Slate auto raises $650M to advance affordable EV pickup plans

The electric vehicle startup by the name Slate Auto, which is backed by none other than Jeff Bezos, has been able to raise another round of $650 million as the company plans to put its first affordable pickup trucks into production by the end of 2026. The carmaker detailed that the Series C funding round was led by TWG Global, a firm run by Guggenheim Partners Chief Executive Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull. Slate Auto’s press release thanked “visionary investors.”

Slate’s all-new Series C comes at a turbulent moment for the electric vehicle market in the United States. Major manufacturers are abandoning their EV ambitions, especially after the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit last year. Market leaders such as Tesla have witnessed declining sales for the last two years in a row. But Slate Auto is not a conventional EV automaker.

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Launched in 2022, Slate Auto has been taking a different approach from other automakers. The company has been targeting the extreme low end of the market with a bare-bones electric truck that is expected to start in the mid-$20,000 range. Customers will be able to customize the truck as per their needs for additional cost, including the option to add an SUV conversion kit for around $5,000.

Slate had earlier touted that it wanted to price the truck around $27,000, but shortly after it emerged from stealth in 2025, it was promoting a starting price of $20,000 with federal tax credits. Slate will reveal the final pricing of the product in June.

While the loss of the federal tax credit has slowed down EV sales across the US, Slate Auto has been able to draw a fair amount of interest. The company has been able to rack up close to 160,000 refundable reservations for its EV. Slate is also spending a few hundred million dollars renovating a former printing factory in Indiana, where it plans to produce these EVs.