This year has been full of surprises, and we aren’t even halfway through April. Yet, I bet none of you reading this had what I’m about to tell you on your bingo sheet. Jeff Bezos, the mastermind of Amazon and the guy I’m surprised doesn’t live in a volcano, is funding an electric pickup truck. But he isn’t funding just any truck, as he wants to see a two-seat pickup truck that’ll cost around just $25,000 become real. These trucks will be the product of a secret company that nobody’s even heard of until now.
We know about the existence of this company, Slate Auto, because of the tech publication TechCrunch. I’ll warn you right from the jump, Slate Auto is still a very secretive entity. It has released no sketches, no concepts, or no photos of any kind. If you go to Slate Auto’s website, you’re presented with a single black page with just a form to fill out to get more information one day.
However, because of TechCrunch, we have a good enough idea of what’s going on to start dreaming about a truly cheap way to get around. Is Bezos working on the Amazon Prime of EVs?
A Company Nobody’s Heard Of
According to the TechCrunch report, Slate was founded in 2022 and has links to Framingham, Massachusetts-based Re:Build Manufacturing, a Bezos-connected company that sees itself reinventing American industry with its manufacturing incubator business strategy. Basically, if you run a startup and need manufacturing help, that’s what Re:Build says it helps with. Slate Auto was reportedly born out of an early 2022 project within Re:Build called Re:Car.
Slate resides in David Tracy’s old stomping grounds of Troy, Michigan, and it has been operating silently since its founding. It also has a presence in Los Angeles, California, too. However, despite the silence, TechCrunch was able to find out that the firm has been gathering hundreds of staff from major names, including Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, and Stellantis.
In addition to funding from billionaire Jeff Bezos, Slate Auto has also attracted investment from Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the LA Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners. TechCrunch notes that Thomas Tull makes an appearance, a person notable for being the lead investor in Re:Build Manufacturing. Both of these guys are also board members.
Slate Auto has since gathered at least $111 million in one round of funding and more money in another round. TechCrunch was not able to ascertain how much Bezos has put in, but the report notes that Melinda Lewison, the person who manages the Bezos Expeditions family office, is noted as a director in state and federal documents.
Cheap Truck
But the real meat and potatoes here is that it appears that Slate Auto wants to upset the EV market. But instead of launching a luxury flagship like almost every other EV manufacturer since Tesla, Slate Auto wants to cater to the bottom of the market. From TechCrunch:
Slate Auto is tackling a big goal: an affordable two-seat electric pickup truck for around $25,000, according to two sources who were granted anonymity to speak about the company’s internal discussions. Leaders inside the company have mentioned the Ford Model T or Volkswagen Beetle as a North Star for the project, according to the people.
[…]
Slate plans to supplement the small margins of its low-cost truck by building out a line of accessories and apparel that owners can use to customize their vehicles and their looks, according to the sources and various job listings. It has filled its executive ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis employees – two companies that have historically leaned on these kinds of ancillary businesses (the former with apparel and the latter with MoPar parts and accessories).
As TechCrunch reports, current plans call for the truck to be built somewhere near Indianapolis, Indiana, as soon as late 2026. This truck could be pitched to be a driver’s “first car,” as TechCrunch reports. Apparently, a proof of concept vehicle for this truck does exist and it has been shown to the firm’s wealthy investors.
If it weren’t for the TechCrunch report, there would be nothing but breadcrumbs out there. Electrek published a report last week, but even they found exactly nothing.
What’s also interesting about this is something that TechCrunch might have missed. Will this vehicle have some open-source software and be easily repaired by owners? From the report:
One [job listing] posted in 2024 hinted the company will dub the customer customization process “Slate University.” The listing was originally titled “University Lead” and was renamed to “Head of Customer Education Repair & Maintenance” before the startup stopped accepting applications.
“We seek an enthusiastic, experienced Leader of Slate University to build and lead our game-changing approach to open-source content for customers to enhance their ownership experience,” the listing reads. “As the Lead, you will drive the strategy and ecosystem development for the educational content and delivery for Slate shoppers, customers, technicians, and partners.”
Still Mysterious
If you’re looking for the Amazon Prime of trucks, it’s too early to say, but that might not be the case here. Reportedly, Bezos is mostly just putting a ton of money into this project, not running it.
