A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

> It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood.

Not really the point of the article, but, does it? This[0] says the bed is 60 inches long and 43 wide, and plywood is 96x48 inches. Is it like, any vehicle fits plywood if you cut it to the size of the truck or stack it on top?

[0] https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-slate-truck-is-two-feet-sh...

That appears to be the bed width between the wheel wells. I assume it would fit width wise on top of the wheels, which is still in the bed. As to the length, not even most full size trucks are long enough to fit the whole sheet. I guess the main point is that you wouldn't have any trouble getting the sheet of plywood home.

Tailgate down, plywood lying with one edge on the bed and the other on the side?

But I agree, I would expect it to be able to fully contain a standard sheet of plywood if it made that claim.

8 foot beds do exist. They're very rare nowadays with nearly every truck being a super-extra-mega cab 4 door.

In my old Ranger there were a couple of spots in the bed where you could put a couple of 2x8 beams across it and have a place to stack 4x8 sheets. You did have to lower the tailgate, but they didn't stick out past the end of the lowered tailgate so there was no special requirements (flags etc...) for hauling them. It was very convenient. I would hope this truck has a similar feature, since it's almost free to add and increases the utility greatly.

You generally have to find someone willing to sell you a fleet vehicle if you want a full 8 foot bed. Modern trucks are more like minivans with a vestigial bed sticking out of the back.

I have on old fleet truck: four full doors and an eight-foot bed. I love it, it’s getting quite old, and I have no idea how I’m ever going to replace it

Yeah, it's interesting that their FAQ [1] just says it can fit "full size sheets of plywood" and their specs page [2] also does not list the actual dimensions, only the volume. A 60"x43" bed would technically fit a 96"x48" sheet, but you would have to lean one edge against the side of the bed.

That said, the article you linked appears to list the bed width at the wheel wells. They say the Maverick's bed is 42.6" wide but above the wheel wells it 53" wide or so. You can find plenty of pictures of people hauling plywood with one. I suspect the Slate is similar.

[1]: https://www.slate.auto/en/faq

[2]: https://www.slate.auto/en/specs

Perhaps .. but then try the same thing with drywall