Slate Auto Emerges From Stealth With Jeff Bezos Investment To Produce Ultra Low Cost Modular Electric Utility Vehicles For The Global Market
A new EV manufacturer called Slate Auto, after three years in stealth in Troy Michigan, immediately becomes a topic in an ever expanding EV market. It produces fully customizable, ultra low cost electric utility vehicles, and has attracted substantial investment from none other than Jeff Bezos himself to become an industry outlier.
The company maintained a low profile up until this past week's announcement, per a report by TechCrunch. Despite having to deal with a typical new manufacturer's challenges with production and supply chains, the new company is expected to start producing vehicles before the end of the year. Their model, extremely low cost and highly modular design, attracted considerable attention to the startup.
The cheapest variant of the electric pickup starts out at $25,000 and can travel up to 150 miles on a charge. In order to be affordable, the base model foregoes the convenience of power windows, a touchscreen in the dash and even, in the cheapest trim level, body paint. The new company relies on a team of engineers with extensive automotive design backgrounds from both Chrysler and Harley Davidson, to engineer a platform which has almost all components as a configurable option to better fit specific utility requirements of the buyer. The interest in their no nonsense approach is palpable; already, they have received over 100,000 refundable deposits, each at $50. This huge number indicates strong consumer interest for a simple, tough EV truck rather than the luxury model which other manufacturers have produced.
The company is headed by CEO Chris Barman, who outlined his business model at last year's TechCrunch Disrupt, mentioning that the investment by Jeff Bezos signals their intent to contribute to an eco friendly transportation future. The main goal of the company is
"making rugged, capable, utilitarian EVs available for fleets and for everyday individuals who are currently excluded from the EV market by price."
Assembly is scheduled to begin on the company's first vehicle, the Slate Ridge, in Q3 of this year. Although supply chain issues are always a potential problem for any new manufacturer, the robust capital and highly simplistic vehicle design put the Michigan based company in good standing for mass production.
