Jeff Bezos is funding a secretive EV startup based mostly in Michigan known as Slate Auto that might begin manufacturing as quickly as subsequent yr, in line with a number of sources and paperwork that hyperlink the billionaire’s household workplace to the startup.
Slate, which took root in one other Bezos-connected firm known as Re:Construct Manufacturing, has been working quietly since its founding in 2022. The corporate has employed a whole lot of staff whereas in stealth — a lot of whom come from Ford, Normal Motors, Stellantis, and Harley-Davidson.
It additionally attracted the backing of a number of different rich people, together with Mark Walter, the controlling proprietor of the LA Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Companions, and Thomas Tull, who’s a lead investor of Re:Construct Manufacturing, in line with paperwork TechCrunch obtained from Delaware’s Division of Companies.
Slate Auto is tackling a giant objective: an inexpensive two-seat electrical pickup truck for round $25,000, in line with two sources who have been granted anonymity to talk about the corporate’s inner discussions. Leaders inside the corporate have talked about the Ford Mannequin T or Volkswagen Beetle as a North Star for the challenge, in line with the individuals.
It has amassed a large conflict chest in service of that objective.
The corporate quietly raised at the least $111 million in a Collection A spherical in 2023, in line with a public submitting. Bezos was concerned, and Melinda Lewison, the one who manages his household workplace, is listed as a director on paperwork Slate has filed with states and the federal authorities. The submitting reveals 16 individuals invested in that spherical; it’s unclear how a lot Bezos put into the corporate.
Slate has informed staff that it closed a Collection B late final yr, in line with a number of sources accustomed to its funding. It has not but filed any paperwork for the spherical with the Securities and Change Fee. The Delaware paperwork reveals it licensed almost 500 million most popular shares for the Collection B priced at $2.37 per share. (Slate additionally licensed greater than 400 million shares of frequent inventory previously yr, although the filings didn’t state a value.)
The Delaware paperwork additionally lists Walter and Tull as new board members, suggesting the 2 invested in Slate’s Collection B spherical. The 2 not too long ago shaped a $40 billion holding firm to make investments. Walter and Tull couldn’t be reached for remark.
Slate hopes to get its automobile into manufacturing as quickly as late 2026 at a producing facility someplace close to Indianapolis, Indiana, in line with job listings, state lobbying information, and a 2024 interview with government chairman Rodney Copes. It’s not instantly clear if Slate bought an current manufacturing facility or plans to construct one from scratch.
The clandestine challenge is taking form at a difficult time for electrical automobiles.
As soon as-explosive development of the sector has cooled off, and a number of startups devoted to constructing EVs have filed for chapter. People who have survived, like Rivian and Lucid Motors, have achieved so by burning via billions of {dollars}.
Slate plans to complement the small margins of its low-cost truck by constructing out a line of equipment and attire that house owners can use to customise their automobiles and their appears, in line with the sources and varied job listings. It has stuffed its government ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis staff — two corporations which have traditionally leaned on these sorts of ancillary companies (the previous with attire and the latter with MoPar elements and equipment).
Slate is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, and the startup has additionally proven off a proof of idea automobile to traders at a non-descript design studio it’s leasing in Lengthy Seashore, California, in line with the sources. It has focused high-net-worth people and stored a good lid on its fundraising course of.
The corporate and a number of individuals related to Slate, Re:Construct Manufacturing, and Bezos’ household workplace didn’t reply to repeated requests for touch upon this story. TechCrunch additionally reached out to Bezos straight and didn’t obtain a response.
Deep Amazon ties
Slate is shot via with Amazon DNA.
Alongside Bezos’ household workplace, Slate’s Collection A included funding from former Amazon government Diego Piacentini, in line with his agency’s web site.
Slate was initially created as a challenge known as Re:Automotive in early 2022 inside Re:Construct Manufacturing, a home manufacturing incubator of kinds co-founded by former Amazon Shopper CEO Jeff Wilke and his MIT Leaders for World Operations classmate Miles Arnone. A number of long-time Amazon executives, together with Wei Gao, who was a prime VP and technical adviser to Bezos, are actually at Re:Construct Manufacturing.
Slate’s digital, e-commerce, and automotive expertise leads are Amazon expats. Even Slate’s unique title contains the “re:” prefix Amazon makes use of for occasions, just like the re:MARS robotics and AI convention, or the annual re:Invent gathering for AWS.