As of now, there isn’t much else known. It appears that Slate might be looking to outsource major components like the battery and motor, which makes sense. It also makes sense to lean on merch sales to make money. If you, like me, have been to a Harley-Davidson dealer at all in the past several years, you’ve undoubtedly seen more T-shirts, decals, and knick-knacks for sale than actual motorcycles. Some Harley-Davidson stores don’t even have any motorcycles to sell!
I’m pretty excited to learn more about this thing. If what TechCrunch found out becomes reality, we’ll see if a new automaker can come out of the gate swinging for the fences with a cheap truck, not some luxury car only the few can afford. Of course, a two-seat electric truck for just $25,000 will have some sort of compromises going on, as do all cheap vehicles. What will this thing be like? Will it be like a two-seat Ford Maverick? Will it be like a Kei truck? Or maybe will it be like the sweet Toyota Hilux Champ? We just don’t know yet, but we can dream!
Maybe Jeff Bezos of all people will help give America a mainstream, cheap EV pickup truck.
(Topshot: Toyota/Amazon/depositphotos.com)
Man, that Matador van looked more like Fernando the Lonely Bull.
As a motorcyclist @Mercedes I’m surprised by your statement mentioning Harley’s ancillary business of apparel but not mentioning their HUGE line of parts and accessories ! I’m betting their offering is at least developed as Stellantis if not more so.
that’s not a pick up, that’s a piece of shit..
This was recently spotted in California and posted to Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthiscar/comments/1jvd2ca/what_is_this_car/
Jeff could just buy a majority stake in Alpha Motors. https://www.alphamotorinc.com/wolf
I actually saw an Alpha Rex inside the mall at Tyson’s Corner just outside Washington DC a few weeks ago. It looks very much like a MB G-Wagen and was priced in the high 70’s. Looked really good.
The Amazon Prime of trucks? Does it come with built-in targeted advertising?
“I see you’re headed downtown, would you like to buy French goat cheese at Whole Foods?”
“Alexa, please disable advertising.”
“That option is unavailable at your subscription level. Would you like to upgrade?”
“Slate Auto: Built in America, Sold in India (and other developing markets).”
I can see it being a good option for a place that doesn’t have a fully developed used car market like India or the like. But for the US where you will likely see it price compete against 5-7 year old Lightnings and the like, it doesn’t make sense.
The problem with cheap ass vehicles in the US is the existence of nice used cars. In a place where there isn’t a big used car market, a cheap $25k truck would sell well. But here, where I can find a lot of $25k full sized trucks in good condition, why would I want the cheap one?
I expect by the time this comes out, you could get a decent Lightning, Silverado EV or R1T on the used market for a similar price. And sure, this little truck might haul as much or more with a bigger bed and be better for a lot of truck duties because of it, the fact is that something like 80% of truck owners only use their trucks as trucks once a month. The more features of the Rivian or Lightning or Silverado EV as cars will be a lot more interesting for most.
And EV plus cheap car is actually even worse. Back when, a Metro got four times the gas mileage as an old Caddy so a cheap new car was cheaper to operate than a cheap old car by a lot. But today, the cost of operating a Hummer and an iMEV are pretty much the same.
Well, unless you are a weirdo and post on Autopian, where there are dozens of potential buyers. (sees comments about “I NEVER buy new!”) Ok, factions of potential new buyers.
My neighbor has his 13 year old Tacoma for sale, asking $18,000.
Taco Tax. Quick search for whatever my VPN thinks it is today for trucks under $25k and I can find 3-4 year old mid-sized/compact trucks like Rangers and Mavericks and 7-10 year old full sized trucks for under $25k with good histories, good equipment and reasonable miles.
Of course, that isn’t apples to apples, since this is an EV. I had to go way out of whatever town I’m in, but I found that 2-3 year old Lightings are around $36k with around 20k miles.
In the couple years between this story and these little trucks being theoretically on the market, Lightnings will become more common on the used market and their prices will go down. I think we are talking a good 5 year old Lightning would be around the same price as one of these and the Lightning should be a dramatically better vehicle.
I can see a market for fleet managers for a small EV truck that is cheap to buy. But more and more fleets are switching to vans. I think something like an EV200 (NV200 but with a Leaf powertrain) would be more interesting to most fleet sales than a tiny pickup.
