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Slate Auto hopes its modular, stripped-down vehicle will be the future of affordable EVs.
The startup, backed by Jeff Bezos, got attention earlier this year when it unveiled a two-seat, two-door electric pickup truck that can also be converted to different body styles of SUVs.
But significant hurdles remain for the company to ramp up production, bring in capital and keep costs down.

Slate Auto electric vehicles inside the startup’s beta production facility in Lake Orion Township, Michigan.
Slate Auto

LAKE ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. — In a nondescript supplier park in suburban Detroit, an electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is building what it hopes will be America’s newest automaker.
The facility is filled with dozens of prototypes, crash-tested vehicles, a crude lab vehicle skeleton adorned with wires and, most importantly, a busy “beta” assembly line that has been building electric vehicles since December for the startup, Slate Auto.

Slate is using the location — a stone’s throw away from a massive General Motors assembly plant — to produce more than 70 vehicles for internal testing, certification and everything else a company needs to prepare to produce and sell vehicles in the United States.
The beta production line features roughly a dozen labeled stations for things such as the vehicle’s doors, tailgate and front ends that sit in bins or on surface areas made out of wood and steel parts.
Employees move back and forth between the bins, tables and assembly line as songs such as Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You” and Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” echo throughout the lively facility.
The largely hand-built vehicles being made are bare-bones, two-seat, two-door electric pickup trucks that can also be converted to different body styles of SUVs, such as a five-seat fastback or into a squared-off look like a Jeep Wrangler.

A Slate Auto employee walks into the startup’s “beta” manufacturing facility on May 16 in Lake Orion Township, Michigan.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

The vehicles have injected-molded composite exteriors, crank windows, no infotainment systems and a litany of do-it yourself options. The plan is for every vehicle coming off the line to be the same to reduce complexity, before adding any additional features or different covers/tops.

Auto executives have tossed around the idea for such a modular, stripped-down vehicle amid the rise of connectivity and affordability concerns, but so far the challenges have outweighed the potential opportunities, or companies have struggled to keep prices down.
Slate believes it can succeed where others have failed through simplified manufacturing and lower costs – two areas where other EV startups have failed in recent years.
“This one’s going to be different for a number of reasons,” Eric Keipper, an auto veteran and Slate’s head of engineering, told CNBC after a tour of the company’s manufacturing facility. “We took the back-to-basics, only-the-essentials approach, and, really, we’re building a completely new category of product.”
Slate exited its “stealth mode” in late April by revealing its first vehicles — several two-door electric pickup trucks and converted SUVs — that it expects to begin deliveries of by the end of next year. It’s in the process of building out a full production facility at a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana, where it expects to have capacity for up to 150,000 vehicles a year.
It’s a daunting timeframe even for an established automaker, let alone a new startup that’s establishing its supply chains, production processes and workforce, among other things. Hand-building vehicles at a small facility is one thing; mass producing them is another.
“We’ve put together a really solid plan, and we’re working to achieve the plan,” Slate CEO Chris Barman told CNBC. “It doesn’t mean that we follow the plan exactly. We gotta pivot when different information comes, but we understand what we’ve got to do to ultimately get to the goal of having vehicles that meet all of our requirements.”

The Slate Truck.
Courtesy: Slate Auto

Slate revealed its unnamed vehicle (the company is telling customers to name it themselves) to notable fanfare, attracting more than 100,000 reservations that required a $50 deposit. For other companies, however, vehicles reservations have fallen significantly short of actual sales.
The company said it is conducting a Series C round of financing after raising $700 million in its first two rounds of financing. TechCrunch first reported the Series A round in 2023 raised $111 million from 16 investors, including Bezos.
Other EV startups have needed significantly more funding and have quickly blown through billions of dollars annually attempting to get a vehicle into production. But Slate believes it can be far less capital intense thanks to the engineering and production of the vehicle.
“We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never been delivered,” Barman said during the April 24 debut. “But with a twist, it’s a vehicle people are actually going to love and be proud to own.”
The company declined to discuss future targets such as sales and profitability, as well as expected capital requirements, other than that it plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in its Indiana plant.

