Jeff Bezos is funding a secretive EV startup based mostly in Michigan referred to 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 referred to as Re:Construct Manufacturing, has been working quietly since its founding in 2022. The corporate has employed lots of of staff whereas in stealth — a lot of whom come from Ford, Common 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 Firms.
Slate Auto is tackling a giant aim: an inexpensive two-seat electrical pickup truck for round $25,000, in line with two sources who had been granted anonymity to discuss the corporate’s inside discussions. Leaders inside the corporate have talked about the Ford Mannequin T or Volkswagen Beetle as a North Star for the mission, in line with the folks.
It has amassed a large conflict chest in service of that aim.
The corporate quietly raised no less than $111 million in a Collection A spherical in 2023, in line with a public submitting. Bezos was concerned, and Melinda Lewison, the one that manages his household workplace, is listed as a director on paperwork Slate has filed with states and the federal authorities. The submitting reveals 16 folks invested in that spherical; It’s unclear how a lot Bezos put into the corporate.
Slate has advised staff that it closed a Collection B late final yr, in line with a number of sources aware of its funding. It has not but filed any paperwork for the spherical with the Securities and Alternate Fee. The Delaware paperwork reveals it licensed almost 500 million most well-liked shares for the Collection B priced at $2.37 per share. (Slate additionally licensed greater than 400 million shares of widespread inventory previously yr, although the filings didn’t state a worth.)
The Delaware paperwork additionally lists Walter and Tull as new board members, suggesting the 2 invested in Slate’s Collection B spherical. The 2 just lately fashioned a $40 billion holding firm to make investments. Walter and Tull couldn’t be reached for remark.
Slate hopes to get its car 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 govt chairman Rodney Copes. It’s not instantly clear if Slate bought an current manufacturing facility or plans to construct one from scratch.
The clandestine mission is taking form at a difficult time for electrical autos.
As soon as-explosive development of the sector has cooled off, and a number of startups devoted to constructing EVs have filed for chapter. Those who have survived, like Rivian and Lucid Motors, have finished so by burning by 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 homeowners can use to customise their autos and their seems to be, in line with the sources and numerous job listings. It has stuffed its govt ranks with former Harley-Davidson and Stellantis staff – two firms which have traditionally leaned on these sorts of ancillary companies (the previous with attire and the latter with MoPar components and equipment).
Slate is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, and the startup has additionally proven off a proof of idea car to traders at a non-descript design studio it’s leasing in Lengthy Seaside, California, in line with the sources. It has focused excessive net-worth people and stored a good lid on its fundraising course of.
The corporate and a number of folks linked 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 immediately and didn’t obtain a response.
Deep Amazon ties
Slate is shot by with Amazon DNA.
Alongside Bezos’ household workplace, Slate’s Collection A included funding from former Amazon govt Diego Piacentini, in line with his agency’s web site.
Slate was initially created as a mission referred to as Re:Automobile in early 2022 inside Re:Construct Manufacturing, a home manufacturing incubator of types co-founded by former Amazon Shopper CEO Jeff Wilke and his MIT Leaders for International 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, at the moment are 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 firms by his household workplace through the years, touching the worlds of AI (Perplexity), robotics (Determine), protection (Anduril) and even mobility (Uber). Slate is likely one of the most direct investments he’s made on this planet of electrical autos outdoors of the connection his firm Amazon has with Rivian.
His funding has largely been simply that, although. Individuals aware of the corporate’s inside workings advised TechCrunch that he has not been seen round Slate’s Michigan or Los Angeles workplaces.
Bucking the development
Practically all the EV startups which have come (and gone) over the past decade have tried ultimately to duplicate the strategy Tesla took. They’ve designed their first autos to be high-end choices to allow them to promote fewer automobiles for more cash. Ultimately, after rising model consciousness, these firms transfer into increased quantity, cheaper EVs that generate smaller margins.
Slate is inverting this by going after what it hopes can be a purchaser’s “first automotive,” in line with the individuals who spoke with TechCrunch.
The concept is to promote the truck at a worth level of round $25,000, and have homeowners personalize or improve the automotive 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 record of products and providers 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 numerous job listings Slate has posted over the past two years.
One posted in 2024 hinted the corporate will dub the shopper 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 functions.
“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 reinforce their possession expertise,” the itemizing reads. “Because the Lead, you’ll drive the technique and ecosystem growth for the tutorial content material and supply for Slate consumers, 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 components” 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 components and repair division.
Unsurprisingly, Slate is already pulling expertise from each of these firms because it builds out its workforce.
The startup’s govt chairman is Rodney Copes, who spent 20 years at Harley-Davidson. Chief monetary officer Ryan Inexperienced spent almost a decade on the finance aspect of the motorbike producer. (Copes and Inexperienced additionally had stints at Rivian.) Slate’s heads of service, industrial, equipment product administration, and development advertising additionally labored at Harley-Davidson.
Slate apparently plans to supply its excessive voltage battery pack, electrical motors, and different associated tech from outdoors 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 programs to be a public firm.”
In accordance with one other function, any potential head of PR and communications: “Should love automobiles! You’ll be interested by automobiles all day every single day, and it’s probably the most enjoyable if you love automobiles.”
No founder to be discovered
One other method 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 very long time Chrysler veteran. She initially acquired into the automotive trade by an internship at Common Motors after attending Purdue College, in line with a 2023 interview.
She then spent greater than 20 years at Chrysler overseeing the car line program for the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and Jeep Cherokee, in line with her LinkedIn profile. Barman finally grew to become 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 an alternative has largely been advising firms on rising tech and educating engineering earlier than getting concerned in 2022 with what on the time was a nascent EV mission inside Re:Construct Manufacturing.
Barman didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Kirsten Korosec contributed to this report.
