Since Slate Auto got here out of stealth mode final week, the web has been abuzz with hypothesis in regards to the finer particulars of the ultra-barebones electrical Truck, which is about to price simply $20,000 when it enters manufacturing subsequent 12 months — assuming our federal EV incentives are nonetheless in place by then.
A kind of questions was the place Slate will construct the factor, with a TechCrunch report suggesting a factory in Indiana. At present we are able to formally affirm the small print. Slate Auto will retrofit an current 1.4 million sq. foot manufacturing unit in Warsaw, Indiana, the place the corporate plans to ultimately produce 150,000 Vans yearly.
In the event you missed all the thrill final week, Slate’s Truck is a radically simplified EV with 150 miles of vary, a barebones machine that may very well be thought of a minimal viable automobile. It has no touchscreen, no radio, no energy home windows, and no paint.
Slate Auto will retrofit an current 1.4 million sq. foot manufacturing unit in Warsaw, Indiana.
These had been a few of the concessions required to make an EV that inexpensively in america, however a few of these seeming compromises allow a uniquely streamlined manufacturing workflow.
As a result of the Truck doesn’t have paint, Slate Auto’s manufacturing unit doesn’t want an costly paint store. (Mercedes-Benz just lately spent a reported $1 billion constructing a brand new one.) And, as a result of the physique panels are fabricated from a type of plastic, that manufacturing unit can skip the huge presses usually used to stamp metallic physique panels into form.
Slate will construct out their manufacturing hub on the former R.R. Donnelly facility in Warsaw, Indiana, a printing press that was as soon as answerable for stuffing your mailbox with catalog pulp from retailers. It shuttered in September of 2023, placing over 500 folks out of labor.
When it reopens subsequent 12 months, Jeff Jablansky, Slate Auto’s head of public relations and communications, says the plan is to make use of 2,000 folks on the facility. Slate wouldn’t affirm the entire funding the power’s retrofit would require, or the phrases of Slate’s use of the property, solely that renovations will price within the a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars}.
All that may have to be accomplished earlier than the Truck can start manufacturing, which is presently scheduled for This autumn of 2026.
At 1.4 million sq. ft, Slate’s facility is roughly one-quarter the scale of Tesla’s Fremont Manufacturing facility, which presently produces roughly 650,000 automobiles per 12 months. Once more, Slate hopes to provide upwards of 150,000 Vans yearly at this facility, an annual manufacturing charge that took Tesla greater than 5 years to realize in Fremont. Given its simplified manufacturing course of, Slate will certainly be hoping to maneuver extra rapidly.
Slate is dedicated to not solely manufacturing the Truck within the U.S. however to utilizing home suppliers as effectively. “The car is designed, engineered, and manufactured within the U.S., with the vast majority of our provide chain primarily based within the U.S.” Jeremy Snyder, Slate’s Chief Business Officer, informed us forward of the Truck’s debut. As international commerce wars solely escalate, that’s trying like a sound transfer.