The Tesla Cybertruck design fails have become a running joke, and that's actually the best-selling vehicle in the segment. But, seemingly out of nowhere, a new startup called Slate Auto has burst on to the scene with something totally different.

With funding from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Slate Auto is proposing a basic, highly configurable pick-up truck that bucks the trend of a gargantuan footprint and masses of wasted space, for a compact and highly configurable shell that is built for hard work.

New U.S. automaker Slate has introduced a customizable electric truck that could cost as little as $20,000 after applying the federal electric vehicle tax credit. The stripped-down two-seater has manual roll-down windows,