“Non-gearheads” now have the possibility to design their very own automobiles.
Final month, a picture appeared on Reddit of an unidentifiable small truck in a car parking zone in Los Angeles. The sighting was first famous by Carscoops simply after TechCrunch reported that Jeff Bezos was making an “inexpensive” car by means of a “secretive EV startup” known as Slate Auto.
Associated: I Tried Shopping for a Automobile on Amazon. Right here Are the Execs and Cons.
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 little thing is customizable, from the outside look to the colour to the inside knobs.
“We expect everybody ought to be capable of personalize their automobile,” the web site says. “However automobiles aren’t constructed to be custom-made 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 inexpensive Slate truck” on X, CEO Chris Barman stated the value begins within the “mid 20s,” although it is going to be nearer to $20,000 (after federal EV tax credit). The only-cab electrical truck is ready to be delivered to prospects in late 2026. The corporate is predicated in Troy, Michigan.
The folks spoke. We constructed. Meet the radically easy, radically inexpensive Slate. Reserve yours at https://t.co/Y5RkOIFCRo pic.twitter.com/uvSZVpdkWv
— Slate Auto (@slateauto) April 25, 2025
“There is a huge inhabitants of individuals on the market on the subject of protected, dependable, inexpensive transportation; there simply actually aren’t many options for them,” CEO Chris Barman advised Enterprise Insider forward of the official unveiling.
Associated: The ‘Secretive’ Electrical Car Reasonably priced Truck Was Simply Noticed in Los Angeles
A method the corporate is conserving it inexpensive is thru its customization choices. For instance, the vans are wrapped, not painted, and could be modified at a buyer’s whim.
“With different automobiles, you decide your colour once you purchase it, and that is it,” the web site says. “With a Slate, you possibly can decide your colour every time—and alter it every time. It is the primary car of its variety designed to be simply wrapped.”
Wrap kits will begin round $500, in response to the corporate. (Although conserving it the straightforward grey—as per the Reddit reveal—will nonetheless stand out.)
What is that this automobile?
byu/discostranger09 inwhatisthiscar
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 at the very least $111 million, per TechCrunch.
NBC experiences that, in response to a doc filed with the Securities and Alternate Fee, Melinda Lewison, the pinnacle of Bezos’ household workplace, is the brand new Slate Auto director.