‘A blank Slate’

Barman and Keipper — veterans of Stellantis predecessor Fiat Chrysler, among other companies — met nearly three years ago to discuss the vehicle and Slate’s business plan as the first employees of the startup.
“It started with a blank slate,” said Keipper. “The CEO and I sat together on the fifth of July in 2022 and looked at a blank whiteboard, and I filled it. I said, ‘Here’s the plan. Let’s do this.'”

Slate Auto CEO, Chris Barman.
Courtesy: Slate

During the reveal, the company positioned itself and its vehicle as a “a radically simple, radically affordable, radically personalizable car.”
The vehicle — which has a targeted starting price of under $20,000 with an up to $7,500 EV credit — features many “off the shelf” parts from suppliers, lowering costs. Its body also is exclusively injected molded composite instead of steel or aluminum, bringing down cost and weight.
It does not feature any “connectivity” such as a modem or large screens, just a small driver information screen. Instead of a center infotainment system, drivers can use their own devices such as a smartphone or tablet for navigation and music. Speakers also are optional.
The exteriors of the Slate vehicles also won’t be painted. The company says it was engineered to be wrapped with a vinyl film, eliminating the need for a costly paint shop — a massive investment for automakers.
The basis for the company is for consumers to be able to easily change the vehicle themselves or add whatever they’d like to it after purchase through the removal or addition of bolts. The company plans to offer some services such as the vehicle wrapping, but customers aren’t required to do those things through Slate and can purchase add-ons later.

Slate says the vehicle — about the length of a two-door Ford Bronco — only features roughly 2,500 parts, including only 500 to 700 “end items,” or parts, for final assembly. That compares with a Slate estimate of 2,500-end item parts for other competitors and thousands of more overall pieces.
“Fundamentally, there’s no new technology because technology costs money to develop,” said Jamie Standring, formerly with Karma Automotive and Stellantis/Fiat Chrysler, standing by the beta assembly line.
Standring said the initial idea was to have the vehicle’s frame that everything is built upon be bolted together – almost like an erector set – to remove the need for a full body shop, much like it’s attempting to not use a paint shop. But the drawbacks eventually outweighed the benefits, he said.
The Slate truck is expected to ship with a standard 52.7-kWh battery with an estimated range of around 150 miles, or a 84.3-kWh pack with a target of 240 miles of range. Its battery supplier is SK On, according to the company. Its top speed is only 90 miles per hour.
“I’m really proud of the team for how they really thought out of the box,” Barman said. “We’ll have kits, and we’re doing it in a way that’s lean as well, but we want to offer people many choices.”

Significant hurdles remain

But more choices for consumers mean more complexity.
On the company’s website, there are 11 categories for customers to customize with a combined 160 options, excluding customizable exterior colors for wraps. That’s a lot of options – ranging from dozens of decals to lighting, audio and tires and wheels – for a customer to pick and a company to store and offer.
Slate executives say the point of the customization is for customers to be able to make the vehicle their own and easily upgrade or change it when they’d like, but auto analysts see it as one of many potential problem areas.

Slate Auto reveal.
Courtesy: Slate

In addition to traditional startup challenges such as capital, profitability and scaling up, other hurdles include: A limited market for two-door vehicles, slower-than-expected adoption of EVs and regulatory uncertainty regarding federal tax credits that Slate is relying on for the vehicle’s affordability, among other things.
“They have an interesting idea,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director in AutoIntelligence at S&P Global Mobility. “The question is, how many people really want to do that much themselves, and how big is the adjustable market?”
The sale of two-door regular cab pickup trucks like Slate’s debut vehicle only accounted for less than 90,400 registrations in 2024. That compares to more than 2.5 million registered four-door crew cab trucks.
Brinley, who attended Slate’s reveal event in California, said if the company wants to be sustainable, it would need to expand its product lineup to four-door models, which the platform seems to be able to support, as well as additional vehicles in the future.
“Just like every other startup before it, their sustainability is not going to be determined by the first product in the first six months,” Brinley said. “The first product just gets you in the door.”
A handful of auto startups such as Lordstown Motors, Electric Last Mile Solutions, Fisker, Canoo and Nikola all made it into various forms of production but went bankrupt. Even better capitalized EV startups such as Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group have continually had to raise capital to stay afloat.
Industry insiders also have raised concerns about the affordability of Slate’s vehicle once customers add options or a new SUV top, which can be installed and uninstalled using bolts.

