Buzzy new EV startup Slate Auto has racked up greater than 100,000 reservations for its customizable low-cost electrical pickup truck, the corporate has confirmed to TechCrunch.
Slate crossed the milestone over the weekend, just a bit greater than two weeks after popping out of stealth mode and unveiling the truck at an occasion in Los Angeles, California. The firm has mentioned the truck will begin under $20,000 after making use of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score and plans to construct the autos at a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana, as TechCrunch first reported.
“We are actually humbled by America’s response to Slate’s model launch and the launch of our truck,” Slate’s chief industrial officer Jeremy Snyder mentioned in an announcement to TechCrunch. “We are excited for what the longer term holds.”
Collecting 100,000 reservations so shortly is one signal of how a lot curiosity there was in Slate because it revealed the truck, but it surely’s no assure these reservations will translate to gross sales. The firm is barely asking potential consumers to plop down $50 to order their place in line to ultimately order the truck; the payment is refundable.
Many different EV startups have touted reservations up to now solely to fail to stay as much as the expectations of such massive, spherical numbers. Fisker filed for chapter having offered only a few thousand Ocean SUVs regardless of as soon as claiming greater than 60,000 reservations. Lordstown Motors, in the meantime, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for deceptive buyers in regards to the variety of “preorders” for its personal electrical pickup truck. (Lordstown Motors equally filed for chapter and finally settled with the SEC.)
Slate has massive objectives for its truck, which — for a at present undisclosed worth — may also be reworked into an SUV. The firm says it should have capability to make as many as 150,000 autos by the top of 2027 on the Indiana manufacturing unit. And it has massive backers serving to Slate attempt to attain that purpose, together with Jeff Bezos (via his household workplace, Bezos Expeditions), Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, and VC agency General Catalyst.
