Slate’s Electric Pickup Marks the Return of the Compact Single Cab Truck

It’s no secret that the size of pickup trucks has swelled, especially over the past few decades years. Pickups that used to be somewhat tiny just aren’t anymore, like the Ford Ranger and Chevy Colorado. New model bloat is a real thing, and then you have to consider that crew cabs rule the roost in the American market. That’s part of what makes the newly revealed Slate pickup so refreshing—it’s a true blue, simple single cab that’s genuinely compact. It’s a new twist on an old idea.

For quick reference, the Slate measures 174.6 inches from nose to tail with a wheelbase of 108.9 inches. That’s exactly an inch shorter overall than a first-gen Ford Ranger with a standard bed, while the wheelbase is just an inch longer than that old truck’s. The Slate is wider at 70.6 inches—the OG Ranger was a skosh under 67 inches—but still, it’s legitimately small. Compare it to the crew-cab-only Ford Maverick and you’ll see. The Slate won’t even be offered as an extended cab, let alone a full four-door.

Americans used to think about vehicle size completely differently. It’s true that we’ve pretty much always thought “bigger is better” when it comes to other stuff, like hamburgers and our military, but there was real value in a practical pickup you could park under a lean-to. That’s what the Bezos-backed Slate hopes to get back to, as it doesn’t aim to wow anyone with sheer speed or workhorse performance.

The rig in question has a max towing capacity of 1,000 pounds with a payload limit of 1,433 pounds between the cab and five-foot bed. Those numbers are also close to a first-gen Ranger’s. And while the Blue Oval offered both four-cylinder and V6 engine options, the Slate is strictly electric. Don’t groan—I heard that. It only has a single motor that powers the rear wheels with a modestly sized 52.7-kilowatt-hour battery pack to keep the weight down to 3,602 pounds. That’ll get you an estimated 150 miles of range, while an upsized 84.3-kWh pack could net around 240 miles. It makes 201 hp and 195 lb-ft of torque, which isn’t too much either.

If you’re still worried that the EV powertrain will make the truck too complicated, maybe you’ll sleep easier knowing it has crank windows and no touchscreen inside. The wheels are steel. It will only come in one basic spec from the factory and the rest you can pick from an accessory catalog if you want, but you don’t have to.

And if you’re curious about the price, well, there’s a reason I haven’t brought that up yet. Slate says it’s expected to cost “under $20,000 after federal incentives,” which obviously sounds great, but who knows if those federal incentives will still be around by the time the truck reaches production. That’s supposed to happen in 2026, by the way.

The Slate is like the compact single-cabs of yore in more ways than one, then. It fits the bill as a tiny truck, and it doesn’t try to get too fancy. We’re still more than a year from seeing how this will play out in the real world, which even then seems optimistic, but I hope it works. Imagine what that could mean for the rest of the market if the rest of the truck manufacturers see a simple single-cab selling with solid numbers.

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