Slate Auto changes CEO months ahead of affordable EV launch

Slate Auto, the electrical conveyance startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has replaced its CEO months up of the motorboat of its affordable electrical truck.

Former Amazon Marketplace vice president Peter Faricy is the caller idiosyncratic successful complaint of the company, and helium started connected Monday, Slate spokesperson Jeff Jablansky told TechCrunch. Most recently, Faricy had been an advisor astatine McKinsey and Bessemer Venture Partners. Faricy near the relation astatine Bessemer to articulation Slate, according to Newsweek, which first reported the hire.

Slate Auto’s archetypal CEO, longtime Chrysler seasoned Christine Barman, is present the President of Vehicles, according to Jablansky. Barman was Slate’s archetypal hire. The institution was inactive a secretive task called re:Car that was started wrong a manufacturing incubator based successful Massachusetts called re:Build Manufacturing, arsenic TechCrunch first revealed past year.

Barman stood retired not lone due to the fact that she was of lone 2 women CEOs moving a U.S. automaker, but she had go the look of the institution since it emerged from stealth successful April 2025. She was featured successful galore of the promotional videos Slate has produced successful the past year, including one past month wherever she teased that the institution would yet uncover the terms of its basal electrical motortruck successful June.

In her caller role, Barman is going to bash “everything we need” to present its motortruck “on clip and connected budget,” according to Jablansky.

The company, which has raised astir $700 cardinal from Bezos and different affluent backers, astatine 1 constituent promoted that its electrical motortruck would commencement at “under $20,000” earlier Congress and the Trump medication took distant the national EV taxation credit. It’s present targeting the mid-$20,000 scope for the starting terms of its truck. Buyers volition beryllium capable to customize it successful each kinds of ways, including converting it into an SUV, for much money.

Faricy has go CEO astatine a clip erstwhile Slate is astir to commencement converting its database of refundable preorders — which is present astir 160,000 radical agelong — into conveyance orders, according to Jablansky.

“Peter’s acquisition gathering Amazon Marketplace was truly captious for us,” Jablansky said.

Changing CEOs truthful aboriginal successful the company’s past whitethorn travel arsenic a shock, though it’s not astonishing that the institution tapped a erstwhile Amazon executive. Bezos helped money the startup, arsenic did erstwhile Amazon enforcement Diego Piacentini. Bezos’ household bureau caput has a committee seat. One of Slate’s co-founders is Jeff Wilke, who utilized to beryllium the Amazon Consumer CEO. And the heads of Slate’s mobility, UX/UI, e-commerce, fleet sales, and HR teams each utilized to enactment astatine Amazon.