Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto has planted a number of idea variations of its EV on the streets of California. It’s a advertising and marketing tactic that teases the secretive startup’s technique to promote a “Transformer”-like car, folks accustomed to the corporate’s inside discussions informed TechCrunch.
This unconventional real-world tease comes days earlier than Slate’s April 24 launch occasion at Long Beach Airport, in response to an invitation seen by TechCrunch.
The Michigan-based startup, based in 2022, has operated in relative secrecy till TechCrunch printed a report revealing Bezos’ monetary involvement, in addition to its plan to cost its EV at round $25,000 whereas encouraging consumers to customise the car to their liking. That base mannequin is known as the “Blank Slate” model, in response to a trademark software and one other individual accustomed to the corporate’s plans. Slate has additionally filed for a trademark for the phrase: “We Built It. You Make It.”
The Autopian’s David Tracy traveled to Venice, California over the weekend the place Slate parked an idea model of the truck made to appear like a two-door SUV utilized by a faux enterprise. Similarly, Reddit customers posted photos over the weekend of one more model of the truck made to appear like a hatchback that just about resembles Rivian’s forthcoming R3.
The car Tracy noticed up shut this previous weekend seems identical to the two-door pickup truck noticed by a Reddit consumer earlier this month in Long Beach, however with a tough cowl over the mattress that provides it extra of an SUV form. The car is roofed in a wrap for a faux enterprise referred to as “Rockabye Rides,” which features a URL that results in an internet site that’s counting right down to Slate’s occasion later this week.
That makes three totally different silhouettes we’ve seen of Slate’s truck up to now — and that adaptability is one thing the corporate has privately touted because it locked down effectively over $100 million in funding, TechCrunch has realized.
Slate’s management targeted closely on the “Transformer” metaphor because it wooed buyers to fill out its Series B funding spherical final yr, in response to an individual accustomed to the pitches. The firm rigorously choreographed the conferences across the thought, in response to one other individual accustomed to how they went.
This concerned exhibiting potential buyers a generic model of the truck, after which main them to a different room whereas a staff shortly personalized the car. Then the potential buyers could be introduced again to the primary room solely to search out the truck trying utterly totally different.
Those efforts seem to have been convincing. Guggenheim Partners CEO (and controlling proprietor of the LA Dodgers) Mark Walter seemingly invested within the spherical and joined Slate’s board, TechCrunch has reported.
A spokesperson for the corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
These new photographs give a fairly clear view of the outside of Slate’s truck, and the potential stage of customization. The inside stays a thriller, and there’s no public data concerning the car’s specs.
The firm has briefed a lot of automotive journalists forward of Thursday’s occasion, and Tracy wrote that he’s “underneath a strict NDA” on any of the specifics.
Even nonetheless, Tracy wrote that the Slate truck “is not like any new car I’ve ever seen not simply in my decade as a automotive journalist, however in my total lifetime.”
