Why the Bezos-backed $20,000 Slate EV is so attractive, in one chart
There are very few cars out there under $30,000, and many of those will face tariffs.
When Slate Auto unveiled its electric truck last week, the flashiest thing about the bare-essentials vehicle was the price: expected to come in under $20,000 after tax credits.
Not only does that make it far cheaper than other electric vehicles like Tesla, it’s cheaper than pretty much any new car out there, electric or not. In fact, only 23 cars, or 14% of new car inventory in the US, cost less than $30,000, according to Cars Commerce’s Q1 2025 Auto Market Review. In recent years, that affordable price point has fallen off a cliff.
What’s more, all but three of those — the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and the soon to be discontinued Chevrolet Malibu — are produced outside the US, according to Cars Commerce, which runs car marketplace Cars.com. That means their prices are likely to go up with the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto says it plans to produce its trucks in the US, so it will be insulated from some of that price pressure. TechCrunch reports that Slate is eyeing a former printing factory in Warsaw, Indiana.
While EV competitor Tesla also manufactures its vehicles in the US, its vehicles are much more expensive than Slate’s truck.
Of course, we’ll see if such a low price — and the federal EV tax credit — holds till late 2026, when the truck is supposed to come out.
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