Bezos has invested in additional than 30 corporations via his household workplace over time, touching the worlds of AI (Perplexity), robotics (Determine), protection (Anduril), and even mobility (Uber). Slate is among the most direct investments he’s made on the planet of electrical automobiles exterior of the connection his firm Amazon has with Rivian.
His funding has largely been simply that, although. Individuals accustomed to the corporate’s inside workings informed TechCrunch that he has not been seen round Slate’s Michigan or Los Angeles workplaces.
Bucking the development
Almost all the EV startups which have come (and gone) during the last decade have tried not directly to duplicate the strategy Tesla took. They’ve designed their first automobiles to be high-end choices to allow them to promote fewer automobiles for extra money. Ultimately, after rising model consciousness, these corporations transfer into higher-volume, cheaper EVs that generate smaller margins.
Slate is inverting this by going after what it hopes can be a purchaser’s “first automobile,” in line with the individuals who spoke with TechCrunch.
The concept is to promote the truck at a value level of round $25,000, and have house owners personalize or improve the automobile over time as they’ll afford it.
In late March, Slate filed for a trademark on the phrase: “WE BUILT IT. YOU MAKE IT.” There’s a lengthy listing of products and companies it might cowl, together with all the pieces from switches and audio system to USB ports and pet harnesses.
Different particulars may be gleaned from the various job listings Slate has posted during the last two years.
One posted in 2024 hinted the corporate will dub the client customization course of “Slate College.” The itemizing was initially titled “College Lead” and was renamed to “Head of Buyer Training Restore & Upkeep” earlier than the startup stopped accepting purposes.
“We search an enthusiastic, skilled Chief of Slate College to construct and lead our game-changing strategy to open-source content material for patrons to boost their possession expertise,” the itemizing reads. “Because the Lead, you’ll drive the technique and ecosystem improvement for the academic content material and supply for Slate customers, clients, technicians, and companions.”
One other job itemizing for “Lead Product Supervisor, Equipment” explains that Slate is “exploring alternatives within the electrical mobility house and are constructing complimentary equipment, attire, and merchandise functionality.” It additionally mentions the individual can be overseeing the event of “utility elements” and “way of life and personalization equipment.”
This strategy — subsidizing a low-margin manufacturing enterprise with a higher-margin equipment play — is one which has been utilized by automakers, together with Harley-Davidson with its attire division and Jeep-maker Stellantis with its Mopar elements and repair division.
Unsurprisingly, Slate is already pulling expertise from each of these corporations because it builds out its staff.
The startup’s government chairman is Rodney Copes, who spent 20 years at Harley-Davidson. Chief Monetary Officer Ryan Inexperienced spent almost a decade on the finance facet of the motorbike producer. (Copes and Inexperienced additionally had stints at Rivian.) Slate’s heads of service, business, equipment product administration, and development advertising and marketing additionally labored at Harley-Davidson.
Slate apparently plans to supply its high-voltage battery pack, electrical motors, and different associated tech from exterior suppliers, in line with one job itemizing. The startup is “difficult the established order of car design,” in line with one other itemizing for a design/launch engineer for windshield wipers. A posting for an accountant function says the individual employed must assist implement the “required methods to be a public firm.”
Based on one other function, any potential head of PR and communications: “Should love automobiles! You’ll be serious about automobiles all day on daily basis, and it’s probably the most enjoyable whenever you love automobiles.”
No founder to be discovered
One other approach Slate seems to be bucking the development of different EV startups is that it doesn’t have a founder serving as CEO.
Arnone is taken into account to be Slate’s founder, in line with the sources who spoke to TechCrunch, however his day-to-day job is serving as CEO of Re:Construct Manufacturing.
As an alternative, Slate’s CEO is Christine Barman, a longtime Chrysler veteran. She initially acquired into the automotive business via an internship at Normal Motors after attending Purdue College, in line with a 2023 interview.
She then spent greater than 20 years at Chrysler overseeing the automobile line program for the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and Jeep Cherokee, in line with her LinkedIn profile. Barman finally turned the vp {of electrical} and electronics for Fiat Chrysler, the place she led the automaker’s integration of Android Automotive and hung out engaged on the corporate’s collaboration with Waymo, earlier than leaving the corporate in 2017.
Barman has not spent the final decade posting on-line like a lot of her EV startup CEO friends. She as a substitute has largely been advising corporations on rising tech and instructing engineering earlier than getting concerned in 2022 with what on the time was a nascent EV challenge inside Re:Construct Manufacturing.
Barman didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Kirsten Korosec contributed to this report.
