“Non-gearheads” now have the possibility to design their very own automobiles.
Final month, a picture appeared on Reddit of an unidentifiable small truck in a car parking zone in Los Angeles. The sighting was first famous by Carscoops simply after TechCrunch reported that Jeff Bezos was making an “inexpensive” automobile by means of a “secretive EV startup” known as Slate Auto.
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Web sleuths shortly put collectively (and TechCrunch confirmed) that the truck within the Reddit picture was the precise Slate Auto idea automotive.
Now, the corporate is prepared for reservations, and personalization is vital. Every part is customizable, from the outside look to the colour to the inside knobs.
“We predict everybody ought to be capable of personalize their automotive,” the web site says. “However autos aren’t constructed to be custom-made by non-gearheads (we love you, gearheads). So, we modified that.”
Supplied by Slate Auto
In a video asserting the brand new “radically easy, radically inexpensive Slate truck” on X, CEO Chris Barman mentioned the worth begins within the “mid 20s,” although it is going to be nearer to $20,000 (after federal EV tax credit). The only-cab electrical truck is ready to be delivered to prospects in late 2026. The corporate is predicated in Troy, Michigan.
The folks spoke. We constructed. Meet the radically easy, radically inexpensive Slate. Reserve yours at https://t.co/Y5RkOIFCRo pic.twitter.com/uvSZVpdkWv
— Slate Auto (@slateauto) April 25, 2025
“There is a large inhabitants of individuals on the market in the case of secure, dependable, inexpensive transportation; there simply actually aren’t many options for them,” CEO Chris Barman instructed Enterprise Insider forward of the official unveiling.
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A technique the corporate is preserving it inexpensive is thru its customization choices. For instance, the vehicles are wrapped, not painted, and will be modified at a buyer’s whim.
“With different automobiles, you decide your colour while you purchase it, and that is it,” the web site says. “With a Slate, you may decide your colour each time—and alter it each time. It is the primary automobile of its variety designed to be simply wrapped.”
Wrap kits will begin round $500, in response to the corporate. (Although preserving it the straightforward grey—as per the Reddit reveal—will nonetheless stand out.)
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Amazon founder Bezos, Mark Walter (Los Angeles Dodgers majority proprietor and CEO of Guggenheim Companions), and investor Thomas Tull have helped the brand new automotive firm increase not less than $111 million, per TechCrunch.
NBC stories that, in response to a doc filed with the Securities and Trade Fee, Melinda Lewison, the top of Bezos’ household workplace, is the brand new Slate Auto director.