The Slate Truck interior.
Courtesy: Slate Auto

“I think it’s super interesting. The idea behind it, we’ve talked about that idea a million times,” Tim Kuniskis, CEO of Stellantis’ Ram Truck brand, said recently when asked about Slate. “Now, what’s it going to actually transact at in the marketplace … when people start to option them up, it’s not going to be $20,000. It’s going to be $35,000, and by the time you get to $35,000, you’re in midsize truck territory. ”
Slate has not announced pricing for customizations or exact pricing of the vehicle without a federal tax credit that’s in jeopardy under President Donald Trump.
“Slate is an example of why and how hard it is to produce a cheap EV” said Karl Brauer, a veteran auto analyst with iSeeCars.com. “They are producing an electric vehicle with only two seats, 140-mile range, manual windows, no touch screen, and it’s still $27,500 … To me, it’s not a competitive vehicle at that point.”
Brauer said there are other EVs close to that price, as well as smaller pickups such as the Ford Maverick hybrid with a lot more features that could be a better buy for consumers.
Both Brauer and Brinley gave Slate credit for trying something new and attempting to address affordability concerns, but the auto industry isn’t an easy busy to break into, even when starting from a blank slate.
“It’s modular. It’s cool. It’s a really clever idea,” Brinley said. “The question for me comes down to how many people want to do that? And we’ll find out, but I don’t know that it’s as high as they think it is.” More

Used vehicle prices last month eased from a recent high in April as consumers who needed a vehicle but feared price hikes due to tariffs purchased one quickly.
The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — which tracks prices of used vehicles sold at its U.S. wholesale auctions — decreased 1.5% from April to May, but remained 4% higher than a year earlier.
Retail prices for consumers traditionally follow changes in wholesale prices, but they have not fallen as quickly as wholesale prices in recent years.

A Ford mustang is seen at a used car dealership in Montebello, California on May 5, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

DETROIT — Used vehicle prices last month eased from their recent high in April as consumers who may have needed a vehicle but feared price hikes due to tariffs flocked to purchase a car or truck, according to a closely watched barometer of preowned prices.
Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — which tracks prices of used vehicles sold at its U.S. wholesale auctions — decreased 1.5% from April to May, but remained 4% higher than a year earlier. April’s level was the highest since October 2023.

“Wholesale appreciation trends were remarkably strong in April, but the market gave some of that strength back in May, though values remain well above last year’s levels,” said Jeremy Robb, senior director of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive.
Retail prices for consumers traditionally follow changes in wholesale prices, but they have not fallen as quickly as wholesale prices in recent years.
While President Donald Trump’s tariffs of 25% on new imported vehicles and many parts do not directly impact used car sales, changes in new vehicle prices, production and demand affect the used car market, which is how the majority of Americans purchase a vehicle.
Demand has stayed relatively strong as inventory levels for used vehicles – 2.2 million – remain low compared with historical levels. That comes as consumers have been holding on to their vehicles for longer and as the industry deals with less production in recent years amid the coronavirus pandemic and global supply chain shortages.
Cox reports retail used vehicle sales in May were down 3% compared with April but higher year over year by 4%.
Cox previously said it was seeing used vehicle prices continue to stabilize after swinging wildly for several years before starting to calm down in 2024.

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FROM MONDAY to Friday, Diana Kydysiuk’s life looks much like that of any other 11-year-old, with her time taken up by school, gymnastics and judo practice. But at weekends Diana becomes the star of home-made videos that are viewed billions of times by people around the world. “Yeah,” she says shyly, “it’s weird.” More

Walmart said it will expand drone deliveries to customers from 100 stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa within the coming year.
Customers can already get items by drone delivery in parts of Northwest Arkansas and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Walmart and Amazon’s expansion of drones has been slow-going, with ambitious goals but just a modest delivery footprint so far.

