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The new Slate battery-electric, low-cost pickup truck offers great promise. America is dying for an easy-to-operate, simple, and inexpensive utility vehicle. If it can come with a practical green powertrain, all the better. Our reading of the Slate information now available is that the company has only just found a factory location. That means you are not going to be driving one for quite some time. More than a year. Possibly never, since many new EV pickup startups fail. Let’s hope Slate is the exception and succeeds wildly. For now, please let us explain to you why you need not wait. A low-cost, simple to live with, fun, and practical small pickup truck is already here, and it offers a lot of features that we think pickup owner want and won’t find in a future Slate EV.
Ford Maverick Hybrid – What’s It Cost?Let’s cut right to the chase. Slate’s main feature seems to be its approximately $30K expected starting price. Ford’s Maverick XL hybrid-electric pickup truck starts at $30,535 in front wheel drive. That price includes the destination and acquisition fees. We just tested a well-equipped 2025 XLT trim with the luxury package, Ford Co-Pilot 360 safety package, and the towing package, and the cost came to $38,685. It should be noted that the expectation is that Slate will not offer any of these added features. We have previously tested the base Maverick Hybrid, so our opinions are based on both vehicles.
What Ford’s Maverick Hybrid-Electric Pickup OffersThe Maverick hybrid-electric pickup is very satisfying to drive. If you like driving EVs, you will love the Maverick. Most of the time you drive it, you are operating in EV mode. In fact, there are multiple screen views that tell you in which mode you’re operating in real time. Then, the Maverick displays your running total of EV miles covered compared to the total you’ve driven. In our testing, it is about 60% electric and 40% non-electric.
The Maverick’s hybrid-electric powertrain offers outstanding torque. It’s also very smooth, very quiet, and offers ample power for daily driving. It’s not a “sports car.” If you like that type of experience, buy the 2.0-turbocharged version. We prefer the hybrid overall.
If you plan to drive in winter conditions, the Maverick offers all-wheel drive, and it barely changes your efficiency. We observed 47 MPG in the AWD Maverick.
What we wish to convey is that much of the time you are in the Maverick, it “feels like an EV.” And that’s because most of the time it is operating in EV mode. Here’s a story you can read from an EV owner who purchased a Maverick.
Ford Maverick Hybrid Electric Vehicle – Cost Per Mile of Energy vs. Battery Electric VehiclesIn our testing, we observed a staggering 47 MPG in mixed driving. That is better than our personal Toyota hybrid crossover. The EPA combined rating for the Maverick Hybrid-electric vehicle is 38 MPG for the FWD version and 37 MPG for the AWD version. With gas in our area selling for under $3.00 per gallon, our observed cost per mile was 6.4 cents per mile. Electricity in our area costs $0.32/kWh, and since Eversource offers no discounts for off-peak charging, this cost will be lower than a battery-electric vehicle could offer. Your costs will be determined by your local energy costs.
Ford Maverick Hybrid Electric Vehicle – Features Slate Won’t MatchOur understanding is that Slate plans to offer a vehicle without any mapping program built in, and it will not include Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. By contrast, Ford has a large, easy-to-operate screen that displays Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Slate is planning to keep the new vehicle simple and inexpensive, so we expect a bare-bones audio system, if any. By contrast, Ford offers one of the best audio systems at its price point in the industry. We found the audio to be outstanding.
The Maverick also offers many practical utility features. The XLT we priced included a trailer hitch and lighting connection. It has a sprayed-in bed liner, cargo tie-down hooks, and a cargo management system with rails. The Maverick also comes with a spare tire on every trim. As we stated before, the most important feature the Maverick offers is all wheel drive, an important feature Slates has said it will not offer.
Ford Maverick Hybrid Electric Vehicle – Living Electric vs. Battery Electric VehiclesSince the Maverick is a hybrid-electric vehicle, there is no need to plug it in. It operates on liquid fuel (Gas and ethanol) and electricity generated via regenerative braking. The range of the Maverick is 511 to 524 miles, depending on trim. The Slate BEV will likely have a range of around 250 miles. The Maverick can add 500 miles of range in under two minutes. Slate’s EV will need approximately 9 hours to charge from empty to full on a Level 2 charger.
Ford Maverick Hybrid Electric Vehicle vs. Slate – ServiceFord has 2,800 dealer service locations in the U.S. Slate has zero. Slate plans to sell directly and has not detailed how it will handle warranty and maintenance needs.
Ford Maverick Hybrid Electric Vehicle – What If You Want an SUV?Slate has planned the ability to offer its vehicle as a pickup or a small SUV. The Maverick already does this. The SUV version is called the Bronco Sport.
Conclusion – Ford’s Maverick Offers An Attractive Alternative to Waiting for SlateWe wish Slate nothing but huge success, but with no factory in operation, it could be years before the vehicle is produced. With no retail or service locations, getting your Slate vehicle and then having it maintained or serviced under warranty will be a huge challenge for as long as the first decade of Slate’s operation. Ford operates one of the world’s largest and most respected service network, and most Americans have a Ford dealer very close to home, often walking distance from home, as in my own case.
If you are shopping for an entry-priced green truck, tell us in the comments below if you think the Maverick and Slate trucks are comparable.
John Goreham is a long-standing member of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.
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