Slate Auto raises $650 million to fund plans for affordable electric vehicle trucks

Backed by Jeff Bezos Electric vehicle startup Slate Auto has raised another $650 million as the company prepares to begin production of its first affordable pickup trucks by the end of 2026.

Car maker He said on Monday The Series C funding round was led by TWG Global, a company run by Guggenheim Partners CEO (and Los Angeles Dodgers owner) Mark Walter and investor Thomas Tull. Slate Auto’s press release thanked its “forward-looking investors” but the company did not name any other people involved in the fundraising.

The new round means Slate Auto has raised nearly $1.4 billion to date. Previous investors include General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos’ family office, Venture capital firm Slauson & Coand former Amazon CEO Diego Piacentini, such as It was first reported by TechCrunch last year.

The company is also loaded with Amazon DNA. In addition to its investors, it was co-founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Wilke. The heads of the Mobility, UX/UI, Ecommerce, Fleet Sales, and HR teams at Slate used to work at Amazon. The company recently installed the former Amazon Marketplace VP Peter Faricy as CEO. (Former Chrysler CEO and veteran Chris Barman has moved to a new position as President of Vehicles.)

Slate Auto’s C-Series comes at a turbulent moment for the U.S. electric vehicle market. Major automakers are backing away from their plans to launch electric vehicles here, especially after losing the $7,500 federal tax credit last year. Tesla’s overall sales have declined for two years in a row. New entrants like Rivian and Lucid Motors are struggling to reach scale, although both companies are launching new, more affordable models this year.

Founded in 2022, Slate Auto takes a different approach than almost any other automaker. The company is targeting the very low end of the market with an electric truck expected to start in the mid-$20,000s. Customers will be able to customize the truck in different ways for more money, including adding an SUV conversion kit for about $5,000.

The company originally planned to price the truck at about $27,000, and shortly after it came out of stealth in 2025, it was touting a starting price of “under $20,000” with the federal tax credit applied. Final pricing will now come in June, according to the company.

Slate Auto received a fair amount of interest even with the loss of the federal tax credit. The company has achieved more than 160,000 refundable reservations for its electric car. The company recently said it hired Faricy as its new CEO in part to work on converting those bookings into paid orders. Slate also spent a few hundred million dollars renovating a former printing plant in Indiana where it plans to build electric vehicles.