2027 Slate Pickup Test Drive Review by Motortrend : fun and reasonably nimble

[FlyHappy]

Again, if Barman is just and engineer, why name her CEO in the first place. Four years ago Slate didn't need a CEO.

Even with the tax incentives in place EV sales in the US were not meeting the unit sales expectations of any of the OEMs. And the tax incentives were to sunset in 2032 regardless.

I never said Barman is "just an engineer". You said that.

potentially having 5 years of selling a 20k EV could (none of us will ever know) have made a massive difference in the calculus of the the investors. Maybe they projected an easy 150k of unit sales per year at that price, but now see 80, 90, 100k, and thus the need to grow the revenue elsewhere, based on a new projection.

And yes, startups that go around recruiting 100's of millions from investors absolutely need a named CEO. Nobody writes checks of that size without knowing what names are handling their money. Barman was a good fit - real credentials from post-bankruptcy Chrysler responsible for products launches. Faricy woud have offered no particular strength at that early stage.

You are reading way too much into a simple reorganization of something that was tiny, then growing, and now on the precipice of its make or break moment.

 

[007]

Nobody here wants to believe there's only 10,000 preorders. If this number has significantly increased you'd think Slate would announce it. I'm sure a bigger number is coming. Maybe Slate is waiting for a really big number to announce.

 

[Adam W]

If an ex-amazon suit had been at the helm from the beginning, I'd be much more wary of the company. We've seen that play out a dozen times already, and it always ends in over-promises.

By putting someone with bonefide automotive credentials -- one that can authentically sell the nostalgia of her old farm truck and looks right at home in a Dickies service jacket -- at the top, it gave the company an instant jolt of "this is different." For all we know, it may have been Barman's decision to transition to her current role to continue to play to her strengths and interests.

 

[E90400K]

I never said Barman is "just an engineer". You said that.

potentially having 5 years of selling a 20k EV could (none of us will ever know) have made a massive difference in the calculus of the the investors. Maybe they projected an easy 150k of unit sales per year at that price, but now see 80, 90, 100k, and thus the need to grow the revenue elsewhere, based on a new projection.

And yes, startups that go around recruiting 100's of millions from investors absolutely need a named CEO. Nobody writes checks of that size without knowing what names are handling their money. Barman was a good fit - real credentials from post-bankruptcy Chrysler responsible for products launches. Faricy woud have offered no particular strength at that early stage.

You are reading way too much into a simple reorganization of something that was tiny, then growing, and now on the precipice of its make or break moment.

But you implied an engineer doesn't have the credentials to build a marketing company (?). Or what?

If Barman was CEO'ish enough to get 3 rounds of private funding to the tune of $1.6B in total somehow is not qualified to run the company once the FN needs to be marketed on line?

 

[E90400K]

If an ex-amazon suit had been at the helm from the beginning, I'd be much more wary of the company. We've seen that play out a dozen times already, and it always ends in over-promises.

By putting someone with bonefide automotive credentials -- one that can authentically sell the nostalgia of her old farm truck and looks right at home in a Dickies service jacket -- at the top, it gave the company an instant jolt of "this is different." For all we know, it may have been Barman's decision to transition to her current role to continue to play to her strengths and interests.

That's my point, we should know. It has not been explained very well.

 

[KevinRS]

That's my point, we should know. It has not been explained very well.

Why do you think they should have explained to us? The investors, or at least part of them probably know, but there is no duty to explain it to the public.

 

[FlyHappy]

But you implied an engineer doesn't have the credentials to build a marketing company (?). Or what?

If Barman was CEO'ish enough to get 3 rounds of private funding to the tune of $1.6B in total somehow is not qualified to run the company once the FN needs to be marketed on line?

nope. I said that things change in startups, and especially when the economic grounds change even prior to product launch. I also refuted your notion that a high capital startup doesn't need a CEO, and described why an initial "best" CEO could be replaced without any failure in their performance or the enterprise itself.

In summary: shit changes.

 

[FlyHappy]

Nobody here wants to believe there's only 10,000 preorders. If this number has significantly increased you'd think Slate would announce it. I'm sure a bigger number is coming. Maybe Slate is waiting for a really big number to announce.

I'm on record as previously expressing doubt that pre-order numbers are very high; I think I'm a realist when folks talk about "take rates" based on refundable reservations, etc.

but having said that, there is no plausible scenario in which announcing pre-order numbers helps, instead of hurts. Auto makers get crushed by the merest and thinest appearance of weakness, see Lucid or even our own forum members (who presumably ponied up $300).

I would not expect any revelation from the company prior to deliveries that reflect customer satisfaction. It is neither "lack of transparency" nor do they owe us anything, beyond delivering on-time and on-price.

 

[mini702]

But you implied an engineer doesn't have the credentials to build a marketing company (?). Or what?

