Slate Truck Opens First Showroom, Priced From $24,950 — The Chicago Experience Center Sits in a Former Tesla Store, and the Truck Still Has No Dealers

The Bezos-backed startup's first Experience Center lets shoppers see the bare-bones electric truck in person for the first time, in a space that used to be a Tesla store.

Slate Auto opened its first physical showroom on October 15, 2026, in Chicago — a Slate Experience Center housed in a space that previously operated as a Tesla store. It's the first place shoppers can see the company's bare-bones electric pickup in person rather than online, ahead of sales targeted to begin by the end of 2026.

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Chicago Grand Opening (Slate Auto)YouTube ↗

The truck itself starts at $24,950 before fees, or $26,400 including destination charges, which Slate and multiple outlets have described as the cheapest new EV sold in the US. The base configuration is rated for 205 miles of range from an LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery pack — a chemistry chosen over the more common nickel-based packs partly for cost and durability rather than peak energy density. Slate also offers the platform as a convertible five-seat SUV body in addition to the standard two-door pickup configuration.

Inside the Chicago center, visitors can look over the truck's size, interior space, and build quality in person, along with the accessories and customization options Slate sells for it — the company has built its identity around a deliberately plain base vehicle that owners add features to themselves, the opposite of a fully-loaded showroom model. Test drives are available at the center, and Slate ran scheduled demonstration rides, with advance reservations, from October 15 through 17 to coincide with the opening.

Slate is skipping the traditional dealer model entirely, selling direct to consumers instead. It's also skipping owned service centers, the model Tesla and Rivian both built out at real cost — instead, Slate is partnering with RepairPal, a company that vets independent repair shops, to handle service and warranty work through existing local mechanics rather than a proprietary network.

The company is backed in part by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and closed a $650 million Series C funding round in April 2026, led by TWG Global. Manufacturing is based in Warsaw, Indiana, where Slate has put roughly $400 million into its production facility. A spokesperson declined to elaborate on plans for additional Experience Center locations beyond Chicago.

For now, Chicago is the only place to see or ride in a Slate Truck before buying one sight-unseen online — a real limitation for a direct-to-consumer brand with national ambitions and no physical dealer network to fall back on. Whether that changes before deliveries start by the end of 2026 will say a lot about how seriously Slate expects demand to scale in its first year.

Original coverage: Slate Truck Opens Its First Showroom in Chicago