Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto announces factory location for its $25,000 electric truck
Slate Auto said it would assemble its $25,000 EV in Warsaw, Indiana.
The 1.4 million-square-foot facility was occupied by a printing company until 2023.
Slate says it expects to make its first customer deliveries near the end of 2026.
Slate Auto, the Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup, confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday that its $25,000 electric pickup would be assembled at a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana.
"We would like to see what we can do to go into an existing facility that has been shuttered and reindustrialize and revitalize that community," Slate CEO Chris Barman told us in an interview ahead of the truck's introduction last week.
The factory is expected to bring over 2,000 jobs back to Warsaw, more than the number of jobs lost when the plant's previous tenants shut down, a company representative said in an email.
A local news report said 500 jobs were lost when the facility ceased operations in 2023.
Slate's decision to repurpose existing production facilities follows a similar path to that of other high-profile EV companies, such as Tesla, which took over General Motors'/Toyota's NUMMI factory, and Rivian, which occupies Mitsubishi's former Normal, Illinois, plant.
However, Slate's future production site in Warsaw is not a former car factory but one previously owned by a printing company about 40 miles from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
According to a real estate listing, the facility was originally built in 1958 and last renovated in 2000.
The 1.4 million-square-foot compound features office space and two production facilities, each with about 600,000 square feet. The company declined to say how much of that square footage it planned to use.
Local authorities with the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
The Slate Truck, which comes standard with 150 miles of range and a starting price of about $25,000, is expected to be the cheapest new electric vehicle and pickup truck in the US, staking out a spot in the market no truck — electric or otherwise — has been able to.
Barman said customer deliveries were expected to commence on the pickup, which, with tax incentives, could cost less than $20,000, near the end of 2026.
Reservations for the truck are open with a refundable $50 fee.
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