As Canadian…
American company?, nope
Owned by Bezos?, hell nah
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Bezos was one investor, not the owner
Slate raised at least $111 million in Series A financing, including an undisclosed amount from Bezos. Slate then raised $600 million in 2024 from Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, Jeff Bezos, and General Catalyst, a venture capital firm.[5] In mid-2026, the company said it had completed a $650m series C investment round, which took its total capital raised to $1.4bn.[6]
Bezos was seed money AND part of the owner conglomerate that raised all the capital the company started with in 2024. That is enough for me to avoid this like the plague as it will, certain as the sun is hot, be enshitified to the core
If you do not believe me, here is an article explaining how this is all a big Amazon initiative
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/08/inside-the-ev-startup-secretly-backed-by-jeff-bezos/
I would truly not be surprised that this would be an attempt to take over there ev truck market, but manufacturers should have been paying attention. There's a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
While I'm sure they'll try to enshittify, the downside to that plan is that they need to make sure no one takes their place and they need to have something people want that they can enshittify. The benefit of simplicity is that it makes it simpler for another manufacturer to pick up the slack.
I drove a small truck at one point. Think a late 90s Tacoma, Ranger, or something like that. I don't want an F250. I don't want a Ram 3500. I just want to be able to haul a bed full of bikes to the MTB trail and help my friends move a washing machine.
Slate has a size comparison widget on their website. You can show it with the silhouette of a current full size pickup and a circa 1985 small pickup. It's almost exactly the same size as that generation.
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There’s a huge market for small ass trucks, no one is catering to it
Absolutely correct. The American car makers keep on saying "we only want big trucks" but that is complete BS, there is plenty of demand for smaller trucks which is why they have lobbied the gov to all but ban any possible import
The benefit of simplicity is that it makes it simpler for another manufacturer to pick up the slack.
While this is true in theory, in practice it rarely shows up. If these trucks do deliver a good, simple experience at $25K, others would not be able to just copy it and catch up. It would be easier for any of the big guys to just buy the company.
If the company is not for sale, then they would have the monopoly on small trucks and thus, freedom to enshitify
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Same as a European, I do hope it succeeds though and as much as I hate bezos if he's backing shit like this my opinion of him has increased by about 3.83%.
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For the life of me I don’t know why we don’t develop something like this in Canada. It’s so frustrating, we have the people, the manufacturing space, the materials, we could do this.
Whenever something about Canada making vehicles gets brought up, all the nay sayers climb on immediately saying how it can’t be done. I’m sick and tired of them. Nothing worth doing comes easy, if left to these naysayers we’d all be still living in squalor.
We need to move away from the U.S. entanglement, the American public can’t be trusted to elect a proper government.
Building our own low cost, modest feature vehicles would be an excellent start. How many features of a car do people use for a normal commute to work, or such? I’d love a truck like the Slate, except it has to have 4 wheel drive ability. After having Hondas with all wheel drive, I’ll never go back to an older 2 wheel drive vehicle.
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Interesting, the telematics module is sold separately at $275.00. So for everyone worrying about spying, for this vehicle you got to opt-in and pay extra for it.
Never mind the low price, not having that shit built in is the killer feature for me, making it the only new car I would even consider buying. (It's just too bad they won't have a 4x4 version for another couple of years.)
It is kinda good that there's an optional module available, though, because it means there's an interface that, in theory, a third-party module running Free Software could hook into.
because it means there's an interface that, in theory, a third-party module running Free Software could hook into
Absolutely this!
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I hate the state of current website reporting.
so many sites give so much information but absolutely refuses to provide the original website or source. Instead, deciding to send the viewer through ClickHell as they try to navigate their own website sending the user in circles usually via links that go to their own pages to propagate views/clicks. I hate it
How hard is it to just link to the Slate's main webpage after reporting on the product that way, the viewer can look at it themselves. Not one of the web pages they link there or any of the pages in said links lead to the actual vehicles site that they are reporting on.
Hello Nissan and Toyota. Where are your small EV and hybrid pick-up trucks?
The new Hilux does have both mhev and bev version.
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Hilux
Seems like it's available everywhere except america
lol, they're $66,000 in Canada.
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Something about this vehicle not mentioned: Because of the easily replaced plastic panels, insurance should be a lot less expensive.
But of course, meth heads are going to start stealing panels now.
If they sell enough trucks for meth heads to profit in the grey market by stealing the plastic panels, that's a huge win
And do what with them? Scrap yard don't buy plastic.
Enter the aftermarket replacement panel bolts with security heads. Now they can only mangle the panels while trying to remove them!
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The concept is a good one. The marketing and financial backing is bad. I think an affordable ev would be a good thing, but this is America.
This sounds nice for someone who needs a truck. But I have lots of kids. Why can’t I get an EV minivan for under $50k?
They’re offering a 5 seat SUV body as well. Not a minivan, but, closer.
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Politics. It can be done
https://m.made-in-china.com/hot-china-products/Electric_Mini_Van.html
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The original price of 24950 included the federal tax rebate. This is why they used cheaper batteries and other cost cutting to try to keep the price the same. The rebates are gone.
FYI: it looks like slate has switched battery chemistry and suppliers. They will now be using LFP batteries. Cheaper, but they'll last longer. Especially if you charge them to 100% and discharge them below 15%.
An overall win, as there was a zero chance I would have bought one if they put the NMC batteries in it they were going to use.
There will no longer be battery options for a small 150 mile range battery or a bigger battery that would go around 240 miles, though. Now (due to LFP batteries not being as energy dense) there's only going to be one battery option that they claim will have a 205 mile range.
Unfortunately for me, this means I won't be getting one. I need to go 180 miles round trip between charges, and that's just cutting it way too close. Especially during winter time when the range would be reduced by quite a bit.
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You'd have to be a massive idiot to think buying into a Bezos led infrastructure won't nickle and dime them to death down the road....
Tbh that kinda sounds like the point from the start. The price they give is the base-base. Like, an absolute barebones build. Any color you want as long as it's grey.
But making each individual add-on available...individually...is pretty damn sweet. And also making them available after-market...presumably in an easy-to-install method (kinda figure to be scalable it must be, otherwise the build-to-order model would flop at the assembly line), is icing on the cake.
It sucks that it's a Bezos initiative, otherwise I'd be yelling to shut up and take my money. A basic-ass EV two-seater that can handle light open loads is exactly what I want. And one that is (seemingly) user-servicable? Hell yeah. AND A FRUNK TO BOOT!
But if bezos is behind it, it's instantly sus. More sus than any other billionaire, save for a handful.
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Hard pass for me for various reasons but I hope this does well enough to make other auto companies want to compete.
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My buildout went to $33,600 for fastback with roof rack and speakers
While that’s a lot more than base, it’s exactly what I want and it’s still a great price compared to any other EV available to me. The only thing it would really not be good at is road trips but I still have my model Y
But as a big and tall guy I would never buy a vehicle without trying it to see if it’s comfortable for me ….. and to see if I can remove the back seats and fit it out as a camper. (My brother is doing that with a sienna hybrid and he probably has the right idea: lack of range could be a problem if you want to camp for a week with no electric)
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The range is now 205 miles, from a 63-kWh battery.
That's... Not that great. For comparison, the 2022 Chevy Bolt has a similar sized battery (65kWh) but about 260 miles of range. The weight's a little less than the slate at 3,600 lbs though it still wouldn't be enough to gap the difference in performance. There's either some heavy drag introduced by the truck or some drive system inefficiencies.
I don't understand the obsession with range. I agree that efficiency is important, but who is regularly driving a pickup truck 200 miles in a day?
Rural people, as in the folks who actually have a use for pickups. As it so happens, it is about 200 miles round-trip to my nearest airport/major city, so if this were my vehicle, I'd have to take a charge break when picking someone up/dropping them off at the airport, or making a shopping run, or going to a concert/special event, or seeing a medical specialist. And I'm not even that far off the beaten path; I have family for whom the one-way drive to their nearest major city/airport is over 200mi. Plus if you're hauling anything, I'd imagine that range goes down quick.
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I would say probably the boxy front and truck bed. They have to do the range tests on the base model so I wonder if it would improve the range with the SUV mod
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Yep. Seen this schtick a hundred times.
Now that the seal is broken on price hikes, it'll climb more and more. About the time it reaches double, the project will be canceled. Investors will be screwed, and some slimeball will run off with the cash just like he always planned to.
Just like all the other ones.
no screens!? I'm sold. would be perfect for me to have a little around town truck like this. but it will be $80,000 by the time I can actually buy one. and I'm sure it tracks everything you do and everywhere you go.
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