Image via Slate Auto/Facebook
If you’ve gone shopping for a new pickup truck, even a midsize model, hell even the Ford Maverick, you know they’re all damn expensive these days. There’s a tremendous opportunity for someone to build one that’s actually affordable, something that’s been talked about but not pulled off. But a startup aims to stick the landing with an all-electric model and the company has the backing of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among other influential people.
Dive into Japanese car culture with a Formula One star.
That’s according to a new report from TechCrunch, which dives into the mystery that is Slate Auto. Based in Michigan, the company so far doesn’t even have a proof of concept, its operations shrouded in secrecy.
TechCrunch claims it talked with two unnamed people in the company who were authorized to divulge some information, likely to start getting people excited. According to them, the Volkswagen Beetle and Ford Model T are guides for what this affordable truck might be.
If you think the Slate truck, whatever it will be called, isn’t coming for years on end, that’s apparently not the goal. The company has been raising millions rapidly, gearing up to acquire a factory in the Indianapolis area so it can start churning out pickups from the production line as early as late next year.
For that to even be possible, Slate would need to have a concept truck already. If it does, the automaker is keeping a tight lid on the thing. TechCrunch does mention a proof of concept has been shown to investors, but that could be a non-functioning or “roller” vehicle.
Reportedly, Slate has lured employees from the Big Three automakers as well as Harley-Davidson. That might color your opinion of the direction the company is going in, but honestly many salaried automotive professionals float from automaker to automaker – they’re in fact hired guns.
Slate might have considerable financial backing, depending on how deep its impressive list of backers are willing to dig. Among them are, allegedly, Thomas Tull, who has become the top investor of Jeff Bezo’s Re:Build Manufacturing and Mark Walter, controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners.
Even though there’s been pushback against electric vehicles, if Slate Auto can in fact deliver a $25,000 pickup truck, even if it’s a bare bones offering, we think it could be a huge hit. Despite what automakers tend to believe, a lot of people are tired of ever more complex, ever more expensive vehicles it takes them seven-plus years to finance.
We’ll see if the Slate pickup makes it to market and in what form as well as at what price point.
Image via Slate Auto/Facebook