If Barman was CEO'ish enough to get 3 rounds of private funding to the tune of $1.6B in total somehow is not qualified to run the company once the FN needs to be marketed on line?

Maybe this story will help you understand. In business class this was the example of 'promoted to first level of failure'.
Bob get a job as a car salesman. He is bright and ambitious and advances to top salesman. When the time comes, he accepts the job of Sales Manager, where he ultimately struggles and his career stalls.
Why?
A salesman is 90% people skills and 10% paperwork.
Sales Manager is 90% paperwork and 10% people skills.

Chris seems to love the design side, and we've seen other team members talk about the other aspects of building the company.
CEO is paperwork, meetings, contracts, regulations, profit/loss, hiring and managing talent -- nothing creative. As a creative myself, I wouldn't want the CEO job, I would stick with that which makes me happy. She likely chose her current position in the company.

PS. Yes, an engineer would suck at being CEO of a marketing company. Totally different mindsets.

 

[AZFox]

Neither Barman nor Faricy would excel at the other's job.

If Barman was CEO'ish enough to get 3 rounds of private funding to the tune of $1.6B in total somehow is not qualified to run the company once the FN needs to be marketed on line?

I don't think that's the way it happened.

What I recall is that there was some discussion around pending Series C funding and then an uncomfortably long delay.

For all we know, investors stipulated that the car-developer CEO be replaced with a business-developer CEO as a requirement for more funding.

I mean no disrespect toward Chris Barman, quite the opposite. She's obviously very talented. I expect the end result that will arise from allowing her to do what she does best will be better products.

 

[Johnologue]

My personal "conspiracy theory" is that it's possible Chris Barman was replaced by a suit guy as a figurehead because having a woman as the CEO was either causing problems or expected to cause problems, in a way it wouldn't have in 2022.

Of course, I like any possibility that the company's actual direction and leadership is being determined by someone with an understanding of vehicles and people, instead of some McKinsey & Company business major who doesn't even seem necessarily good at "business".

 

[CEW]

It seems like you are spending a lot of time trying to defend someone who didn't ask for, and probably doesn't need a defense.
As far as we know, the set up with her being CEO through development and then someone else being brought for the sales side in may have been the plan from the beginning, and part of her agreement. She may have had a say in choosing the new CEO.

Thats my thinking too (but we won't ever know unless Barman or a member of the board comment on it). I (like to) think that Barman was totally in on this thinking (from the beginning). She wanted to be in charge for the development - but when it came to expanding the company to full production status - time to bring someone else. Her 'thing' and experience has always been in vehicle development.

 

[danielt1263]

This.

Chris Barman was hired because she knows how to develop cars.

Peter Faricy was hired because he knows how to develop companies.

No, he knows how to develop online stores. That's what he did for Amazon and that's what he's doing for Slate (IMO).

 

[CEW]

I'm also Really hoping 🙏 - that Faricy - as a lead executive with Amazon for quite a while pretty recently - may be able to use that connection to involve Amazon as a potential 'distributor' (?) for the new Slate truck - and accessories line as well.

 

[E90400K]

Neither Barman nor Faricy would excel at the other's job.



I don't think that's the way it happened.

What I recall is that there was some discussion around pending Series C funding and then an uncomfortably long delay.

For all we know, investors stipulated that the car-developer CEO be replaced with a business-developer CEO as a requirement for more funding.

I mean no disrespect toward Chris Barman, quite the opposite. She's obviously very talented. I expect the end result that will arise from allowing her to do what she does best will be better products.

As @Johnologue said above, where is the evidence in Faricy's resume he is a company builder? I can't find it nor see it.

If Slate's mantra/motto is "we looked at what the industry was doing and did the opposite", having Barman as CEO was certainly smack in the middle of that motto. That motto and having a car gal at the head leadership role is what hooked me and reeled me in as a customer.

I'll reiterate, if Barman didn't have the talent in her quiver to be a full fledged CEO of an automotive company once it reached maturity to actually sell product in the internet marketplace, then why was she picked as CEO in the first place? She did the incredibly hard part of creating Slate out of nothing including designing and building the physical plant to produce the product. Now all of a sudden in March 2026, less than a year from retail launch, a guy with Amazon market experience needs to come in an push the whole endeavor over the line? He gets named CEO? I'm not buying that story one bit.

If Barman wanted to give up the CEO position because it was too big to focus on everything and would be detrimental to her finishing the job of creating the FN and the Warsaw facility to build it, then that should have been made clear. If her stepping down from the CEO position was for personal reasons, family/work life balance, a medical situation, etc. then that to should have been stated. Most any of us would have accepted that reasoning.

I just don't ssee what Faricy brings to the CEO position more than what Barman already accomplished. The decision and the timing of it to pull Barman is what worries me, who made it and why. It looks like an effed-up political Wall Street decision to me. What other bad decisions are going to be made once I've dropped my $25K into the bucket?