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EV startups are struggling across the board, but a newcomer to the market could benefit from America’s obsession with pickups.
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Known as Telo Trucks, the brand promises hand-built, compact, pickup-ready EVs from its headquarters in San Carlos, California.
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With 500 horsepower, a 60-inch cargo bed and 350 miles of range, the $50,000 starting price seems like a good deal, though the company has yet to produce a unit.
Another EV startup is stepping up to the plate – a bold move amid choppy sales seas. And the origin story behind this one is predictable, with founders Jason Marks and Forrest North defecting from autonomous engineering consultancy National Instruments and Tesla plus Mission Motors, respectively. But the company, known as Telo Trucks, may have a trick up its sleeve: a good product.
Rather than producing the next iteration of the luxury sedan or trying to compete with Ford for electric pickup supremacy, Telo Trucks is following in the footsteps of Japanese manufacturers decades ago when it launched its first small electric MT1 pickup. up revealed. Akin to the now-hyped Kei trucks, the Telo MT1 Truck is just 152 inches long, which is equivalent in size to a four-door Mini Cooper.
Better yet, the MT1 has a 60-inch bed and room for five passengers squeezed through its four-door design. That’s the same bed length as a 2024 Toyota Tacoma and just an inch shorter than a Chevrolet Colorado, as the model has a specially designed bulkhead that folds down into the passenger compartment.
In other words, the MT1 bed is big enough for 4-by-8-foot sheets of plywood, long ladders, and even a 9-foot surfboard with the tailgate closed. It achieves such a packing feat by compressing the usable passenger cabin to the size of a compact car, though a shorter front overhang improves driver legroom.
“By focusing on the design and placement of the battery pack in the truck chassis,
we are not only able to create a more spacious crew cabin, but also develop a vehicle that is
practical for its users,” said Forrest North, CTO and co-founder. “Our patent is pending
battery packs are space-optimized to provide an impressive 350 miles of range between them
charges in our small footprint while being highly manufacturable.”
That’s quite a bit of range from a supposedly city-focused truck, but the company could pad its range numbers with the chance of heavy machinery being thrown in the back. Additionally, this 350-mile range isn’t an EPA-certified estimate, and Telo has yet to specify who will provide the battery and what size the battery will be. As a result, it is difficult to verify the claim that the Telo Truck can charge from 20% to 80% in 20 minutes.
On a more exciting note, the compact truck is said to put out 500 horsepower thanks to the undisclosed battery and a pair of electric motors, which neatly create the model’s four-wheel drive system. With a curb weight of 4400 pounds, the MT1 has a claimed 0-60 mph sprint of four seconds flat, though that much horsepower is probably better used hauling mulch. In particular, the use of early release materials of 4WD, as opposed to four-wheel drive, hints at the possibility of a switchable powertrain for extended range or low traction situations.
Designed by Yves Béhar, whose previous work can be seen through brands such as Herman Miller, Samsung, SodaStream and Prada, the boxy, matt-finished EV takes on an almost commercial look. Aimed at city dwellers who see themselves as outdoor weekend warriors, the truck honestly looks more like a modern Renault EV than a hefty Rivian truck, a characteristic Béhar seemingly wanted to avoid. Still, the MT1’s dimensions are hard to deny, as it’s shorter than a Toyota RAV4.
If this conceptual EV appeals to you, it’s worth jumping on for the low price of a $152 refundable down payment before the $50,000 price point, even if the MT1 doesn’t enter production until 2025. 500 will be hand-built for 2025, with mass deliveries from the San Carlos, Cali
fornia facility eventually starting in 2026. as the company can get to grips with an increasingly difficult EV startup market.
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