The Slate runs a single 65 kWh LFP battery pack rated at 205 miles, with a NACS port and DC fast charging up to 120 kW — 20 to 80% in about 30 minutes. Every truck includes a cable that covers both Level 1 and Level 2, so a 240V outlet you already own charges at 25 to 35 miles per hour for free. LFP chemistry is happy charged to 100% every day, which is the biggest habit change for owners coming from other EVs.
How do you charge a Slate truck?
Almost entirely at home, overnight, through the truck’s NACS port — with public DC fast charging up to 120 kW reserved for travel days. That’s the honest shape of EV ownership for a 205-mile truck: the charger you use 95% of the time is the one in your garage or driveway, and the fast chargers matter a few times a year.
The part that trips up people coming from other EVs isn’t the plug or the network. It’s the battery chemistry, because the Slate’s rules are different from what you’ve been told.
Why LFP changes the charging rules
The Slate uses an LFP (lithium iron phosphate) pack, and LFP is charge-to-100% friendly — the “only charge to 80%” advice you’ve heard for years does not apply here.
That advice is real, and it’s correct — for NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) packs, which is what most EVs have used. NMC cells degrade faster when they sit at high states of charge, so owners set an 80% or 90% daily ceiling and only fill to 100% before a trip. It became gospel, and now it gets repeated at every EV as if it were a law of physics.
LFP is a different chemistry with a different tolerance. It handles being at a full charge far better, which is exactly why manufacturers pair it with a “charge to 100% daily” recommendation instead of a ceiling. There’s a second reason too: LFP has a famously flat voltage curve in the middle of its range, which makes state-of-charge estimation harder. Periodically taking the pack to a full charge lets the battery management system re-reference the top of the pack, balance the cells, and keep the percentage on your dash honest. Owners who never fill an LFP pack tend to end up with a range readout that drifts.
So the practical guidance for a Slate is short: set it to 100% and stop thinking about it. Slate backs the pack with a 10-year / 110,000-mile battery warranty, which is the company putting its own money behind the chemistry’s longevity.
The trade-off LFP does have is cold weather. LFP chemistry is generally less happy at low temperatures than NMC — charging is slower when the pack is cold and range drops. The first big delivery wave lands in winter, so a lot of owners will meet this behavior on day one. We’re not going to attach numbers to it, because Slate hasn’t published cold-weather range or charging figures we can cite [VERIFY cold-weather range and charge-rate impact against slate.auto]. Precondition when you can, park inside when you can, and expect winter to cost you range.
Level 1 vs Level 2 vs DC fast charging
Three tiers: a standard household outlet, a 240V circuit, and public fast chargers — and for most Slate owners the first two are the whole story.
| Level 1 | Level 2 | DC fast | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power source | Standard 120V household outlet | 240V circuit (like a dryer) | Public commercial station |
| Where | Home, anywhere with an outlet | Home, workplace, some public | Public only |
| Typical use | Overnight daily charging | Overnight, faster top-ups | Road trips |
| Range added per hour | 2–5 miles | 25–35 miles | Up to 120 kW peak |
| Time to charge | 20–80% in about 20 hours; overnight adds 20–50 miles | Full charge in 4–8 hours | 20–80% in about 30 minutes |
| Hardware cost | $0 — cable included | $0 if you have a 240V outlet | Pay per session |
| Install | None | None, if the outlet exists | N/A |
Charging figures from slate.auto’s charging page, read August 10, 2026.
The headline nobody tells you: the cable is included and it does both. Every Slate ships with a charging cable that covers Level 1 and Level 2 — household outlet or 240V appliance outlet, no extra equipment. That is not how most EVs are sold, and it changes the money question completely. If you already have a 240V outlet where you park — a dryer circuit, a welder outlet, an RV plug — your Level 2 charging cost is zero.
Level 1 is limited by the wall, not the truck. A standard 120V outlet adds 2–5 miles per hour, so 20 to 80% takes about 20 hours. That sounds damning and mostly isn’t, for the reason in the next section: you are almost never filling from empty. Overnight adds 20–50 miles, which covers a lot of daily driving on a 205-mile truck.
What Slate still hasn’t published is the onboard AC charger rating in kW [VERIFY onboard AC charger kW]. You get the outcome (25–35 miles per hour) but not the underlying number, so you can plan a charge without being able to compare the hardware against another EV.
Can a Slate use Tesla Superchargers?
The Slate has a NACS port, which is the right connector shape — but connector and network access are two different questions, and the second one isn’t confirmed.
This is the most-asked question about the truck and it deserves a straight answer instead of a confident one. NACS (the North American Charging Standard) is the plug Tesla developed and then opened up; it’s now the connector on a growing list of non-Tesla EVs, and Slate uses it. That’s a fact.
What a NACS port does not automatically grant is access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. Access requires an agreement between the automaker and Tesla, plus the vehicle passing network validation. Some brands have it, some are waiting, some ship with adapters for CCS networks instead. We do not have confirmation either way for Slate, and we’re not going to infer it from the connector [VERIFY Supercharger network access against slate.auto].
