I Can't Believe Everyone's Hyping The Slate Truck When The Nissan Leaf Already Has 'Same Range, Actual 4 Seats' For Just $1000 More

By all accounts, the Slate Auto Truck looks like something you’d sketch at 3 a.m. during a caffeine-addled argument over why the Cybertruck is vaporware. It’s raw, borderline brutalist, less a vehicle and more an electric crate with license plates.

Not a single curve for vanity’s sake, not an ounce of extra steel unless it’s holding something together. It's not just “form follows function”; it's “function mugged form in a Waffle House parking lot.” And yet, maybe because of that, it’s exactly the sort of vehicle that grabs the attention of an industry and internet starved for something genuinely different.

How The Slate Truck Compares To The Nissan Leaf

The average new car now costs north of $48,000. The Slate rolls in at an estimated $27,000 and crashes that party like a kid wearing Converse to a black-tie gala. That figure places it neatly between a lightly used Ford Maverick Hybrid and the base Nissan Leaf, which starts at $28,000 but can dip closer to $22,500 after credits (per nissanusa.com). As Redditor No_Fuel_7301 bluntly posted, 

“Just look at the 28k Nissan Leaf, an actual full-featured car… same range, actual 4 seats… It’s an actual car.” 

And there’s the rub. The Leaf is a known quantity, with four doors, airbags, touchscreens, and even heat. The Slate, on the other hand, dares to be less and calls it a feature.

Decades of Rising Car Prices: From $15.5K in 1990 to $49K Today and What It Means for the Slate

• From 1990 to 2024, the average new car price increased from $15,500 to approximately $49,000. When adjusting for inflation, the 1990 price equates to about $36,600 today, indicating that car prices have outpaced general inflation rates. This surge means that the cost of purchasing a new vehicle now consumes a larger portion of the average consumer's income compared to previous decades. 
• The rising average transaction price is partly due to consumers favoring larger, more expensive vehicles like SUVs and trucks over smaller, more affordable cars. This shift has led to a higher overall average price, even if the prices of individual vehicle models haven't increased proportionally. 
• Recent years have seen significant supply chain challenges, notably the global chip shortage between 2020 and 2023, which limited vehicle production and inventory. In response, automakers and dealers adopted strategies focusing on higher-margin vehicles, contributing to increased base prices. These factors, combined with inflation, have made new cars less accessible to many consumers.

But the Slate Auto Truck isn’t pretending to be an alternative to the Leaf. It’s an answer to something else entirely, a culture of drivers and builders who’ve grown tired of cars that feel more like rolling smartphones than machines. It’s a vehicle for the tinkerers and the tradespeople, the preppers, the open-source evangelists. 

“It could become like a gaming PC,” 

Wrote Reddit user ZobeidZuma

You don’t buy the Slate to use as a truck; you buy it to make it yours. Already, Slate is promising open-source specs for things like signal covers and interior components, 

“DIY the non-dangerous stuff.” 

Said badwolf42. It’s a platform, not a product.

How Slate’s EV Truck Is Challenging the Automotive Status Quo

And let’s not ignore the fairy-tale-meets-fan-fiction aspect: a startup born out of Reddit threads, backed by none other than Jeff Bezos.

This isn’t your garden-variety EV startup, complete with Stanford MBAs and vague ESG statements. This is something weirder. One user, u/Technical_Carpet_922, summed it up perfectly, 

“My first engineering job was in integration for Slate… electrical architecture and integration, got to work with a lot of very seasoned engineers who worked their tails off and treated it like a passion project.” 

The Slate isn’t an answer to Tesla, it’s a rebellion against Tesla's pretense.

That rebellion, however, is walking a tightrope between revolutionary and ridiculous. On one hand, it’s an intentionally stripped-down machine priced for accessibility in a world where EVs are still overwhelmingly premium toys.

On the other hand, it’s a Spartan metal box with manual windows, no rear seats, and an ownership experience that practically requires the buyer to be an enthusiast. Nissan, for all its faults, built the Leaf for normal people. Slate built theirs for people who spend their weekends in r/DIY and solder in their garage.

Slate Truck vs. Nissan Leaf: Range, Payload & Features Compared

• The 2025 Nissan Leaf starts at $28,140, offering a well-rounded package with modern amenities and a proven track record. In contrast, the Slate Truck is priced under $27,500, potentially dropping below $20,000 with federal EV tax credits, aiming to make electric vehicles accessible to a broader audience.
• The Leaf presents a conventional hatchback design with a focus on comfort and technology, including features like an 8" touchscreen and advanced driver-assistance systems. The Slate Truck adopts a minimalist aesthetic, featuring manual windows, no built-in infotainment system, and a modular design that allows owners to transform it into a 5-seat SUV using optional kits.
• The Leaf offers an EPA-estimated range of up to 212 miles, catering to daily commuting needs. The Slate Truck provides two battery options, delivering ranges of 150 or 240 miles, and emphasizes utility with a 1,430-pound payload and 1,000-pound towing capacity

Still, many in the EV community see potential. 

“As a former Leaf owner, I'm still enthusiastic for the Slate...if they can pull it off,” 

Posted medhat20005. 

“I think even more than the MSRP, the Slate offers a degree of customization far in excess of anything before.” 

That customization pitch is Slate's sharpest arrow, an attempt to rethink not just the vehicle, but the entire ownership and modification process. Redditor Team-Geek speculated that if Slate publishes enough design specs, 

“The 3D printing community would go nuts.” 

It’s a modern, electrified take on the mail-order car kits of the 1960s.

But there’s a cost to all this cool. The Slate’s minimalism isn’t just aesthetic, it’s practical, and in some ways, perilous. It lacks the standard creature comforts found even in the most basic modern cars.

No power seats, no infotainment suite, no fancy climate control. While Nissan touts features like ProPILOT Assist and Automatic Emergency Braking, the Slate offers you… a seat and a steering wheel. Maybe a heater, if you’re lucky. For every Redditor cheering the freedom to customize, there's another wondering aloud if they’re being asked to pay for the privilege of finishing someone else’s half-built EV.

The Spirit Of The Slate Truck 

Then again, maybe that’s the whole point. The Slate Auto Truck doesn’t just challenge the automotive status quo, it practically spits on it. Like a muscle car from the early '60s or a pre-smog off-roader, it asks a different question: 

“What if we made a vehicle for people who don’t want everything done for them?” 

So here we are: the Slate versus the Leaf, passion project versus proven product. One promises radical freedom, the other dependable utility. One feels like it was forged in a Reddit echo chamber, the other built in a factory that’s been making cars for over a century. Whether the Slate will succeed or go the way of the Elio, Faraday Future, and Lordstown remains to be seen. But for now, it’s forcing us to confront a strange question… how little car are we actually willing to live with, if it means getting exactly the one we want?



Let us know what you think in the comments below. 

Image Sources: Slate Media Center

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.