A $25,000 barebones EV pickup truck will pay off

LOS ANGELES — Electric vehicle startup Slate Auto hopes to take on tough market conditions and avoid the losses experienced by its peers by selling highly customizable EVs at a profit that start at just under $25,000.

Slate CEO Peter Faricy said every vehicle produced by the Michigan-based EV startup will be Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Dodgers managing owner Mark Walter will have positive gross margins. This should lead to positive free cash flow and positive earnings before tax, depreciation, and amortization for the company by 2027, he said.

“This is an ambitious goal,” Farici told CNBC in an interview at the company’s new design studio outside Los Angeles. “No other car company has been able to do this before. So this is ambitious. It will require a lot of effort. Nothing is guaranteed in life, but if you want to achieve big things, you have to have ambitious goals. That’s the big goal we’re aiming for.”

Other recent EV startups are also struggling financially. Automakers such as Lordstown Motors and Fisker Automotive went bankrupt. Rivian Automotive and lucid motors Both companies report billions of dollars in annual losses, and both recently announced layoffs.

Farici, a former vice president of Amazon Marketplace who was appointed to head the automaker in March, said the company can succeed where others have failed because of its simple products, customer-focused business strategy and breakeven point of about 80,000 units a year.

The break-even point corresponds to just over half of the company’s planned production capacity of 150,000 units at its assembly plant in Warsaw, Indiana. While Slate continues to build its facilities, it also manufactures prototype vehicles.

“We have a different cost structure and business model than other automakers,” he said, citing the simplicity of Slate’s vehicles and manufacturing process, as well as its ability to customize its EVs.

Slate’s flagship product is a two-seater, $24,950 bare-bones electric pickup truck that’s very basic, with optional speakers and a crank window. The truck can be converted into a five-passenger sport utility vehicle for an additional $5,000. These vehicles will have a Slate-estimated EV range of 205 miles, 181 horsepower, and 195 foot-pounds of torque.

Its performance pales in comparison to more expensive electric pickups and SUVs, but is on par with similarly priced vehicles.

The Slate was in stealth mode until the company announced its flagship EV in April 2025. At the time, the company announced that the initial starting price would be less than $20,000, which includes up to $7,500 in federal tax incentives that were available for EV purchases at the time, but have now been rescinded.

The startup has raised more than $1.3 billion across three funding rounds, two of which were led by Walter’s TWG Global Investment Holding Company after Bezos-related lead rounds.

Faricy declined to discuss Slate’s capital runway, but acknowledged that the company continues to raise capital opportunistically as it prepares to build consumer vehicles later this year and ramp up production with deliveries expected in the fourth quarter.

He did not rule out the possibility of Slate going public, but said it was likely too early for the company to go public before it ramps up production next year.

“We’re always going to be looking at our options, and going public is definitely one of them,” said Faricy, who was scouted for the company by Slate co-founder and Amazon executive Jeff Wilk. “In my opinion, 2027 is probably too soon. I think we need to make sure we can launch the business and scale it properly.”

Slate has received more than 180,000 reservations for its vehicles and will officially open pre-orders on Wednesday. Reservations required a refundable $50 deposit, while orders require a non-refundable $300 down payment.

Slate Vehicles President Chris Berman, the company’s second employee and original CEO, said current expectations are that SUVs will account for 60% of sales, even though the base pickup model costs about $25,000. The starting price is about half the selling price of a new car, according to data from Cox Automotive.

Mr. Faricy praised Mr. Berman’s leadership as a “world-class auto executive” and acknowledged that he is here to use his background in consumer retail and the auto industry prior to Amazon to take the company to its next step.

“Companies go through different life stages, and we’re at the stage now where we’re starting production and trying to move on to the next stage of our lives,” he said. “Many of the skills I bring are complementary to the existing team, so I’m excited to join.”

When Slate unveiled its vehicle in April 2025 as “an extremely simple, extremely affordable, and deeply customizable vehicle,” it had been more than three years since Berman and auto industry veteran Eric Keiper, Slate’s head of engineering, first laid out a roadmap for EV development.

The vehicle features an injection-molded composite exterior and numerous do-it-yourself options. The plan is to make sure every vehicle coming off the line is the same to reduce complexity before adding features or different covers/tops like fastbacks and square-offs to resemble the Jeep Wrangler SUV.

Auto industry executives have been toying with the idea of ​​such modular, bare-bones vehicles as connectivity and affordability concerns grow in the auto industry, but so far either the challenges have outweighed the potential opportunities or companies have struggled to keep prices low.

Slate’s vehicles do not have “connectivity features” such as modems or large screens, only a small driver information screen that displays range, speed, and other standard gauges and warnings. Instead of a central infotainment system, drivers can use their own devices, such as smartphones or tablets, for navigation and music.

The exterior of slate vehicles is not painted. The company says the vehicle is designed to be wrapped in vinyl film, eliminating the need for expensive paint shops that are a huge investment for automakers.

Slate offers over 100 standard wrap colors for under $500, but customers can also choose basically any color or design they can imagine. The vehicle also comes with more than 175 accessories, more than 80% of which are priced under $500, including roof racks, stereos, and light covers.

“No matter who you are or what you like in life, you can now express that through an SUV or a truck,” Faricy said, adding that the Slate vehicle he wants is a metallic black fastback SUV. “I can’t wait to build that vehicle.”

Dan Tashiemski, Slate’s head of manufacturing engineering, said the company continues to build vehicles by hand, with some factory automation. The company said Slate aims to start operating the factory with normal production processes by the fourth quarter.

Tashiemski said Slate is building about three vehicles a day, but they still need to undergo the necessary federal vehicle verification and certification for things like range, safety and other aspects.

In addition to the tough market environment for EVs, Slate’s product is a unicorn, for better or worse.

The vehicle’s modularity is unique, as is its two-door body style. It will be the only pickup truck or SUV sold in the U.S. to offer such a variant without offering a four-door model.

ford According to reports, only 10 percent of Bronco SUV models sold last year were two-door models. Many light pickup trucks, such as the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, only offer four-door models.

Slate has not ruled out adding a four-door model, but the company’s sole focus is on two-door pickups and SUVs, executives said.

It is also exclusively a rear-wheel drive vehicle compared to a four-wheel drive vehicle or all-wheel drive vehicle.

The Slate is expected to compete with the growing light duty gasoline vehicle and electric pickup truck segments. Most notably, Ford is betting its EV future will be on a new, affordable platform, starting with a pickup truck next year. Stellantis’ Ram brand also plans to introduce new light and medium-duty pickup trucks in the next few years.

Slate plans to deliver vehicles directly to customers rather than through franchised dealers, building on the U.S. EV leader’s similar experience, but this also presents challenges and opportunities for the company. teslaRivian, etc.

“I think this is an important part,” Faricy said, adding that he thinks it will lead to cost savings and better control over the customer experience. “We definitely intend to be a direct-to-consumer company.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Slate Auto aims to start operating its Warsaw, Indiana, factory through normal production processes by the fourth quarter. A previous version incorrectly provided the time period the company provided to CNBC.