A production facility for a new EV automaker Slate could be coming to Warsaw
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Slate Auto CEO Chris Barman unveils the Slate Truck during a presentation in April, 2025. (Photo provided Slate Auto)
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Aerial view of the former LCS printing press in Warsaw as seen on the IEDC parcel website.
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A startup automaker appears ready to make its flagship product—a bare-bones, electric pickup truck—in Warsaw on the site of a former printing press.
Slate Auto—a company that has operated in stealth mode for several years—recently publicly announced that the Slate Truck will be made in the U.S.
The company did not specify where in the U.S. it will make the vehicle, but signs point to the former LCS Communications property on the western edge of Warsaw.
In Slate’s announcement video last week, the company showed an aerial rendering of a property that appears to match a listing on the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s website of available properties.
The county’s property card lists the property as available for lease.
Tech Crunch was the first outlet to report the connection between Slate and Warsaw. Slate Auto did not respond to an interview request from Inside INdiana Business.
The property card lists about 1.3 million square feet of space in the building, which was built in 1958 and was the longtime site of a printing press for RR Donnelley & Sons. Magazine and catalog printer LSC Communications acquired the plant in 2016 and closed it in 2023, laying off 500 workers.
When contacted on Monday by IIB, Kosciusko County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Peggy Friday said a non-disclosure agreement prevented her from answering questions about the property or any potential development deals the county has entered into.
However, in February, Friday told News Now Warsaw that the organization—known as KEDCO—had an incentive package in place with an undisclosed company related to the former printing plant site. At the time, Friday estimated the deal could lead to 2,000 jobs.
Slate bills its Slate Truck as a battery-powered pickup with a bare-bones design that buyers can customize with more than 100 features. One of the biggest selling points is its price, which Slate said will start at about $28,000. When a buyer claims the current federal EV tax credit, the sticker prices essentially drops to roughly $20,000.
In its announcement video, Slate CEO Chris Barman described the Slate Truck as a “radical truck platform so customizable that it can be transformed from a two-seat pickup into a five-seat SUV.”
Slate Auto was founded as a project housed in an incubator run by former Amazon executives. The company is now based near Detroit, and multiple media outlets report the company raised more than $100 million in Series A funding. Several big names have invested in Slate, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter.