Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, finally was revealed the starting price of its electric truck: $24,950.
This does not include taxes, title, license, registration, government fees, destination charges, documentation fees and any optional equipment, according to the company. Slate began accepting pre-orders for the truck on Wednesday.
Crucially, Slate also said it increased its base model’s estimated range from 150 miles to about 205 miles — though that comes at the cost of abandoning plans for a larger 240-mile battery.
Aggressive pricing — half the cost of an average new car in the United States — puts the Slate in a position to capture a share of the lower end of the new-car market, which has few gas options and fewer electric options these days. The Chevrolet Bolt is one of the Slate’s closest EV competitors in price, starting at around $29,000, while the Nissan Leaf starts at around $32,000. Ford has teased a $30,000 electric truck due in 2027.
The price reveal comes more than a year after the Slate Auto emerged from stealth. Since then, the company has been steadily refining the ultra-basic, convertible EV, which starts out as a two-seat pickup truck but can be modified into a five-seat SUV. The SUV version will start at $29,950, Slate said Wednesday.
Slate said the conversion can be done by professionals or by the owners themselves. On Wednesday, it finally showed some of the first of its “Slate University” how-to videos, which walk people through the steps to do everything from converting an SUV to adding headlight covers.
Everything else about the truck is barebones, though it can be customized. It has crank windows, no infotainment system, and all orders start with the same gray composite, with no paint options, as Slate plans to allow buyers to order customizable wraps for the vehicle. This likely helps cut out a major cost center, as factory paint shops can run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The company did not provide further details about the purchase process. Slate said it “won’t have traditional dealerships” and plans to sell directly to customers, similar to other EV companies like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid Motors.
Earlier this month, TechCrunch first reported that Slate Auto had granted online used-car giant Carvana a warrant to buy its stock, suggesting the two may work together to sell the low-cost truck. Carvana recently revealed plans to sell new cars, upending its existing business model. (One of Slate’s principal investors, Guggenheim Partners managing director Mark Walter, is a major shareholder in Carvana.)
Slate has promised the vehicle will be priced in the $20,000 range before it comes out of stealth, as TechCrunch first reported early last year. The company’s goal is to create something like Ford’s Model T, or Volkswagen’s Beetle, and a starting price of around $25,000 has been the goal for a long time.
But the path to those goals is complicated by the second Trump administration and Republican control of Congress. The policy changes have loosened emissions standards and eliminated a $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs. As a result, many major automakers have delayed or abandoned plans for new EVs in the US
The startup has raised quite a bit of money as it chases these ambitious goals. So far, investors have poured about $1.4 billion into Slate in three major funding rounds. The firm has commented on those backers, though along with Walter’s firm TWG Global, we know the fund slate includes General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, VC firm Slauson & Co. and former Amazon executive Diego Piacentini, as TechCrunch first reported last year.
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