The practical version: your port is the shape that most new North American charging infrastructure is standardizing on, which is good news for the next decade. Before you plan a specific road trip around a specific network, confirm access on slate.auto or with Slate directly.
This is an open question, not a closed one, and it’s the single most consequential unknown in this guide. We’re tracking it, and this page gets updated the moment Slate confirms network access either way — along with which adapters, if any, you’ll need for CCS stations.
Home charging: what you actually need
Level 1 from a standard outlet is genuinely enough for a lot of Slate owners, and saying otherwise costs people money they don’t need to spend.
Here’s the math nobody does before buying a wall charger: most people drive far fewer miles a day than they assume. A 205-mile truck that starts every morning full does not need to be refilled quickly — it needs to be refilled by morning. Level 1 has eight to twelve hours to work with, every single night. If your daily driving is a commute and errands, a plain 120V outlet on a dedicated circuit may cover you indefinitely.
Level 2 earns its place when you drive long daily miles, when you get home late and leave early, when you need to turn the truck around fast between trips, or when you’re in a cold climate where you want margin. Those are real situations — just make sure you’re in one before you buy.
Before you price a wall charger, check what’s already on the wall. Slate’s included cable does Level 2 from a 240V appliance outlet. If your parking spot already has one, you are done — 25 to 35 miles per hour, nothing bought. The wall charger below is for people who don’t have that outlet, or who want a permanent, tidy, always-there installation rather than a cable they plug and unplug.
If you do go Level 2 hardware, Slate lists it:
| Charging-related item | Price | Install skill |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Level 2 Wall Charger, Black | $479.00 | Professional |
| Classic Level 2 Wall Charger, White | $479.00 | Professional |
| COR Portable Battery Generator | $949.00 | — |
| SOLIS Folding Solar Tonneau | $2,299.00 | Moderate |
Prices from the Slate configurator, captured July 6 2026 and re-verified unchanged on August 10 2026. Verify current pricing before ordering.
The number that matters isn’t $479.00. Slate rates that charger a Professional install, and that rating is accurate: it needs a 240V circuit, and 240V circuit work is an electrician’s job. The installed cost depends on your panel’s spare capacity, whether it needs upgrading, and how far the cable has to run from panel to parking spot — which is why we’re not printing a dollar figure [VERIFY typical installed cost]. Get two local quotes. A short run from a modern panel and a long run from a full panel are different projects entirely.
One timing note: the wall charger is an off-vehicle accessory. It doesn’t need to ride along with your truck order, so it’s a clean candidate for the “add later” pile — see order now or add later for how we think about that decision.
Setting up your first EV and your first build at once? Price the whole list in the accessory database before you commit — and remember the wall charger’s $479.00 is hardware only, so the electrician belongs in the same budget.
Is 205 miles of range enough?
205 miles is a rating produced under test conditions, not a guarantee — and understanding what moves that number is more useful than the number itself.
Range on any EV moves with speed (highway cruising costs far more than city driving), temperature (cold weather costs range, and LFP feels it), cargo and passenger weight, tire choice, and aerodynamics. We’re not going to publish percentages for any of those, because Slate hasn’t published Slate-specific figures and generic EV numbers don’t transfer cleanly [VERIFY Slate-specific range impacts].
What we will say is that mods have a range cost, and it’s worth knowing before you order:
- Tires and wheels. Heavier wheels and more aggressive tread cost efficiency. If maximum range matters, the tire decision matters — see wheels and tires.
- A lift. Raising the truck raises its frontal area and drag. Lifts look great and cost range; that’s the trade. See suspension and lift options.
- Towing. The biggest hit of all. A trailer adds weight and a wall of drag, and EV towing range drops hard — covered in the towing guide.
- Load. Weight costs energy, and it also eats the 1,550 lb payload budget, which is its own planning exercise: see Slate payload math.
The practical approach: drive the truck for a month, log what you actually get in your conditions, and plan off that number with a buffer. Your observed range is a fact; the sticker is a benchmark.
Can you charge a Slate with solar?
Not meaningfully — vehicle-mounted solar generates a trickle, not a charge. Slate lists a SOLIS Folding Solar Tonneau at $2,299.00, and there are real reasons to want one, but replacing your wall outlet isn’t among them. We break down the honest math on solar options.
The routine that actually works
Once the truck is home, charging stops being a project and becomes a habit:
- Plug in every night, whatever the state of charge.
- Leave the limit at 100% — it’s LFP, that’s the point.
- Learn your real-world range in your climate and at your speeds.
- Use DC fast charging for trips, not for daily convenience.
- Expect less in winter, and don’t panic about it.
That’s it. The Slate’s charging story is simpler than most EVs’ precisely because the chemistry removes the daily decision — no charge ceilings, no trip-eve top-up ritual, no anxiety about leaving it full in the garage. For the full picture on the truck’s numbers, start with the Slate specs pillar.
Once power is sorted, the decisions that actually move your range are tires and ride height — both covered in wheels and tires and suspension.