The Slate pickup truckNot all customers who preordered trucks will get them in December, but a select few might.Slate customer deliveries could start as early as December, Business Insider reported on Thursday. The company previously said sales would begin by the end of 2026. The Slate will start at $26,400, including destination fees. It's unusual to see an upstart automaker move its initial delivery date up, rather than delay it. Getting a car company off the ground is no small feat, and ramping up large-scale manufacturing manufacturing is ripe ground for logistical hurdles. Tesla isn't the only car company that's had its launch timeline slip for a new EV in recent memory.However, in an email viewed by Business Insider, Slate Auto told some preorder customers that they could move their delivery date up to December 2026. The most the EV startup has said about its delivery timeline is that sales would start toward the end of this year. Now we have a firm month. AdvertisementAdvertisementThere were two types of early customers; those who put down a refundable $50 deposit just to hold a delivery slot, and those who dropped $300 for a non-refundable preorder. The email was sent to the latter, and it reportedly asked them if they would like an earlier delivery window than initially anticipated. According to Business Insider, Slate presented interested customers with a dropdown box for their new delivery window and the earliest was December of this year. Slate TruckFor customers who want to wait longer, there were reportedly other delivery windows in 2027, including specific ones like "July-September 2027" or ambiguous ones like "coming soon 2027." When Slate first announced that $50 deposits were open, it received over 100,000 of them. Slate opened up $300 preorders back in June, when it announced the truck's price at long last, and claims it got 10,000 preorders within the first few hours. How many of those people will get a December delivery date is still unknown. As things stand right now, the Slate—basic as it might be—will be the cheapest electric vehicle in America when it launches, undercutting the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt. It will start at $26,400, including destination fees but excluding the many accessories that can drive up the little truck's price. AdvertisementAdvertisementGoing into the end of this year and beyond, all eyes will be on whether Slate can ramp up production quickly and smoothly—and how exactly its unusual truck will resonate in the marketplace. The competition for the Jeff Bezos-backed startup is heating up too. Preorders for the roughly $30,000 Ford Fathom open up in early 2027. And it's likely going to come with things like power windows and a radio as standard—features the Slate lacks out of the box.And, as we learned today, Ford is setting expectations high for its electric truck at 100,000 units in the first year, per The Wall Street Journal. Slate says it has the capacity to produce 150,000 trucks annually at its plant in Indiana. How much room will there be in the U.S. EV market for these low-cost electric trucks? In December, we'll start to find out. Here be some similar storiesSlate Auto Gets One Step Closer To Building Its Affordable EV TruckFord's $30,000 Fathom EV Truck Appears More Conventional Than Expected
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