--- title: "Slate Auto Says Each $24,950 Electric Pickup Will Turn a Profit" description: "The Bezos-backed startup told CNBC that every truck it builds will be gross-margin positive and that it aims to be cash-flow positive in 2027 — bold projections for a company that has yet to ship a single vehicle and is chasing the cheap-EV gap the rest of the U.S. industry has left open." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Sofia Marchetti" published: 2026-06-24T12:28:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-24T12:28:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/slate-auto-profitable-ev-pickup tags: ["slate-auto", "electric-vehicles", "ev-pickup", "jeff-bezos", "automotive"] --- # Slate Auto Says Each $24,950 Electric Pickup Will Turn a Profit The Bezos-backed startup told CNBC that every truck it builds will be gross-margin positive and that it aims to be cash-flow positive in 2027 — bold projections for a company that has yet to ship a single vehicle and is chasing the cheap-EV gap the rest of the U.S. industry has left open. Slate Auto, the low-cost electric-vehicle startup, says it expects to make money on every truck it sells and to turn cash-flow positive in 2027 — an unusually confident projection for a company that has not yet started production. Chief Executive Peter Faricy told [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/24/slate-ev-pickup-truck-ceo-business-goals.html) that every vehicle the company produces will be "gross margin positive," meaning each truck would sell for more than the direct cost of building it. The company is aiming to reach positive free cash flow and positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2027. Those are company forecasts, not results: Slate has not yet sold a vehicle, and the targets depend on hitting production and cost goals that remain unproven. In plain terms, "unit economics" refers to whether a single product makes or loses money once you strip out company-wide overhead. "Cash-flow positive" means a business takes in more cash than it pays out, so it no longer has to keep raising money to cover its bills. Most EV startups have failed at both. ## The price moved up The headline number has shifted. Slate now lists a starting price of $24,950. When it unveiled the two-door truck in April 2025, it marketed a figure under $20,000 "after incentives," a price that assumed buyers could claim the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. That credit [expired on Sept. 30, 2025](https://insideevs.com/news/765197/slate-truck-ev-tax-credit/) after Congress repealed it, so the federal discount no longer applies. Slate says buyers in states with their own EV incentives may still pay less, but the sub-$20,000 sticker used in early coverage is gone. Even so, it remains the cheapest new electric pickup on the U.S. market by a wide margin, [Yahoo Finance reported](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/slate-reveals-24950-starting-price-for-ev-pickup-making-it-the-cheapest-truck-in-america-120148545.html). ## A stripped-down design The truck's low price rests on a bare-bones design. The body is unpainted gray composite rather than painted metal, and there is no built-in touchscreen, infotainment system or radio; owners are expected to use their own smartphones, [per Wikipedia's summary of the vehicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Truck). It uses a single rear motor with battery options offering roughly 150 or 240 miles of range. Slate pitches extensive customization through aftermarket accessories as central to its model. Interest has been strong. The company says more than 180,000 people have placed a refundable $50 reservation; converting one into a firm preorder now costs $300, or $250 for those who already paid the deposit. Slate plans to build the truck at a plant in Warsaw, Indiana, with first deliveries expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. ## The capital to try Slate has money to attempt it. In April 2026 it raised a [$650 million Series C round led by TWG Global](https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/13/slate-auto-raises-650m-to-fund-its-affordable-ev-truck-plans/) — the firm run by Guggenheim Partners founder and Los Angeles Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter, alongside investor Thomas Tull — bringing total funding to roughly $1.4 billion. Earlier backers include the family office of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and General Catalyst; Bezos's involvement is through his personal family office rather than Amazon. The broader context is a gap in the U.S. market: with the federal tax credit gone and most automakers focused on higher-margin models, affordable EVs are scarce. Slate is betting that radical simplicity can fill that space profitably where larger rivals have lost money. Whether the unit economics hold once trucks roll off the line in Indiana is the open question.