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Slate Auto,<\/a> the electric truck startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has now collected more than 150,000 refundable reservations for its low-cost EV due out at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The company shared the figure in a new Q&A video<\/a> with CEO Chris Barman, where she answers questions from those reservation holders about the company\u2019s plans for self-driving (there are none), or whether owners will be able to affix a car seat to the optional rear seats (they will).<\/p>\n Reservations are a somewhat helpful metric for gauging general interest in a new car, but they are by no means a signal of sure success. Time and again over the last few years, we have seen EV companies tout reservation figures<\/a> only to go bust<\/a>, either because they weren\u2019t able to get through the difficult process of standing up production, or because they weren\u2019t ready to have cars on the road.<\/p>\n For Slate, it\u2019s promising that the number has continued to climb, meaning that new reservations are coming in faster than any attrition the company might be seeing. That said, Slate crossed the 100,000 reservation mark<\/a> all the way back in May, right after it came out of stealth, so it took a good seven months to grow the list by 50%. And looking forward, Slate plans to make 150,000 of these EVs per year at the factory it\u2019s refurbishing in Warsaw, Indiana, so it will need to attract far more buyers if it plans to succeed in the market.<\/p>\n Any continued enthusiasm for Slate\u2019s EV has to be a reassuring sign for the company, given the state of electric trucks overall these days. Just yesterday, Ford announced it is ending production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, the first major battery-powered pickup truck to hit the U.S. market a few years ago. (It\u2019s being replaced by a version with a gas generator attached.) The company said the Lightning simply wasn\u2019t making enough money \u2014 a fact exacerbated by how Ford was never able to sell more than a few thousand per quarter. Sales of other electric trucks, like Tesla\u2019s Cybertruck and General Motors\u2019 Silverado EV, have also struggled to stay above that mark.<\/p>\n Of course, the Lightning was a sort-of Frankenstein\u2019s monster of a vehicle, with Ford shoehorning EV technology into a design that was originally meant for gas powertrains. Slate\u2019s truck has been designed from the ground up to be an EV, and the company is hyper-focused on selling it for a price tag in the mid-$20,000 range. The decline of offerings from Ford and others may help clear the way for Slate to find early success \u2014 that is, until Ford\u2019s real shot at a low-cost EV hits the market in 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n