Wing drone carrying a Walmart delivery.
Courtesy: Walmart

Walmart is bringing drone deliveries to three more states.
On Thursday, the big-box retailer said it plans to launch the speedier delivery option at 100 stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa within the coming year. With the expansion, Walmart’s drone deliveries will be available in a total of five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Customers will request a delivery through the app of Wing, the operator who flies the drones through a deal with Walmart. The drone operator will have an up to a six-mile range from stores.
Drone deliveries are one of the buzziest examples of Walmart’s efforts to compete with rivals like Amazon on convenience along with low price. With more than 4,600 Walmart stores across the U.S., the retailer has used its large footprint to get online orders to customers faster. It has an Express Delivery service that drops purchases at customers’ doors in as fast as 30 minutes, along with InHome, a subscription-based service, that puts items directly into people’s fridges. The company began same-day prescription deliveries last fall and has expanded the service across the country.
“The number one piece of feedback that we get from our customers are, ‘When are you expanding?'” said Greg Cathey, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. transformation and innovation, referring to drone delivery. Cathey said shoppers using the drone service typically order urgent items, such as hamburger buns for a cookout, eggs to make brownies or Tylenol or cold medicine needed when sick.
Drone deliveries take 30 minutes or less, the company said. So far, some of the most frequently delivered items include eggs, ice cream, pet food and fresh fruit, including bananas, lemons and eggs, Walmart added.
Walmart stores have an assortment of over 150,000 items in a location. Over 50% of those can be delivered by drone, Cathey said.

Yet the rollout of speedy deliveries across the U.S. has come with stops and starts. Three years ago, Walmart announced a plan to expand drone deliveries with DroneUp so it would be able to reach 4 million households across six states fulfilled from 37 stores in parts of Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia. At the time, the company’s leaders said the retailer would be able to deliver over 1 million packages by drone in a year by using those sites. The rollout never stuck.
Walmart’s drone delivery count so far is modest. The company did not share the specific count, but said it has racked up a total of more than 150,000 drone deliveries since 2021.
Chief competitor Amazon’s expansion of drone deliveries has been slow-going, too. The e-commerce giant set a goal to deliver 500 million packages by drone per year by the end of the decade through its service, Prime Air.
So far, it has tested the deliveries in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Arizona, but it temporarily suspended service earlier this year after an abnormality with the drone’s altitude sensor that required a software fix.
Walmart has tested drone deliveries in Northwest Arkansas, near its hometown of Bentonville, and scaled them to reach most of the population in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Several drone operators, including Zipline, Flytrex, DroneUp and Wing, have powered Walmart’s deliveries, but the retailer has not provided the financial terms of the deals or the amount of money it has made from sales delivered by drones.
Walmart said it currently has 21 live sites in Arkansas and Texas, which are operated by Wing and Zipline. Its contract with DroneUp ended last year.
Kieran Shanahan, chief operating officer of Walmart U.S., said the company wants to offer “flexibility and convenience” with drones, along with speedier deliveries by van.
“We see it as part of a broader ecosystem of things,” he said. “And who knows what five years, 10 years time will bring as new technologies and capabilities unlock?”
If customers order in the Wing app, deliveries are free. Cathey said Walmart is testing the addition of a drone delivery option within its app in the Dallas area. As part of the test, deliveries cost $19.99 or are free for members of Walmart+, the company’s subscription service.
— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report. More

Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings, but cut its full-year earnings guidance, citing a “dynamic macroenvironment.”
Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank added on the call that the brand is planning to take “strategic price increases, looking item by item across our assortment,” to mitigate tariff impacts.
Shares of the apparel company plunged about 23% in extended trading.

People walk past a Lululemon department store in New York City on June 5, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal first-quarter earnings Thursday, but cut its full-year earnings guidance, citing a “dynamic macroenvironment.”
As the company navigates tariffs and fears about a slowing U.S. economy, CEO Calvin McDonald said in a news release that “we intend to leverage our strong financial position and competitive advantages to play offense, while we continue to invest in the growth opportunities in front of us.”

He said on a conference call with analysts that he is “not happy” with U.S. growth and said U.S. consumers are being cautious and intentional about their buying decisions.
Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank added on the call that the brand is planning to take “strategic price increases, looking item by item across our assortment,” to mitigate the effect of tariffs.
“It will be price increases on a small portion of our assortments, and they will be modest in nature,” she said, adding that those hikes will start rolling out toward the second half of the current quarter and into the third quarter.
Shares of the apparel company plunged about 23% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did for its first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ended May 4, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.60 vs. $2.58 expected
Revenue: $2.37 billion vs. $2.36 billion expected

