Tiny TELO Electric Truck Punches Up At You-Know-Who

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He’s baaaaack. Tesla Motors co-founder Marc Tarpenning is taking another dive into the EV pool as a board member of the electric truck startup TELO Trucks. If the first order of business is to go mano-a-mano against the Tesla Cybertruck for a share of the busy urban adventurer market, that’s a pretty tall order. So, how do the two pickup trucks stack up?

CyberTruck Vs. Tiny Electric Truck

The Cybertruck has plenty of fans, though perhaps not quite as many fans as originally anticipated. If you are among them, drop a note in the comment thread (nice comments only, please). As of this writing, sales of the Cybertruck in the US are outpacing other automakers in the $100,000 and up category for electric pickup trucks, with Tesla reportedly not offering an under-$100,000 version of the truck since August.

The Cybertruck also has some critics, many of whom come from a functionality perspective. That’s missing the point. The Cybertruck makes a statement, much like an exceptionally large handbag. Practicality is irrelevant. If you want practicality, I have a closet full of slightly worn but clean reusable shopping bags begging to be of use to someone, somewhere.

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TELO Trucks also makes a statement. It states that an electric pickup truck can be functional, affordable, and Kei-cult tiny at the same time. At 152 inches long the new TELO MT1 can squeeze into tight parallel parking spots as easily as a Mini Cooper but its truck bed measures a hefty 60 inches, comparable to a Toyota Tacoma.

The MT1 is also getting more affordable as we speak. When TELO burst out of stealth mode in June of 2023, they listed the base price at $49,999.00. In a pre-production announcement for the company’s inaugural TELO MT1 electric pickup truck earlier this week, the base price dropped to $41,520.00 (see more background on the TELO electric pickup truck here).

Tiny Electric Truck, Coming Soon To A Parallel Parking Space Near You

Given the price difference, comparing the MT1 to the Cybertruck on sales figures is an apples-to-oranges exercise. As noted by Barron’s among others, the entire market for $100,000+ vehicles of any sort, pickup truck or not, only accounts for 3-4% of total new car sales in the US. For that matter, most US car buyers purchase used vehicles, not new ones. If the idea is to get more drivers behind the wheel of a zero emission electric truck as quickly as possible, $100,000 and up for a new EV is not the sweet spot.

It remains to be seen if TELO can rack up Cybertruck-style numbers at a base price of $41,000 and change. The company is up against some stiff competition in the plug-in hybrid electric truck space, one example being the Ford Maverick. Still, the company’s claim of shaving several feet off the length of a typical pickup truck could be the deal maker for city drivers. The last time we checked, the Maverick was closing in at 200 inches end-to-end.

If pre-orders are any indication, TELO is off to a decent start with 3,700 names on its MT1 list and counting. Interested? Reservations only cost $152 (the length of the vehicle, of course), and an online configurator tool is there to help make the shopping process more fun.

The MT1 Difference

Those of you following the news from TELO will spot some differences between the ready-for-production MT1 and earlier versions. The dual-motor platform has been 86’d in favor of a single motor, and the original target of 350 miles of range has been downsized to 25o miles.

Both of the changes reinforce the focus on affordability for daily urban use and weekend getaways, which is something that TELO co-founder and CTO Forrest North knows something about. His long track record in the EV battery field includes a 22-month stint at Tesla Motors, where he focused mainly on energy storage systems. His LinkedIn profile lists “Making hardware for the connection and packaging of lithium-ion cells in the battery” and “Testing various elements of pack cooling, thermal runaway suppression, the auxiliary power supply, and water ingress” among his tasks at Tesla Motors, as well as “Building the first 10 pre-production battery packs on the factory floor in Asia.”

“Having been on the forefront of clean mobility since engineering the EV battery pack in the first Tesla Roadster, I know it’s possible for automakers to offer drivers an affordable electric vehicle that goes further than simply cutting carbon emissions,” North emphasized in a press statement.

“It’s about giving them a revolutionary vehicle design that’s safer, more sustainable, more functional and also fun to drive,” he added.

The Kei Cult And The Electric Truck Of The Future

If you give the MT1 electric truck a quick glance, it scans less like a pickup truck and more like an electric van with a pickup bed in the back. That’s probably not an accident. Electric vans  and electric minivans, are giving pickup trucks a run for the money in terms of comfort, versatility, and functionality.

The decision-makers at TELO appear to be taking that into account. In September, Dale Beever joined the electric truck maker in the capacity of Director of Design Technical Operations.

“With a career spanning over two decades and a portfolio that includes some of the most renowned vehicles in recent history, Beever’s addition to the team underscores TELO’s commitment to redefining the electric vehicle (EV) industry,” the company enthused.

Among Beever’s engineering credits are the 50th Anniversary edition Mustang, the Lincoln Continental Concept, the Airstream Nest RV, and the Icon A5 by ICON Aircraft. “To lead this competitive era of sustainable mobility requires more than aesthetics; it’s about creating vehicles that are not simply visually stunning but that are also engineered for the highest levels of performance and efficiency,” Beever explains.

As for the Kei cult, Kei is short for keitora, the lightest class of street-legal trucks in Japan. However, what happens in Japan is not happening in most US states. As of this writing, only about 19 states permit the mite-sized trucks on public roads. They are only available as imports, with farmers in need of a fuel efficient, maneuverable farm truck being among the enthusiasts.

By importing a Kei truck age 25 years or more, drivers in the US can try to qualify their vehicles for road use as a “classic” vehicle, but that doesn’t get you an electric truck, it gets you an old gasmobile. For Kei truck fans here in the US, the MT1 electric truck could be even better than owning the real deal.

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Photo: The TELO electric truck aims to mark out space for itself among city dwellers longing for a stylish, versatile pickup that can parallel park like a champ and take off for weekend adventures, too (courtesy of TELO).