In April 2025, a brand new corporate known as Slate Auto got here out of stealth and surprised the auto trade. Now not best used to be this startup occupied with making an ultra-cheap, customizable electrical pickup truck with investment from Jeff Bezos, however it had additionally been running in secret for 3 years in Troy, Michigan – the yard of primary automakers like Ford and Basic Motors.
TechCrunch used to be first to the tale, reporting in early April concerning the corporate’s life, its involvement with the Amazon founder, and its curious and distinctive industry fashion. The weeks between our record and Slate’s professional popping out birthday party in overdue April equipped a whirlwind of stories, with prototypes of the startup’s truck stoning up round California.
Slate is an aberration within the U.S. EV sector, the place bankruptcies, failed product launches, and pivots have turn into not unusual. And whilst its present backers, govt lineup, first product, and industry fashion supply a compelling trail ahead, the street continues to be riddled with doable hurdles because it pushes in opposition to manufacturing in overdue 2026.
Right here’s a timeline that charts out the entirety you want to find out about Slate Auto, from its starting place tale and backers to its product, industry fashion, and manufacturing plans.
Within the EV startup secretly sponsored by way of Jeff Bezos
April 8 – After a year-long investigation, TechCrunch printed a tale revealing {that a} secretive EV startup known as Slate Auto have been running for 3 years with the monetary backing of Jeff Bezos and LA Dodgers proprietor Mark Walter.
In contrast to different EV startups, Slate have been operating on growing a particularly low cost electrical pickup truck that might get started at round $25,000. This truck could be deeply customizable, leveraging the enjoy of many former workers from Harley-Davidson and Chrysler, two firms that experience in depth equipment and aftermarket portions companies.
Slate Auto’s pickup truck noticed within the wild
April 10 – Someday later, a photograph of a nondescript electrical truck began circulating at the r/whatisthiscar subreddit, with Redditors speculating it might be Slate’s thriller EV.
TechCrunch used to be ready to substantiate the photograph used to be, in reality, of a prototype of Slate’s truck parked out of doors the corporate’s Lengthy Seashore, California design heart.
An EV that may alternate like a ‘Transformer’
April 21 – Slate started striking idea variations of the Slate EV on public streets to generate advertising buzz forward of its deliberate release match on April 24. Apparently, a few of them gave the impression to be styled extra like SUVs or hatchbacks, now not simply pickup vans.
TechCrunch used to be ready to substantiate the corporate had evolved the EV to have “Transformer-like” modular features, and that this stunt used to be a strategy to tease this customization.
The analog EV pickup truck this is decidedly anti-Tesla
April 24 – Slate made its debut at a release match in Lengthy Seashore, California, the place it printed its customizable electrical pickup truck. Slate additionally introduced the truck could be to be had for only $20,000 – with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score.
The bottom model of the truck used to be printed to be very naked bones, with simply 150 miles of vary, no energy home windows, no primary infotainment display screen, and now not even any paint. Slate promised necessarily the entirety concerning the truck could be customizable, even right down to the choice of seats and the total silhouette.
A former Indiana printing plant eyed for EV truck manufacturing
April 25 – TechCrunch reported that Slate had known a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana because the location for its truck manufacturing facility. The 1.4 million-square-foot facility used to be inbuilt 1958 and have been dormant for round two years.
Slate Auto crosses 100,000 refundable reservations in two weeks
Might 12 – Slate showed to TechCrunch it had already surpassed 100,000 refundable $50 reservations for its reasonably priced EV truck. It used to be proof that the corporate’s concepts had stuck on with a large target market, in spite of no person figuring out about Slate simply two months prior.
Slate Auto drops ‘beneath $20,000’ pricing after Trump management ends federal EV tax credit score
July 3 – The Trump management driven via an enormous tax-cut invoice that, amongst many different movements, set a September end-date for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score. That suggests Slate’s truck will not have the ability to lean on that credit score to achieve the “beneath $20,000” beginning value the startup used to be touting. As such, Slate pulled that language from its site earlier than the invoice used to be even signed into regulation.
Why this LA-based VC company used to be an early investor in Slate Auto
July 8 – Slate’s 2023 investment spherical integrated no less than 16 buyers – one in all them being Bezos. Whilst maximum of the ones buyers have nonetheless now not been known, Los Angeles-based Slauson & Co. spoke to TechCrunch about why it threw in with the EV startup in that preliminary investment spherical, in addition to Slate’s Sequence B.
