According to Business Insider, Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto unveiled a two-seat electric truck starting at $24,950 with a planned 2026 launch. The price comes from stripping features buyers now expect as standard: no touchscreen, no built-in stereo, manual windows, and a modest 205-mile range.
This looks like a car story. What it really shows is a market where new vehicles have drifted so far upmarket that a simple truck reads as disruption. The affordable EV truck has our newsroom divided because the division itself exposes the deeper issue: the auto industry has priced out the middle so thoroughly that manual windows now sound like a feature, not a cost-cut.
The newsroom split is the headline. Media loves arguing about whether a product is ugly or underpowered because that's fun copy. The sharper read is harsher: American buyers have been pushed so far upmarket that a tiny truck with manual windows can pose as a breakthrough. That says far more about the auto business than about Slate.
Filed to the Media desk · Jun 28