The passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” will undoubtedly have countless unforeseen consequences that will become apparent in the days and weeks to come. One that has already come to light, courtesy of TechCrunch, is that the cancellation of the federal EV tax credit in September means the affordable Slate Truck will no longer be as affordable as everyone thought it would be.
While Slate has not released any exact pricing, it has claimed that its small, affordable, and highly modular electric truck would cost less than $20,000 after the $7,500 federal EV incentive. Now that this credit is going away, customers will be on the hook for the full purchase price, which hits the wallet even harder on a vehicle already priced so low. Slate’s website has already been updated to say “Expected price: Mid-Twenties” rather than “Under $20,000” as it did previously. That would align with a hypothetical purchase price of around $27,000 or less, which would have been $19,500 with the EV tax credit.
A blow for Slate but still a good deal
With no new cars available under $20,000, pricing a new small truck, an EV no less, under that threshold would have been quite the feat. It certainly made for great marketing, encouraging more than 100,000 reservations. The cancellation of the EV tax credit, preventing this claim from coming true, is not Slate’s fault. The blame falls squarely on the Trump Administration’s misguided efforts to help the domestic auto industry, which will end up hurting it instead, particularly EV manufacturers other than Tesla.Â
Even assuming a higher base purchase price somewhere around $27,000 without the tax credit, that’s still less than the most basic versions of the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, both of which cost more than $30,000 after destination charges. Slate’s website claim that “Great cars got too pricey, we fixed that” is still valid in theory. Besides, most customers won’t buy the most basic, bare-bones truck anyway. They plan to spend a bit more and take advantage of Slate’s extensive customization options, up to and including turning it into an SUV. So don’t count Slate out just yet. The truck may not be quite as affordable as we’d hoped, but it’s still less expensive than anything else around, so we’re cautiously optimistic.
