WARSAW, Ind. (WPTA) – A new electric vehicle start-up is getting ready to begin production in Kosciusko County.
Slate Auto in Warsaw will produce several thousand vehicles beginning next year.
BACKGROUND: EV startup Slate Auto plans Warsaw production facility, bringing 2,000 jobs
Leaders with Slate Auto say the name is kind of self-explanatory.
They want to start with a ‘blank slate’ and re-envision what people think about when it comes to electric vehicles.
“This is just a huge blessing for our community,” said the Mayor of Warsaw, Jeff Grose.
Grose says this spot, which used to be the R.R. Donnelly and Sons Printing Plant, means a lot to his family.
“My father put his police badge down in 1967 when I was less than six months old to come out to the plant to make a better living for the family,” Grose explained.
So, after the plant shut down in 2023, he says something new to take up this space would need to be something special.
“Who could come in and fill up a 1.5 million square foot plant? Slate Auto!” he said.
“We started to work with the local officials within the community, saw the support that they had for us, saw the passion that they had about the company that was going to come back within this very historic facility within Kosciusko County and Warsaw, and realized that we had a true partner,” said the CEO of Slate Auto, Chris Barman.
Barman says the idea for these electric vehicles is simple.
“We’ve gone back to basics with the vehicle we’ve taken out everything that’s not a car,” she said.
So, there will obviously be a steering wheel and tires.
Barman says what they’re taking out are things they consider to be ‘non-necessities’ in cars to keep prices down.
“There’s these large screen radios and infotainment systems that are very costly to develop. They’re very expensive when you put that equipment in the vehicle and most people today use their phone. We’ve taken out our power windows, we’ve gone back to manual, so it’s more cost-effective,” Barman said.
The price of these EVs will start in the mid $20,000 range.
21Alive news took a tour of the warehouse that will soon be home to thousands of vehicles and new employees.
“We’ll employ a little over 2,000 people when we’re up and fully operational. Those will be full-time jobs,” said Barman.
“I’m hoping countless kids in our schools, people in the region will have the ability to come just like my dad,” Grose explained.
Leaders with the company say since the announcement of the facility earlier this year, they’ve already had more than 100,000 people sign up to be on a wait list to get one of these vehicles that will begin production next year.
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