Slate Names New CEO Months Before Launching Its Cheap EV Truck

Slate's new top executive, Peter Faricy, will be tasked with bringing its mid-$20,000s pickup truck to market.

Photo by: Slate

By: Tim Levin

Mar 9, at 1:32pm ET

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Just months before it's set to launch its roughly $25,000 electric pickup truck, Slate Auto has a new CEO.

Peter Faricy took over the role from longtime Chrysler executive Chris Barman on Monday, Newsweek first reported. Barman, who has been the public face of the company since it came out of stealth about a year ago, will stay on as President of Vehicles, according to the outlet.

Faricy worked stints at Ford and McKinsey before serving as the vice president of Amazon Marketplace for about a decade. He was the CEO of the solar firm SunPower from 2021 to 2024, and most recently served as an advisor at Bessemer Venture Partners.

The hiring of a former Amazon executive tracks with what we know about Slate's origin story. As TechCrunch reported last year, the EV startup began as a project within Re:Build Manufacturing, an incubator with deep ties to the e-commerce giant, and counts Jeff Bezos as an investor.

The shakeup in Slate's top ranks comes as it races to start production of customer vehicles. The startup aims to begin delivering its bare-bones, two-door pickup truck by the end of 2026. It will be made at a former printing factory in Warsaw, Indiana.

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Slate has said the vehicle will cost somewhere in the mid-$20,000 range, but hasn't revealed final pricing yet. It says it will share more on that in late June.

Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com