SlateSlate

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Origins

Slate Auto emerged from stealth in April 2025 with Jeff Bezos-linked backing and a heretical pitch: a deliberately basic two-seat electric pickup — crank windows, no touchscreen, unpainted composite panels — targeting the mid-$20,000s after incentives, with personality sold as accessories: wraps, kits, even an SUV conversion, installable by owners. Production was slated for 2026 in Indiana, reservations opened cheap, and the internet made it the year's most discussed launch. The bet inverts industry logic — decontenting as liberation, the customer as configurator — aiming at buyers priced out of $50,000 trucks. Whether assembly reality honours the promise, Slate has already shifted the conversation: someone finally asked what an electric vehicle costs when it stops pretending to be a phone.