Jay Leno’s Garage just gave viewers an early look at the Slate Truck, a low-cost electric pickup prototype that Slate says is designed to be repaired and customized by owners, not locked behind a dealer network.
In the episode, Slate leaders Tisha Johnson and Jeremy Snyder outline a plan built around simplified manufacturing, modular upgrades, and a service model that leans on independent repair shops, with a target price under $30,000 and marketing that often frames the truck as a $25,000 EV.
What Slate Says The Truck Is
Slate describes the truck as a single core vehicle that comes off the line in the same basic configuration, then gets personalized by owners through bolt-on kits and wrap-style exterior finishes.
The video leans hard on the idea that the truck can evolve over time, with flat-pack kits that can convert it from a standard pickup into an SUV-style body or an open-air setup, depending on what the owner wants to do with it.
Slate also repeats a right-to-repair pitch, saying it intends to let customers handle more of their own maintenance and even some warranty repairs, while routing service through a network of about 4,000 independent shops instead of traditional dealerships, which connects directly to its low price.
How Slate Plans To Keep Costs Down
Slate says its cost structure comes from design-for-manufacturing decisions that remove expensive complexity, including avoiding a conventional paint shop and encouraging wraps and molded-in color approaches instead.
It also describes a modular single-vehicle assembly concept where the base truck is standardized, because that allows the factory to focus on repeatability, then push customization to accessories rather than production-line variation. The company says production is planned in Warsaw, Indiana.
What The Specs And Claims Look Like So Far
Slate’s published targets point to two battery options, one aimed at about 150 miles of range and another aimed at roughly 230 miles, with liquid cooling and a NACS charging port intended to support access to the North American Supercharger network.
The episode also stresses safety, with Slate saying the minimalist approach is still engineered toward a five-star crash target and that beta prototypes are already in testing, although formal ratings will depend on final production vehicles.
Slate also claims more than 150,000 reservations, which is part of the reason the truck keeps getting framed as a potential inflection point.
Â
