Slate Auto, the electric truck startup backed by Jeff Bezos, currently has more than 150,000 refundable reservations for its low-cost electric vehicle, which is expected to launch in late 2026.
The company revealed the numbers in a new Q&A video with CEO Chris Berman, answering questions from bookers, including the company’s plans for self-driving (there are no plans) and whether owners can install child seats in the optional rear seats (they do).
While reservations are a somewhat useful indicator of public interest in a new car, they are by no means a surefire indicator of success. Over the past few years, we’ve seen many EV companies trumpeting booking numbers only to go bankrupt because they either couldn’t get through the difficult process of ramping up production or weren’t ready to put the cars on the road.
It’s encouraging for Slate that its numbers continue to rise, meaning new bookings are coming in faster than any declines the company is seeing. That said, Slate had more than 100,000 bookings in May, just after coming out of stealth, so it took seven months for listings to grow by 50%. And looking to the future, Slate needs to attract even more buyers to succeed in the market, as it plans to produce 150,000 EVs a year at its renovated factory in Warsaw, Indiana.
Considering the overall state of electric trucks these days, Slate’s continued enthusiasm for EVs should be an encouraging sign for the company. Just yesterday, Ford announced it would end production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, the first large battery-powered pickup truck introduced to the U.S. market several years ago. (It has been replaced by a version fitted with a gas generator.) The company said the Lightning simply wasn’t making enough money. This fact was made worse by Ford’s failure to sell more than a few thousand units in a quarter. Sales of other electric trucks, including Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck and General Motors Inc.’s Silverado EV, have also struggled to beat that level.
Of course, the Lightning is something of a Frankenstein’s monster, with Ford shoehorning EV technology into a design originally intended for a gasoline powertrain. Slate’s trucks are designed from the ground up as EVs, and the company is very focused on selling them at prices in the mid-$20,000s. The decline in products from Ford and other manufacturers could help pave the way for the slate to find early success, that is, until 2027, when Ford brings low-cost EVs to market in earnest.
