Slate Truck vs. Slate SUV: Which Configuration Should You Order?
One of the more interesting wrinkles in Slate’s preorder data: more than half of people configuring their trucks in pre-production have been choosing an SUV body style — even though Slate’s entire marketing pitch is built around being an affordable pickup. Here’s how the configurations actually compare.
The Base Pickup (“Blank Slate”)
- Price: $24,950
- Seating: 2
- Bed: 5-foot bed, 35.1 cubic feet of cargo space
- Best for: buyers who actually need open cargo space, work use, or who plan to add their own canopy/topper accessories later
Squareback SUV Conversion
- Price: starts at $29,950
- Seating: 5 (adds a rear bench)
- Conversion: arrives as a flat-packed kit, bolts onto the pickup in roughly an hour with two people — no professional installation required
- Best for: families or anyone who wants more seating without buying a separate vehicle
Fastback SUV Conversion
- A second SUV body style, also available as a conversion kit, with a sleeker roofline than the Squareback
- Pricing sits in a similar range to the Squareback conversion, with the styling difference as the main trade-off
Why So Many Buyers Are Choosing the SUV
A few likely reasons, based on what’s been reported:
- Flexibility — buyers can order the base pickup and decide later whether to convert it, rather than committing upfront
- Family use — the rear bench seat turns a 2-seat work vehicle into something that can handle daily family duty
- Price gap is small — $5,000 (Squareback) is a relatively modest jump from $24,950, especially against competitors that start $5-10k higher with far less customization
The Practical Trade-off
Going SUV costs you bed space and adds weight, which will affect range and payload somewhat versus the bare pickup — Slate hasn’t published separate range/payload figures for the converted SUV configurations yet. We’ll update this page once that data is available.
Our Take
If you’re unsure, ordering the base pickup and adding the conversion kit later (since Slate says all upgrades can be added at any time) may be the lower-risk move — you get the cheaper entry price now and can decide on the SUV conversion once you’ve actually lived with the truck.
For full specs on both the pickup and SUV configurations, check out our complete Slate Truck specs and pricing breakdown.
Have you ordered yours yet? Let us know which configuration you picked and why in the comments.