Jeff Bezos finances a Michigan -based Michigan -based start -up EV, which is called Slate Auto that could start production just next year, according to many sources and documents connecting the billionaire family office with the start.
The Slate, which was rooted in another company associated with Bezos called RE: Build Manufacturing, has been operating quietly since its founding in 2022.
It also attracted the support of many other wealthy people, including Mark Walter, owner of La Dodgers and Managing Director Guggenheim Partners and Thomas Tull, who is a Re: Build Manufacturing investor, according to documents Techcrunch acquired by Delaware.
Slate Auto faces a big goal: a two -seat accessible electric truck for about $ 25,000, according to two sources that had been anonymous to talk about the company’s internal discussions. Leaders inside the company mentioned Ford Model T or Volkswagen Beetle as a North Star for the project, according to the people.
It has gathered a fairly large war chest in service of this goal.
The company quietly increased at least $ 111 million in a row of a round in 2023, according to a public deposit. Bezos also participated in Melinda Lewison, the man who manages his family office, is listed as director of the Paperwork Slate has deposited with states and federal government. The deposit shows 16 people invested in this round. It is not clear how many bezos he put on the company.
Slate has told employees that she closed a B in the end of last year, according to many sources familiar with her funding. He has not yet submitted papers for the round with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Delaware Paperwork shows that it has authorized about 500 million preferred shares for the B Series at $ 2.37 per share. (Slate also authorized more than 400 million shares shares in the past year, although deposits do not report price.)
Delaware Paperwork also lists Walter and Tull as new members of the Board of Directors, suggesting that the two were invested in the Slate series round. The two recently formed A $ 40 billion portfolio company to make investment. Walter and Tull could not be approached for comments.
Slate hopes to take its vehicle in production just by the end of 2026 in a production unit somewhere near Indianapolis of Indiana, according to slavery registrationState pressure files and An interview of 2024 with Executive President Rodney Copes. It is not immediately clear if Slate bought an existing factory or is planning to build one from zero.
The illegal project is shaped at a difficult time for electric vehicles.
Once explosive development of the sector has cooledAnd multiple newly established businesses dedicated to the construction of EVs have deposited bankruptcy. Those who have survived, such as Rivian and Lucid Motors, burned it in billions of dollars.
Slate plans to complete the small margins of the low -cost truck, creating a series of accessories and clothing that owners can use to adjust their vehicles and looks, according to sources and various job lists. He has filled his executive ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis-two companies that have historically bowed to such auxiliary companies (the first with clothing and the latter with mopar parts and accessories).
Slate is headquartered in Troy of Michigan and the start has also shown a proof of the ideas of ideas to investors in a non -described design studio leasing in Long Beach, California, according to sources. It has targeted high -value people and has maintained a tight lid in the process of raising capital.
The company and many people associated with Slate, Re: Build Manufacturing and Bezos family office did not respond to repeated comments in this story. TechCrunch also arrived at Bezos immediately and received no answer.
Amazon deep bonds
Slate passes with Amazon DNA.
Along with the Bezos family office, the SLATE A series is included by the former Amazon Diego Piacentini executive, according to The website of his company.
Slate was originally created as a project called RE: CAR at the beginning of 2022 at RE: Build Manufacturing, a domestic nursery of construction co -founded by former Amazon Consumer Jeff Wilke CEO and MIT leaders for global businesses Miles Arnone classmate. Several long -term Amazon executives, including Wei Gao, who was Bezos’s leading vice president and technical adviser, is now in Re: Build Manufacturing.
Digital, electronic goods and automakers are Amazon Expats. Even the original name of Slate includes “Re:” Prefix Amazon uses for events such as RE: Mars Robotics and Ai Conference, or the annual re: Invent for AWS.
Bezos has invested in more than 30 companies through his family office over the years, touching the worlds of AI (embarrassment), robotics (shape), defense (Anduril) and even mobility (Uber). Slate is one of the most direct investments it has made in the world of electric vehicles outside Amazon’s company with Rivian.
His investment was largely that, though. People who are familiar with the internal operation of the company told TechCrunch that he has not seen around Michigan or Los Angeles offices.
Hitting the trend
Almost all the newly established businesses that are coming (and gone) in the last decade have somehow tried to reproduce the approach Tesla has taken. They have designed their first vehicles to be high -tech offers so they can sell fewer cars for more money. Finally, after increasing the brand’s recognition, these companies move to higher volumes, cheaper EVs that produce smaller margins.
Slate reverses this, going after what it hopes will be the buyer’s “first car”, according to people who spoke with TechCrunch.
The idea is to sell the truck at a price point of about $ 25,000 and the owners are personalizing or upgrading the car over time as they can afford it.
At the end of March, Slate was filed for a trademark In the phrase: “We built it. There is a long list of goods and services that could cover, including all, from switches and speakers to USB ports and pet straps.
Other details can be collected from the many job lists it has published in the last two years.
A posted In 2024 it hints that the company will abolish the customer adjustment process “Slate University”. The registration initially entitled “University Lead” and was renamed “Customer Repair & Maintenance Repair” before the start was stopped to accept applications.
“We are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced leader at Slate University to build and lead the approach that changes the game to open source content for customers to improve their property experience,” the registration said. “As lead, you will lead the strategy and development of the ecosystem for educational content and delivery for buyers, customers, technicians and partners.”
Another job registration For the “product manager, the accessories” explains that the Slate “explores opportunities in the field of electric mobility and creates free accessories, costumes and freedom”. He also states that the person will oversee the development of “utilities” and “lifestyle and personalization”.
This approach-by offering a low margin production operation with a higher marginal margin accessories-is the one used by automakers, including the Harley-Davidson with the clothing department and the manufacturer Jeep Stellantis with the MOPAR departments and service department.
It is not surprising that Slate is already pulling experience from both companies as it creates its team.
The executive president of the start is Rodney Copes, who spent 20 years in Harley-Davidson. Chief Financial Officer Ryan Green spent almost a decade on the side of his motorcycle manufacturer. (Copes and Green also had situations in Rivian.) Slate’s heads, commercial, product management accessories and growth marketing also worked on Harley-Davidson.
Slate apparently plans to supply the high voltage battery package, electric motors and other related technologies from external suppliers, according to a job list. The start is “causing the status quo of vehicles design”, according to another list for a design/release engineer for wipers. A post for an accountant says that the person hired should help implement the “required systems to be a public company”.
According to another role, every future head of PR and communications: “You have to love cars!
No founder found
Another way that the plate seems to hit the tendency of other newly formed EVs is that it has no founder serving as CEO.
Arnone is considered a founder of Slate, according to sources who spoke with TechCrunch, but his daily work serves as Re: Build Manufacturing.
Instead, Slate’s chief executive is Christine Barman, a long -term Chrysler veteran. Initially it entered the automotive industry through internships at General Motors after attending Purdue University, according to 2023 interview.
He then spent more than 20 years in Chrysler overseeing the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Jeep Cherokee, according to Linkedin’s profile. Barman eventually became Vice President of Electrical and Electronics for Fiat Chrysler, where he led to integrate the automotive industry from the automotive industry and spent the time he worked for the company’s collaboration with Waymo before leaving the company in 2017.
Barman has not spent the last decade publishing online such as many of Ev Startup’s colleagues. Instead, it mainly advises companies on emerging technology and teaching of engineering before it is involved in 2022 with what was then a budding EV project within construction.
Barman did not respond to a request for comments.
Kirsten Korosec contributed to this report.