There are millions of people who will not countenance buying a used car, ever, period.
And what percentage would want a tiny stripped pickup?
The problem with cheap vehicles is that you need to sell a lot to make money. And if can’t sell a lot because enough in that market will go to used, you can’t make money.
Back 40 years ago, when you were lucky to get 5 years out of a new vehicle (rust or engine problems pick your poison), then getting a new cheap car made sense. But today with most cars going 10+ years, for the cost conscious consumer (e.g. cheapskate), a 5 year old used car is hard to say no to.
And cheap vehicles don’t have to have everyone pass on them, only enough to go into a death spiral. Because they aren’t making money, updates are delayed. And as they become out dated, they become less appealing and thus harder to sell.
This ain’t happening.
It’s going to be a self assembly kit, IKEA style, saving on manufacturing costs:)
That actually might be the only way to do it. Kit cars aren’t subject to the same regulations as normal cars. Good thinking!
I’ll park this between my Canoo and Bolinger. My Elio is out for repairs so I’m driving my Corbin.
Just sayn’
I wonder if it would have enough towing capacity to trailer the Aptera for range-contest meets?
No Lordstown Endurance? What are you, poor?
A $25K EV truck that’s open source! What a dilemma that would be, because it would mean a profit for Trump acolyte Bête Noire Bezos. On the other hand, since the price will probably be twice that and the wait a couple of years longer than claimed, I won’t start worrying about moral dilemmas just yet.
Yeah, at 25k, I’m stealing his money. No moral dilemma for me.
My only response to this is “sure”
So…$50k starting MSRP and drivable test mules in 2030 if it even comes to fruition 🙂
I wanna believe but it’s looking suspiciously similar to the other vaporwave EV startups.
The biggest hurdle I see with the price point is material sourcing. In theory, this could potentially be done, but it’s going to be “poverty-spec”, and I’m not sure how well that will sell in the US. Take tarriffs out of the equation, and you have something that would probably do well in Africa and the developing nations of the far east (including China, Vietnam, and India). Wildcard on this one, is that former Soviet-bloc nations, even including Russia, would also be good markets for something like this. However one word is going to tank this whole endeavor, tarriffs.
I would love an actual poverty spec vehicle…Me and 6 others…
If they get around to updating poverty level to $75K, the market gets a lot bigger… but still, I’d be closer to a potential customer if it had an Iron Duke or a Slant 6 in it
I prefer my trucks small and poverty spec, because small and poverty spec means I can do the things I want, mostly avoid things I don’t want to be asked about, and won’t feel bad about getting in it a sweaty, dirty mess after doing landscaping work.
Air conditioning is the single most important required luxury in a pickup. Other than that, the basics are sufficient, as long as it is reasonably comfortable. To sell well, it would need a useful cargo bed (7 foot minimum), longish range, decent acceleration and a reasonable price. Pickups don’t have to cost sixty or seventy thousand dollars or take up two parking spaces.
“Slate Auto is still a very secretive entity. ”
That’s likely because the company is built on a basis of PURE BULLSHIT.
IF they actually try to sell an American-made electric pickup truck in that config, I predict it will lose a shit-ton of money.
To make a vehicle that cheap, it will likely have to have huge sales volumes, access to cheap labour and access to cheap materials. And it will have to be in a body config that has wide appeal.
This will have none of that.. ESPECIALLY given the current tariff situation.
To me, this claim of a $25,000 American EV pickup truck is pure BULLSHIT.
I’m totally not buying the hype they are trying to generate… especially given that a Trump supporter is behind it.
“It has filled its executive ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis employees”
And THAT statement gives me EVEN LESS confidence that this will ever amount to anything. Execs from Stellantis and HD have absolutely NO experience building cheap products at a profit.
I’d have more confidence if Mitsubishi was behind a project like this.
