When will Slate Auto ship their 500th vehicle? (Market research tool)

[AZFox]

150K units per year. Doesn’t say “which year.”

2027

Edit: The link is to a clip in a YT video that was posted today. Chris Barman says production will be full volume by the end of 2026.

 

[KevinRS]

2027

Edit: The link is to a clip in a YT video that was posted today. Chris Barman says production will be full volume by the end of 2026.

Producing customer fourth quarter of 2026, and full volume by the end of 2027

 

[RetiredOnPaper]

Having money down on several EV vehicle startups, I learned a thing or two. Start of production is the second most dangerous time. Ramp up is by far the most dangerous time. It will matter greatly when Slate starts pre-production. If all the hardware is in place by Q2 and they start pre-runs, then we have hope. Q3 will be critical, I expect at least one major production stop and re-think at this stage. If this is planned for, Kudo's. If we see 20 or more new Slates being tested before Q4, be happy. Then I expect to see number 500 ship before Thanksgiving '26. What makes me optimistic? Sandy Monroe (Monroe Associates) was involved from the start. What I would worry about? Sabotage from legacy dealerships apposed to direct to consumer sales.

 

[cadblu]

Have you driven a Lucid? I've heard a lot of good things about them, but they still have some computer bugs to work out. They are nearly 6,000 pounds and people say they are rough on low profile tires. Also they cost from $70,000 to $250,000. I was never interested in Tesla, but wanted a Lucid since they were first introduced about four years ago. There are no dealerships near me.

Carvana has several listings for 2022-23 Lucid Air’s starting around $49K. That’s an amazing deal on a high end EV, and quite reasonable for the average price of a ‘new’ mainstream car.

 

[cadblu]

2027

Edit: The link is to a clip in a YT video that was posted today. Chris Barman says production will be full volume by the end of 2026.

Wow, it took Tesla, with much deeper experience, ~4 years to achieve full rate production on the Model 3. I admire her confidence and hope the rest of the Slate team is up to the task.

 

[AZFox]

Lessons learned at Tesla will be brought to Slate by Napoleon Reyes and
Rich Schmidt.

These are summaries about them from AI, edited for brevity.

Napoleon Reyes, Slate Auto's Senior Manager, Plant Vehicle Engineering, brings deep hands-on experience in high-volume EV production, particularly from his time at Tesla’s Fremont factory.​

​

Rich Schmidt, now Head of Manufacturing at Slate Auto, is a seasoned automotive executive with a proven track record in scaling Tesla’s manufacturing operations.​

They are bringing battle-proven EV manufacturing methodologies to a startup environment, helping avoid common pitfalls in scaling.​

There's lots of information available. Just search if you want to know more.

 

[KevinRS]

Tesla had deeper experience?
They were headed by someone with no automotive experience, and were trying to do things a whole new way, trying to upend the whole car design and production model. That effort brought it's own problems.
With Slate, they as of 3 months ago were still planning to have the hardware in place about now, with pre-runs and producing test units in Q1. We haven't heard more updates, but they aren't and haven't given updates much the whole time. Neither has Tesla or anyone else.

 

[AZFox]

Tesla had deeper experience?

That's not what I said.

The two former-Tesla executives have valuable experience launching and scaling-up production of the Model Y.

Combining that with simplicity, both of the vehicle itself and of the production process, foretells that Slate production could ramp up more rapidly than usual.

 

[KevinRS]

That's not what I said.

The two former-Tesla executives have valuable experience launching and scaling-up production of the Model Y.

Combining that with simplicity, both of the vehicle itself and of the production process, foretells that Slate production could ramp up more rapidly than usual.

Wasn't you that said it.

 

[AZFox]

I know I’m not always the brightest in the room, but if Slate is planning 100,000/year, shouldn’t we be hoping for 500 first month?

I think they may have some delays once they try to start, then production will be slow for a while. I think #500 will be in January, 2027.

[Chris Barman says Slate will be] Producing customer fourth quarter of 2026, and full volume by the end of 2027

Full production of 150,000 is more than 500 per day, correct?

Even if the factory operates 300 days a year, that's 500/day.

>500 trucks in the first month seems reasonable to expect.

 

[KevinRS]

Full production of 150,000 is more than 500 per day, correct?

Even if the factory operates 300 days a year, that's 500/day.

>500 trucks in the first month seems reasonable to expect.

It all depends on what you count as the "first month"
I am inferring from what's been said that in the next few months, they will start producing on the line, but not for sale at first. They have most of the next year to get up to speed before they even plan to start selling, by the time they are producing for sale, they should be able to produce hundreds a month at least.
With every vehicle using identical parts, the only difference being the number of cells in the battery, and no paint shop bottleneck, the line designed for 500 a day should be able to scale to close to that relatively rapidly.

 

[AZFox]

It all depends on what you count as the "first month"

I was assuming "deliver its 500th unit" in March 2028 meant 500th deliverable unit, not counting prototypes, etc. The clock starts when the first deliverable unit rolls off the assembly line.

 

[KevinRS]

I was assuming "deliver its 500th unit" in March 2028 meant 500th deliverable unit, not counting prototypes, etc. The clock starts when the first deliverable unit rolls off the assembly line.

I think they will be well ahead of that. Most companies don't start with a trickle like Tesla did. I have to figure Slate will be building the prototypes and such on the line in the next couple of months, and be ramping up production starting then and through the whole year, when they get to producing sellable units, the timeline probably has them build up some stock before the Q4 start delivering date. They may deliver hundreds the first month, and increase rapidly from there.