Slate Auto, the electrical car startup backed by Jeff Bezos and LA Dodgers proprietor Mark Walter, will announce pricing and begin taking non-refundable preorders for its low-cost electrical car on June 24, forward of the primary deliveries late this 12 months.
The corporate despatched out emails to potential patrons on Thursday that inspired them to make a $50 reservation now forward of the $300 preorders beginning subsequent month, with a purpose to get a “supply window earlier than non-reservers.”
Slate had beforehand mentioned it will announce pricing in June. An FAQ part of the preorder web page that went reside Thursday exhibits the corporate will announce pricing on June 24. The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The four-year-old firm got here out of stealth in April 2025 after TechCrunch revealed its secretive plans to construct a low-cost, no-frills, customizable car. Slate as soon as touted that the bottom model of its EV — which may be transformed from a two-seater truck to a five-seater SUV, for a value — would begin at “underneath $20,000” with a $7,500 federal tax credit score. However that credit score was killed by the Trump administration and Congress late last year, and Slate has remained tight-lipped about pricing, solely saying the car will begin within the mid-$20,000 vary.
The thought of a easy EV with hand-crank home windows and no paint has resonated with customers. Greater than 160,000 potential clients have made refundable $50 reservations with the startup because it revealed the EV final 12 months. As different EV startups have proven over the past decade, although, it’s not straightforward to transform reservation holders to precise clients.
To assist sort out this drawback, Slate named a brand new CEO in March. The corporate is now led by former Amazon Market vp Peter Faricy. (Lots of Slate’s management positions have been stuffed with ex-Amazon executives.)
Slate has additionally lined up some critical monetary firepower to sort out the tough process of constructing and delivery an EV. In April, the corporate announced it closed a $650 million Sequence C funding spherical, which means it has raised roughly $1.4 billion to this point.
It seems that a lot of that funding has come from Walter’s monetary agency, TWG International. Whereas Bezos was concerned in Slate’s preliminary funding, his degree of involvement in successive rounds has by no means been pinned down. In Might, TechCrunch revealed that his household workplace supervisor had stepped down from her place on Slate’s board of administrators.
This story has been up to date to mirror that Slate Auto will announce pricing on June 24.
If you buy via hyperlinks in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