The company cut its full-year earnings guidance. It expects its full-year earnings per share to be between $14.58 to $14.78. Previously, it expected full-year earnings per share to be in the range of $14.95 to $15.15 for the year. Analysts anticipated earnings per share of $14.89, according to LSEG.
Lululemon’s report comes after a string of retailers reduced or withdrew their guidance and said they would hike prices because of uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariff regime. Retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch and Macy’s slashed their profit outlooks, while others, including American Eagle Outfitters pulled their full-year guidance altogether.
Among Lululemon’s rivals in the athleticwear category specifically, Gap, which owns athleisure brand Athleta, reported last week that it expects tariffs to impact its business by $100 million to $150 million. Nike told CNBC last month it would begin raising prices on a wide range of products, though it did not specify whether tariffs were the reason for the hikes. 
On Thursday’s earnings call, McDonald acknowledged the uncertainty that tariffs have brought on the business, but said he believes the brand is “better positioned than most” to navigate the current environment.
Lululemon reported net income for the fiscal first quarter of $314 million, or $2.60 per share, compared with a net income of $321 million, or $2.54 per share, a year earlier.
First-quarter revenue rose to $2.37 billion, up from about $2.21 billion during the same period in 2024.
Lululemon expects second-quarter revenue to total between $2.54 billion and $2.56 billion. It also anticipates full-year fiscal 2025 revenue to be $11.15 billion to $11.3 billion — unchanged from its last forecast. Wall Street analysts were expecting revenue of $2.56 billion for the second quarter and $11.24 billion for the full year, according to LSEG.
The activewear company expects to post earnings per share in the range of $2.85 to $2.90 for the second quarter, compared to Wall Street’s expectation of $3.29, according to LSEG.
Frank said on the earnings call that the company’s outlook assumes the current 30% incremental tariff on China and an incremental 10% levy on the remaining countries where the retailer sources from.
During 2024, 40% of Lululemon’s products were manufactured in Vietnam, 17% in Cambodia, 11% in Sri Lanka, 11% in Indonesia, 7% in Bangladesh and the remainder in other regions, according to the company’s annual report. Lululemon does not own or operate any manufacturing facilities and relies on suppliers to produce and provide fabrics for its products, according to the report. 
Comparable sales rose 1% year over year for the quarter, compared to the 3% Wall Street was anticipating, according to StreetAccount. That number includes a 2% decrease in the Americas and a 6% increase internationally.
Gross margin was 58.3%, ahead of the 57.7% that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
However, Frank said on the earnings call that Lululemon expects full-year gross margins to decrease approximately 110 basis points versus 2024, down from its prior guidance of a 60-basis point drop. She said the difference is driven predominantly by increased tariffs.
As of Thursday’s close, LULU stock had dropped about 13% year-to-date. More

Eid al-Adha, which began this year on June 6th, is nicknamed the “Muslim Met Gala” for good reason. The three-day Islamic holiday is an opportunity not only for religious observance but for worship of the fashion gods, as revellers dress up to the nines. As Muslim spending on fashion grows, designers are bringing out collections aimed at the observant. What’s more, even non-Muslims are adopting the trend for “modest-wear”. More

Stellantis said it is resurrecting its well-known V-8 Hemi engine for its Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks beginning this summer.
The company had discontinued the 5.7-liter version of the engine amid tightening fuel economy regulations and a companywide push toward electric vehicles.
The vehicles will not feature “HEMI” on the side. Instead, the company has created a new badge that features a ram’s head coming out of a Hemi engine that it’s calling its “Symbol of Protest.”

Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT — Stellantis said Thursday it is resurrecting its popular V-8 Hemi engine for its Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks beginning this summer.
The company discontinued the 5.7-liter engine amid tightening fuel economy regulations and a companywide push toward electric vehicles and more efficient engines last year under ex-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.

Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis, who unretired from the automaker late last year, admitted the decision to cancel the Hemi engine for its popular consumer-focused Ram 1500 was a mistake.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle them defines you. Ram screwed up when we dropped the Hemi — we own it and we fixed it,” Kuniskis said in a press release. “We’re not just bringing back a legendary V-8 engine, we’re igniting an assertive product plan and expanding the freedom of choice in powertrain for our customers.”
The announcement marked the latest reversal in automakers’ plans this year, as EV adoption has been slower than expected and as the Trump administration has sought to unwind many of former President Joe Biden’s initiatives to push the auto industry away from gas-guzzling internal combustion engines.

Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis during a media event to reintroduce the Hemi V-8 engine at Stellantis’ North American headquarters in June 2025.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

The Hemi announcement, which comes as the automaker delays plans for its electric trucks, is part of Kuniskis’ new product turnaround plan, which includes 25 product announcements over an 18-month period, the company said.
Ram’s sales have struggled for years amid price increases and production mishaps, as well as the automaker killing off the Hemi engine — a staple of the automaker and its predecessors since the 1950s.

Kuniskis said he expects Hemi to represent 25% to 40% of the Ram 1500 pickup trucks’ sales. Ram has continued to offer Hemi engines in larger pickup trucks.
Ram discontinued the Hemi in exchange for a more efficient twin-turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine called the Hurricane. That engine will continue to be offered, with the Hemi as a $1,200 option on most models. A 3.6-liter V-6 engine is standard on entry-level models.
Kuniskis said his top priority when he returned in December was to get the Hemi back into Ram trucks. He initially said it had been estimated to take 18 months, but the company was able to cut that down to six months through a special project team — codenamed F15, he said.
The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 delivers 395 horsepower and 410 foot-pounds of torque. The Hurricane that replaced it has 420 horsepower and 469 foot-pounds of torque, while a high-output version of the Hurricane engine is rated at 540 horsepower and 521 foot-pounds of torque.

Dodge Ram display is seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC

Unlike previous generations of the truck, the new vehicle will not feature “HEMI” on the side. Instead, the company has created a new badge that features a ram’s head coming out of a Hemi engine that it’s calling its “Symbol of Protest.”
The new logo and name are an effort to regain customers who may have decided not to buy a Ram truck because the company attempted to push more efficient engines and EVs on them.
“They hate the fact that we took away the freedom of choice,” Kuniskis said at a press briefing. “We, as Americans, probably even more so truck buyers, hate the fact that we said, ‘This is the choice you get.'”
Kuniskis said the automaker is still expected to eventually offer electric or hybrid pickup trucks to assist in meeting emissions and fuel economy requirements for Ram, but he declined to disclose an updated time frame after several delays. More

Procter & Gamble will cut approximately 7,000 jobs as part of a restructuring program that will also include exiting certain brands and markets.
CFO Andre Schulten said more details will be shared on the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call in July.
Slowing growth in the U.S. and higher costs from tariffs are expected to weigh on the company’s performance.

Packages of Charmin Ultra Soft bath tissue are stacked at a Costco Wholesale store in San Diego, California, on March 11, 2025.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images

Procter & Gamble will cut 7,000 jobs, or roughly 15% of its nonmanufacturing workforce, as part of a two-year restructuring program.
The layoffs by the consumer goods giant come as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have led a range of companies to hike prices to offset higher costs. The trade tensions have raised concerns about the broader health of the U.S. economy and job market.

P&G CFO Andre Schulten announced the job cuts during a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Consumer Conference on Thursday morning. The company employs 108,000 people worldwide, as of June 30, according to regulatory filings.
P&G faces slowing growth in the U.S., the company’s largest market. In its fiscal third quarter, North American organic sales rose just 1%.
Trump’s tariffs have presented another challenge for P&G, which has said that it plans to raise prices in the next fiscal year, which starts in July. The company expects a 3 cent to 4 cent per share drag on its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings from levies, based on current rates, Schulten said. Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, P&G is projecting a headwind from tariffs of $600 million before taxes.
P&G, which owns Pampers, Tide and Swiffer, is planning a broader effort to reevaluate its portfolio, restructure its supply chain and slim down its corporate organization. Schulten said investors can expect more details, like specific brand and market exits, on the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call in July.
P&G is projecting that it will incur noncore costs of $1 billion to $1.6 billion before taxes due to the reorganization.

“This restructuring program is an important step toward ensuring our ability to deliver our long-term algorithm over the coming two to three years,” Schulten said. “It does not, however, remove the near-term challenges that we currently face.”
P&G follows other major U.S. employers, including Microsoft and Starbucks, in carrying out significant layoffs this year. As Trump’s tariffs take hold, investors are watching Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for May for signs of whether the job market has started to slow. While the government reading for April was better than expected, a separate reading this week from ADP showed private sector hiring was weak in May.
Shares of P&G fell more than 1% in morning trading on the news. The stock has dropped 2% so far this year, outstripped by the S&P 500’s gains of more than 1%. P&G has a market cap of $407 billion.

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