Meet Slate_ The $25K Bezos-Backed Truck Disrupting The EV Market _ Cars & Bikes _ Forbes

Forbes

Slate, a revolutionary new car brand backed by Jeff Bezos, is focused on bringing a "radically affordable, highly desirable" electric vehicle to the mass market. Head of Design, Tisha Johnson, unveils the brand's core philosophy: "We built it, you make it." The Slate EV arrives as a functional "blank slate," a truck in slate gray, designed from the ground up to be a true platform for customization and personalization.  Affordability is central to the mission: Slate is committed to making the complete ownership model as affordable as possible, capitalizing on the significantly lower maintenance costs of EVs compared to internal combustion engines (ICE). The vehicle is positioned to compete even with used vehicle prices, offering reliability and new car ownership from day one.  The design emphasizes easy accessorizing, featuring built-in accessibility points and lines that make applying vinyl wraps and color simple. The interior follows suit with a clean environment ready for personalization, including bin doors that open to reveal storage or house an audio system. Beyond the initial truck body, the Slate platform allows for three key configurations: the standard Squareback, a sporty Fastback, and an Open Air option with a treated roll cage. This groundbreaking approach to modularity and affordability is unique in the automotive market.  Read more on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottyreiss/2025/11/24/the-hottest-new-car-the-customizable-affordable-slate-ev/  For more from Scotty Reiss: https://agirlsguidetocars.com/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00My name is Tisha Johnson and I'm head of design at Slate. Slate is a new car

00:06brand that is focused on bringing really accessible, highly desirable vehicle to

00:15people. We have one vehicle that is off the line, a blank slate, that is really

00:23truly a platform for people's creativity. We like to say we built it, you make it.

00:30So the Slate comes as a truck that is slate gray in color and it can look just

00:39like it does behind me in a very short amount of time. We've designed the

00:44vehicle to have really simple accessibility points that are there to

00:51make accessorizing easy. So the vehicle for instance behind me you'll see that

00:58there's lines across the vehicle that make it ready to put vinyl wraps and apply

01:05color in a really simple way. We're committed to making the complete

01:12ownership model absolutely as affordable as possible for people. EVs really make

01:18sense for that. The cost of maintaining an EV is significantly lower than you see in

01:26an ICE vehicle. There's a beautiful idea here, a radically affordable vehicle that

01:33is highly desirable. So hard to have those two things come together. What a

01:40fantastic challenge and something that I've wanted to do for you know forever

01:47really as a designer. As soon as you open the door it's just as much what you see

01:56as what you don't see. There's a really clean and simple environment just like the

02:02exterior it's ready for customization, for personalization. You know what you want as

02:09a customer so we're just creating the environment for you to have what you want.

02:13We make sure that you have everything you need to drive the vehicle and operate it so

02:18there's a driver's screen right in front of the steering wheel. It includes a

02:22reverse camera. We have thin doors that open up to reveal storage areas in the

02:29dash or instrument panel. Those same little storage areas become the perfect

02:36place for an audio system. We have designed for people being able to add different colors and

02:43different material types in those areas. It truly is a platform. It shows up it's a truck and from there you

02:51can go to the square back configuration like you see behind me. You can also have a fastback. The fastback

02:57is still highly utilitarian and has a lot of use, just has a fun sporty profile. We also have an open

03:07air configuration so that we have a nice well-treated roll cage if you really prefer that open air look

03:14as well. You know we are focused on this two-door vehicle and we've done things here that really make it

03:23ready for use so that if you go to the five seat setup you can easily get into the vehicle. We have an

03:31extended track on the passenger seat so that you can move that far forward and have really just easy

03:39you know in and out of the car into the second row bench seat. The vehicle sits in a pretty unique

03:47space. The idea that a vehicle is available to really personalize so easily nobody's doing that and the

03:56affordability of the vehicle really actually starts to compete even with used vehicles so so what a

04:04great thing that we can offer people a new car that is reliable and is theirs from day one.

04:17So

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended