Slate EV Truck

The Bare-Bones Electric Pickup Gets Real

Slate's compact two-door EV truck is moving toward production at a converted facility in Warsaw, Indiana. The Jeff Bezos-backed startup has installed major body-shop equipment and is testing components as it works toward building customer vehicles by the end of the year.

Simplicity Is the Product Strategy

The truck starts as a deliberately sparse, mid-$20,000s pickup that owners can adapt with accessories. Wraps replace costly paint choices, while options can turn it into an open-air vehicle or add practical pieces such as a spare tire and a bring-your-own-speaker mount.

New Funding Buys Manufacturing Time

Slate has raised $650 million, capital that matters as it changes from a promising prototype company into an automaker. The next test is whether its modular idea can survive factory scale while keeping the approachable price that made the truck interesting in the first place.