Investors say “Slate Auto an 'interesting company to watch”

[cadblu]

Slate is an “interesting company to watch”

Investor Ross Gerber said on Sunday that a conversation with an early Tesla Inc. employee now working at Slate Auto led him to watch the electric vehicle startup more closely as it prepares to launch a low-cost pickup truck in 2026.

The Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management CEO wrote on X that he "spent the night hanging with a guy working at Slate Auto, who helped build Tesla from the beginning." He called Slate "an interesting company to watch" because it is making an affordable EV pickup and said it was "Fun talking about the old days at Tesla."

Slate raised $650 million last month in a Series C round led by TWG Global to support the launch of its first vehicles later this year. The company had earlier raised more than $111 million in Series A funding from Jeff Bezos and other high-profile investors, including Mark Walter.

Slate Auto unveiled the truck in April 2025. According to the company’s website, the base model skips a traditional paint job, power windows and a stereo, keeping costs down through a simpler platform that buyers can modify. It has an estimated 150-mile range from a 52.7-kWh battery and a payload capacity of about 1,400 pounds. A larger battery option is expected to raise the range to about 240 miles.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

https://www.jalopnik.com/15-failed-electric-vehicle-startups-that-never-made-it-1850510650/

A bit of historical perspective is always useful. Expect the worse, and hope for the best. I was a big Canoo fan back in the day.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

That or we can turn this into another power windows discussion.

 

[KevinRS]

https://www.jalopnik.com/15-failed-electric-vehicle-startups-that-never-made-it-1850510650/

A bit of historical perspective is always useful. Expect the worse, and hope for the best. I was a big Canoo fan back in the day.

Looking at the details though, many of those were either going on a fraction of the funding Slate has raised, or trying to go for a high end luxury market. How many of them even built a factory, or were they hand building what they did produce?

 

[ScooterAsheville]

Yup, those are solid points. Canoo had a factory in OK with robots and all that, and state funding and claimed to be near production. They were also private and they went poof overnight because they had a sudden capital crisis. Also there were rumours of investor deception near the end - don't know the details on that.

A little appreciated fact is that Tesla was on the edge of bankruptcy. They would have never made it without billions and billions and billions in direct and indirect government subsidies. Other OEMs had to pay them billions in carbon offset credits at home and abroad. And of course the customer incentives. And more.

As for Slate, I'm totally impressed that they've raised $1.5 billion in venture capital. Especially since auto is a notoriously low margin type of business, and also incredibly capital intensive. It's extra impressive in an investment environment where all the money and all the returns are goiing to AI and high tech. A lot of AI hyperscalers have gone 60x growth. It's mind blowing.

I'd love to see the investor deck that Slate is showing venture capital. There's something in there that's convincing them to invest real money. Or it might just be the narrative. I'm sure some venture capitalists in the USA are just attracted to the "Affordable, built in the USA by and for Americans". That has emotional pull.

 

[E90400K]

Yup, those are solid points. Canoo had a factory in OK with robots and all that, and state funding and claimed to be near production. They were also private and they went poof overnight because they had a sudden capital crisis. Also there were rumours of investor deception near the end - don't know the details on that.

A little appreciated fact is that Tesla was on the edge of bankruptcy. They would have never made it without billions and billions and billions in direct and indirect government subsidies. Other OEMs had to pay them billions in carbon offset credits at home and abroad. And of course the customer incentives. And more.

As for Slate, I'm totally impressed that they've raised $1.5 billion in venture capital. Especially since auto is a notoriously low margin type of business, and also incredibly capital intensive. It's extra impressive in an investment environment where all the money and all the returns are goiing to AI and high tech. A lot of AI hyperscalers have gone 60x growth. It's mind blowing.

I'd love to see the investor deck that Slate is showing venture capital. There's something in there that's convincing them to invest real money. Or it might just be the narrative. I'm sure some venture capitalists in the USA are just attracted to the "Affordable, built in the USA by and for Americans". That has emotional pull.

I've always said that had the rest of the big industry players seriously delved into EV in the early 2010's Tesla would have never made it. The investment dollars divvied up among 5 or 6 manufacturers would have left Tesla without enough capital.