“Non-gearheads” now have the prospect to design their very own vehicles.
Final month, a picture appeared on Reddit of an unidentifiable small truck in a parking zone in Los Angeles. The sighting was first famous by Carscoops simply after TechCrunch reported that Jeff Bezos was making an “reasonably priced” automobile via a “secretive EV startup” referred to 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 automobile.
Now, the corporate is prepared for reservations, and personalization is essential. Every part is customizable, from the outside look to the colour to the inside knobs.
“We expect everybody ought to be capable to personalize their automobile,” the web site says. “However automobiles aren’t constructed to be personalized by non-gearheads (we love you, gearheads). So, we modified that.”
Offered by Slate Auto
In a video saying the brand new “radically easy, radically reasonably priced Slate truck” on X, CEO Chris Barman stated the value begins within the “mid 20s,” although it will likely be nearer to $20,000 (after federal EV tax credit). The one-cab electrical truck is ready to be delivered to clients in late 2026. The corporate is based mostly in Troy, Michigan.
The individuals spoke. We constructed. Meet the radically easy, radically reasonably priced 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 protected, dependable, reasonably priced transportation; there simply actually aren’t many options for them,” CEO Chris Barman advised Enterprise Insider forward of the official unveiling.
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A method the corporate is preserving it reasonably priced is thru its customization choices. For instance, the vans are wrapped, not painted, and may be modified at a buyer’s whim.
“With different vehicles, you choose your colour whenever you purchase it, and that is it,” the web site says. “With a Slate, you’ll be able to choose your colour each time—and alter it each time. It is the primary automobile of its form designed to be simply wrapped.”
Wrap kits will begin round $500, based on the corporate. (Although preserving it the easy grey—as per the Reddit reveal—will nonetheless stand out.)
What is that this automobile?
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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 automobile firm increase not less than $111 million, per TechCrunch.
NBC studies that, based on a doc filed with the Securities and Change Fee, Melinda Lewison, the pinnacle of Bezos’ household workplace, is the brand new Slate Auto director.
