Slate It's not that strange for an automaker to change a few details when moving a prototype into production, and that's what happened to the all-electric Slate truck. However, there's one particular detail here that really caught our eye: When Slate showed off an early model in April of 2025, the truck was going to offer a pair of battery packs that relied on nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry. The starting point would be a 52.7-kWh setup good for a range of 150 miles, with buyers able to choose an optional 84.3-kWh pack capable of delivering 240 miles of range. Yet, when pricing for the production Slate pickup truck was recently revealed — at $24,950 – so was a whole new approach to its batteries. The one and only battery system listed for the truck now is based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry, features a 65-kWh capacity, and can deliver 205 miles of total range. Now, using LFP batteries does lead to some significant benefits versus NMC alternatives, and we'll touch on those next. But the main reason Slate didn't initially go the LFP route was that it originally wanted its truck to qualify for the dearly departed national EV tax credit. That took LFP batteries off the table, since those are usually sourced from Chinese companies and would have disqualified the Slate truck. As a result, the prototype was spec'ed with NMC batteries from South Korea instead. The good news is that Slate trucks remain cheap, at least if you don't go overboard on the options. What are the benefits of LFP batteries in the Slate truck? Maksim Safaniuk/Shutterstock The differences in battery chemistry make for some big differences in pricing as well. For instance, extracting nickel and iron is more expensive — financially and ethically — than acquiring the elements used in LFP batteries. That means the cost to make NMC setups is also higher. With that in mind, switching to LFP chemistry helps keep the MSRP of the Slate truck down, something that's especially important given the demise of the national EV tax credit. Further, Slate uses a Chinese-owned supplier, Gotion, but the company has established a battery-production plant in Illinois — to be close to Slate's own factory in Indiana. The LFP batteries are safer, too, being less likely to undergo the kind of thermal runaway that leads to hard-to-put-out EV fires. Their impressive thermal stability naturally helps them stand up better to extreme heat in daily driving conditions as another advantage. It's a similar story in terms of standing up to regular driving, as LFP packs are known for their long operational lives, even in the face of thousands of charging cycles. That said, LFP batteries aren't perfect. One of their biggest drawbacks is energy density: Simply put, LFP battery packs typically weigh more and take up more space than an NMC arrangement producing the same amount of power. An unavoidable outcome is that the 65-kWh pack takes up all the space that the Slate platform allocates for the batteries, leaving no room for an optional, longer-range setup. Will the resulting 205 miles be enough range for the Slate to succeed? It's hard to tell, but our readers certainly seem to think that's less EV range than most people need.
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