And that’s not saying much.
or because they don’t have anything other than a “here’s what we’re hoping to do” concept car
I imagine the 25k truck would be a spec that only fleets would buy–short range, small battery, meant to drive parts between Autozones or warehouses, while a spec that a normal person would want buy, could end up costing like 40k
It’s a huge commitment to propose an affordable vehicle as first product for a company making stuff from scratch, because it’s capital intensive. Maybe they’ll use techniques like molding the color into the body panels instead of painting, because that’ll save $250 million on a paint shop
Mitsubishi is good at making cars at low cost because they’re largely using the same parts and tooling as they have for the past 15 years
“I imagine the 25k truck would be a spec that only fleets would buy–short range, small battery, meant to drive parts between Autozones or warehouses, while a spec that a normal person would want buy, could end up costing like 40k”
I’m betting not even fleet owners will want that truck. Because that short range will quickly turn into ‘unusably short range’ in cold weather or when the AC is turned on in hot weather.
And if that truck has short range unloaded, what’s gonna happen to the range when some payload is thrown into the bed?
Plus if it’s an all-new design, there will be A LOT of costs to amortize.
“Mitsubishi is good at making cars at low cost because they’re largely using the same parts and tooling as they have for the past 15 years”
And that right there is a key aspect to profitably selling a cheap car. And it’s that reason that an all-new electric pick truck will cause massive losses at $25K… and probably even at $40K.
A $40K truck might have been possible in the stable and prosperous Biden years. But now that we are in the Unstable Trump Tariff Economic Tanking years?
Not a chance.
Remember that Bezos is arguably in the fulfillment business. Amazon lets you get stuff almost as soon as you think of it. Blue Origin is a conveyor belt to the moon. Devices that move things – rockets, airplanes, trucks, drones – are all part of that vision.
So what you’re saying is, I have to deliver X number of amazon packages to get the truck at $25k?
Maybe. I’m suggesting that Amazon has the ability to create its own market for these trucks, kind of like they created a market for Rivian vans, or Uber and Lyft expanded a market for black Prii.
As car people, we may only be looking at the “solution” part of the equation without understanding what the applicable problem is.
Right. And often times the problem isn’t really a problem, rather a way one can capitalize off of people and their habits. Gathering our driving trends and routes we take COULD be valuable to AI, therefore the car could be subsidized in price because they need said data.
I wonder if these trucks have toilets built into the seats so you can pee while delivering packages.
If Bezos’ Maui compound has a basement I think that could technically count as ‘in a volcano’.
I’d have a Maverick if I could have had one at the initially-offered price. I might, maybe think about one of these provided one of the accessories is a range extender. Not a lot of faith these will actually happen though.
Why is this even a thing now? On one hand here’s another billionaire-funded EV project that will take YEARS to amount to anything, will inevitably cost more than promised and so forth. Meanwhile there’s probably 100 different EV truck brands in China with new models introduced every week. At this point this is ridiculous.
$25,000 is at least 2.5x the most I’ve ever spent on a car. My current car was $2700. I *could* afford it, but I guess I’m just a stingy bastard.
I did that for a long time too. For a decade I just cycled through $2k cars, drove them for a year or more, then usually sold them for around $12-1500 and moved on to the next. I did eventually spend $30k on a car, regretted it, and went back to cheaper cars. That’s the way to do it.
I sorely miss the late’70s-early ’80s when you could buy a beater for under $500. If you spent half your purchase price on its “needs”, it’d last you at least 3 years. Liked the Beetles AND the domestic land yachts too!
Yeah. I missed that era, but I got several cars for around $1k, and then yeah had to put another grand into them to get them road worthy again. It was a good time. It’s been a while since I’ve done that though. Kids make it so I have less time to fix up broken cars.
You lost me at “It has filled its executive ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis employees”… off of two respective sinking ships and onto another?
Given that talent pool, can you imagine the decal packages that this truck will come with? Forget about rich Corinthian leather. It will have the finest freedom vinyl you can find.
Lash enough turds together and you can make a raft?
They probably teach that technique in MBA school.
Quite a lot of, light duty truck tasks, are handled with a trailer attached to a hatchback outside of the US. That hatchback could be electric.
Or a van.
A van is again a special purpose vehicle, unless you use it as your main form of transportation.
A regular golf, 1.5 can tow 1500 kg. (3306 pounds)
I do know a few people who have a van as their daily driver, and most of them drive a VW Caddy, which IIRC is mostly a Golf 😉
How dare you not say people should buy $80k trucks that can tow 10,000 pounds to haul 20 bags of mulch!
surprised that ‘bags of mulch’ isn’t a new metric for the suburban dweller like ‘numbers of cup holders’ were in the olden days.