Slate’s Gray $25,000 Truck Just Got a Crayola Makeover

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Slate Auto, the Bezos-backed carmaker building America's cheapest electric truck, is teaming up with Crayola on five vehicle wraps. It is apparently the crayon company's first-ever automotive partnership, yet it neatly fits Slate's basic pitch: a gray, unpainted truck designed from the start to be wrapped rather than sprayed to keep costs down.

The five searingly bright colored wraps—Cerulean, Fern, Jersey Tomato, Razzmatazz, and Dandelion—are pulled from Crayola's existing crayon lineup, meaning that, yes, prospective owners will have to spec that they want a hot-pink Razzmatazz Slate (WIRED's pick).

Each comes as a starter pack with decals, complete with a color-coordinated key-fob cap and a clip-on dashboard accessory Slate calls a “Slatelet.” The packs will sell through Slate's own online marketplace, alongside the more than 200 other accessories the company already offers.

The basic “blank” Slate truck starts at $24,950, a price that has already made it the cheapest new truck on the US market. The EV ships with a single gray composite body, no touchscreen, and manual windows, all in service of hitting that low price point.

Wraps for the Slate have been part of the plan from day one, with standard wrap kits in over 100 hues starting at $500, and the company has said professional installation runs roughly the same. However, while this particular colorful makeover might evoke childhood memories, the price of the Crayola starter packs is certainly not pocket money. A Dandelion or Jersey Tomato transformation will set owners back $1,550—three times the cost of a standard Slate wrap—a meaningful jump considering the brand's “affordable customization” pitch.

As we reported at the end of June, prospective buyers can preorder a Slate for $300 (or $250 for existing $50 reservation holders) and add the Crayola pack later, ahead of deliveries, which the company states are still on track to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, though most are expected to ship through 2027.

The rear-wheel-drive, single-motor electric truck has a claimed 205-mile range and a 2,000-pound tow rating. Payload is 1,550 pounds, zero-to-60 mph is a sedate 8 seconds, and top speed is a modest 90 mph.

The Slate's 65-kWh battery pack also explains how the truck reaches its rock-bottom price. It's a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack, a technology invented in the US but perfected in China, that's cheaper than traditional nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries. Despite the cost-cutting, the Slate can charge at DC 120 kW, meaning it can go from 20 to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.