Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto has planted a number of idea variations of its EV on the streets of California. It’s a advertising and marketing tactic that teases the secretive startup’s technique to promote a “Transformer”-like automobile, folks conversant in the corporate’s inside discussions instructed TechCrunch.
This unconventional real-world tease comes days earlier than Slate’s April 24 launch occasion at Lengthy Seashore Airport, based on an invitation considered by TechCrunch.
The Michigan-based startup, based in 2022, has operated in relative secrecy till TechCrunch revealed a report revealing Bezos’ monetary involvement, in addition to its plan to cost its EV at round $25,000 whereas encouraging patrons to customise the automobile to their liking. That base mannequin is known as the “Clean Slate” model, based on a trademark application and one other particular person conversant in the corporate’s plans. Slate has additionally filed for a trademark for the phrase: “We Constructed It. You Make It.”
The Autopian’s David Tracy traveled to Venice, California over the weekend the place Slate parked an idea model of the truck made to appear to be a two-door SUV utilized by a faux enterprise. Equally, Reddit customers posted photos over the weekend of one more version of the truck made to appear to be a hatchback that just about resembles Rivian’s forthcoming R3.
The automobile Tracy noticed up shut this previous weekend appears similar to the the two-door pickup truck noticed by a Reddit person earlier this month in Lengthy Seashore, however with a tough cowl over the mattress that provides it extra of an SUV form. The automobile is roofed in a wrap for a faux enterprise referred to as “Rockabye Rides,” which features a URL that results in a web site that’s counting down to Slate’s occasion later this week.
That makes three completely different silhouettes we’ve seen of Slate’s truck up to now — and that adaptability is one thing the corporate has privately touted because it locked down nicely over $100 million in funding, TechCrunch has realized.
Slate’s management targeted closely on the “Transformer” metaphor because it wooed buyers to fill out its Collection B funding spherical final yr, based on an individual conversant in the pitches. The corporate fastidiously choreographed the conferences across the thought, based on one other particular person conversant in how they went.
This concerned exhibiting potential buyers a generic model of the truck, after which main them to a different room whereas a staff shortly custom-made the automobile. Then the potential buyers could be introduced again to the primary room solely to search out the truck wanting utterly completely different.
These efforts seem to have been convincing. Guggenheim Companions CEO (and controlling proprietor of the LA Dodgers) Mark Walter seemingly invested within the spherical and joined Slate’s board, TechCrunch has reported.
A spokesperson for the corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
These new photographs give a reasonably clear view of the outside of Slate’s truck, and the potential degree of customization. The inside stays a thriller, and there’s no public information in regards to the automobile’s specs.
The corporate has briefed quite a few automotive journalists forward of Thursday’s occasion, and Tracy wrote that he’s “below a strict NDA” on any of the sepecifics.
Even nonetheless, Tracy wrote that the Slate truck “is not like any new automobile I’ve ever seen not simply in my decade as a automotive journalist, however in my whole lifetime.”