wrap colors, and owners can have the vehicle wrapped by a service provider or do it themselves at home.
When Slate put the truck online and encouraged people to customize it digitally, the interest in color was far beyond what the team expected. Fuchsia, purple, bright blue. The range of options people wanted told them the 100-plus color palette was the right call.
The interior follows the same logic. The standard instrument panel can be swapped out for a speaker mesh insert, turning the dashboard into a full sound bar for the cabin. That kind of choice sits at the center of what Slate calls its accessory philosophy: the vehicle is a starting point, and the options are meant to be affordable.
The truck is a true two-seater, with a 5-foot bed and a tailgate that drops for extended load capacity. When you want five seats, you pop out the rear bulkhead and install a bench seat, converting it to an SUV layout. No complex tools required.
Johnson draws a parallel to the motorcycle industry, where affordable personalization has always been part of the culture. You buy the bike, and the first thing you do is make it yours. Slate is trying to bring that same instinct to an entry-level electric truck.
Reservations are open at Slate Auto. Deliveries are targeted for later this year.