- Slate Auto is reportedly developing a $25,000 EV, with a late 2026 release scheduled.
- We’ve already seen a two-door pickup and two different three-door SUV variants.
- The company has yet to share any official details but plans to drop info on April 24.
Update: As expected, Slate Auto’s guerrilla-style marketing campaign is picking up steam, with the EV startup continuing to build buzz for its debut model with unconventional tactics. Following the recent sighting of its two-door pickup truck, a TikTok video from TheManiFamily account has now revealed a second variant.
This time, the vehicle in question is a three-door SUV version of the truck, complete with a slanted rear window hatch. With design cues reminiscent of older Range Rovers, it feels like a modern, more compact take on the original three-door Range Rover Classic from the ’70s and ’80s. Some might even notice similarities to the upcoming Rivian R3, which shares some styling elements, particularly the hatchback crossover shape. However, Slate Auto’s still-unnamed model clearly leans more toward utility.
The short video posted on TikTok seems to be another piece of the playful campaign, featuring a fake cat therapist company called TheFelineTherapist. The clip includes a link to a website, CatThurrrapy, which, unsurprisingly, reveals that Slate Auto is behind the entire ruse. But wait, there’s more. TheAutopian also caught wind of a third version of the vehicle, a boxier, two-door SUV that’s practically a love letter to – you guessed it – the Land Rover Defender.
Further details are set to be released on April 24, so stay tuned for more. Original story follows below.
Stumbled upon the Bezosmobile [Slate Automotive…idk?] being revealed with an absolutely bizarre marketing campaign
byu/jonjopop inspotted
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 15, 2025
𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄: A new American electric vehicle company is coming. New automaker Slate shares the first public photos of its upcoming EV, wrapped in Newsweek camouflage. pic.twitter.com/JVfeBzYby4
An electric pickup truck has sparked curiosity online after a photo surfaced of a camouflaged two-door truck being offloaded from a flatbed in Los Angeles. The timing couldn’t be more interesting: news also broke that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is quietly backing a Michigan-based EV startup called Slate Auto, which claims it’s developing a $25,000 electric model in the form of a compact, two-door pickup.
More: Jeff Bezos Secretly Backs EV Maker Building A $25K Pickup For The Masses
Photo TheManiFamily / TikTok
The image, posted to Reddit by user Discostranger09, shows the pickup truck being unloaded from a shipping container just outside their office. The flatbed truck is marked with the name “Time Towing LLC,” though there may be an additional word obscured at the front of the logo. The original poster didn’t offer much more than that, though commentators said the photo was likely taken somewhere in Los Angeles.
From what’s visible, the vehicle looks like a mashup of an older Range Rover and a Jeep Renegade—boxy, upright, and unapologetically stubby. The absence of a grille opening at the front suggests its electric, reinforced by what appears to be a charging port near the rear corner. A quick image search doesn’t match it to anything currently on the market, though admittedly, that’s far from definitive.
Is This Slate Auto’s First Prototype?
Naturally, Redditors were quick to speculate. The most popular theory is that this mystery truck is Slate Auto’s debut model, possibly caught during testing or transport. Others floated ideas ranging from a Rivian prototype to a one-off custom build, though no solid evidence has surfaced to support any theory just yet.
What We Know About Slate Auto
Slate Auto remains mostly under wraps, with limited information available beyond a recent TechCrunch report. According to that story, the company was quietly formed in 2022 as a spinout of Bezos’ investment in Re:Build Manufacturing. Since then, it’s been building out its team in Detroit, recruiting talent from legacy automakers like Ford, GM, and Stellantis, as well as from floundering EV startups such as Fisker and Canoo. Their goal? A $25,000, two-door, two-seat electric pickup aimed at a late 2026 release.
While Slate Auto hasn’t confirmed anything about the vehicle, they’ve announced that more news is coming on April 24. Whether that will include a formal reveal or just more corporate breadcrumbs remains to be seen.
In the meantime, we’ll keep digging to see what else we can uncover about the truck in question. If you recognize it—or if you’re the one who built it in your garage over a long weekend—drop us a line.