A $25,000 electric pickup just got a $650 million boost… and the EV market might feel the tremor.
Slate Auto, an electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has secured $650 million in fresh funding as it accelerates plans to launch a lower-cost, mid-sized pickup truck in the US later this year. Multiple reports indicate that the latest round brings the company’s total funding to roughly $1.4 billion, with additional backing from LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter.
Unlike other EV startups, Slate’s electric pickup truck would start at around $25,000. The truck would be customizable and would benefit from the experience of many former employees of Harley-Davidson and Chrysler, both of which sell accessories and aftermarket parts.
Amenities that are standard in most vehicles, such as power windows and an infotainment system, are not included in the base configuration. It will be assembled from only 600 parts, which is a tenth of the number of parts in a normal pickup truck.
Depending on the battery chosen, the truck can travel either 150 or 240 miles before needing to recharge, Bloomberg reported. It uses the NACS port, so owners can use Tesla’s Supercharger network.
How it all began
The company originated in 2022 and emerged as an independent entity from Re:Build Manufacturing a year later, with Jeff Wilke, who once ran Amazon’s retail division, among its co-founders.
Based on a timeline from the site on the EV’s journey, Slate came out of stealth in April 2025, surprising the car industry. It touted an electric pickup truck that it aims to deliver by the end of 2026.
Last April, Slate began putting concept versions of the Slate EV on public streets. Instead of just pickup trucks, some of the models they displayed looked more like SUVs or hatchbacks.
However, TechCrunch confirmed that Slate had developed the EV to have “Transformer-like” modular capabilities. Later that month, Slate debuted its customizable electric pickup truck and announced it would be available for under $20,000, including a $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
That tax credit was subsequently pulled after the passage of the Trump Administration’s massive tax cut bill.
By December, Slate had received 160,000 refundable reservations for its truck and SUV, despite EV growth cooling off in the US and the loss of the federal tax credit — an indication of significant interest in the vehicle. It seems the startup will have very little competition at the low end of the market, given that fewer EVs are set to come to the US.
New factory, new jobs
Now, the company has booked over 160,000 trucks to be produced at a factory in Warsaw, Indiana.
Slate anticipates investing nearly $400 million in the factory, according to Reuters. The factory is expected to create over 2,000 jobs in Kosciusko County and could add up to $39 billion to Indiana’s economy over the next 20 years.
In March, Slate replaced former CEO Chris Barman with Peter Faricy, former Amazon Marketplace Vice President. Faricy’s mission will be to convert as many reservations as possible into orders and to ready the startup for its launch at the end of the year.
“Our Series C round of funding will enable Slate to reach the next stages of production this year: on time and on budget,” Faricy said in a statement.
South Korean automaker Kia recently announced plans to enter the US pickup market with a midsize electric and range-extender truck by 2030. At least one hybrid variant is expected to be produced in the US, according to a presentation from Kia’s CEO investor day.
Also read: Amazon’s reported Globalstar deal shows how aggressively the company is still expanding beyond retail and cloud.
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