TELO gave us an unique alternative to rise up shut and private with a pre-production model of its tiny electrical truck, slated to ship its first items later this 12 months.
We first realized about TELO again in 2023, when the corporate introduced it was planning to construct an electrical truck the scale of a Mini however with a mattress the scale of a Hummer’s.
it sounds unimaginable, however there’s a whole lot of wasted area in car designs nowadays, particularly vans the place automakers take into account an unlimited entrance hood as an necessary a part of design (regardless of the inherent deadliness of this design choice).
TELO went one other course, specializing in a truck with most utility and minimal footprint – and says it is going to be capable of supply utility on par with at this time’s mid-size pickup vans just like the Toyota Tacoma, however in a bundle that’s solely 152 inches lengthy (for comparability, tiny Japanese kei vehicles are 134 inches lengthy most).
Now, lower than two years later, TELO has accomplished its first full pre-production driveable car, and we have been invited out to take a look and take a journey. Beforehand, TELO had solely made a design mule and a go kart-like chassis, however now it’s obtained one thing that truly appears to be like like an actual automotive (and contains the latest design/aero adjustments from when the truck obtained its configurator and $41k base worth).
The design adjustments are primarily aerodynamic, together with a extra rounded roofline and transferring the “tablet” design ingredient close to the entrance wheel properly, the place it now helps airflow across the uncovered entrance wheel, lowering turbulence. TELO says it was capable of enhance aerodynamics considerably via using CFD aerodynamic optimization software program, saving on costly wind tunnel time.
However we additionally obtained a primary take a look at some options we hadn’t seen earlier than.
For instance, the mid-gate. The mattress is often 62 inches lengthy and 49 inches extensive (between the wheel arches, so you possibly can match a sheet of plywood), however when folding down the rear seats, that will get prolonged even additional. The mattress can also be coated with L-tracks throughout, making it straightforward to tie down gear.
That stated, we’ve seen a whole lot of truck prototypes that promise a mid-gate, after which they don’t find yourself on the manufacturing car. So we’ll put an asterisk on that function for now.
And observe: that mattress is half a foot longer than the mattress of a Rivian R1T and the identical measurement as a Hummer EV’s mattress, regardless of TELO being nothing near the scale of these vans.
One other neat storage function is one which appears to have been cribbed from Rivian’s “gear tunnel,” a protracted, lockable space for storing beneath the mattress and the passenger compartment which is beneficial for soiled gear that you simply don’t need to deliver contained in the cab, however don’t need to depart within the mattress. TELO has the same (however smaller) area, which it dubs the “monster tunnel” – as a result of, like a monster, it’s… below the mattress (hiyoooooo!).
On the inside, there isn’t precisely a lot of area, however there’s sufficient for normal-sized folks – and even abnormally-sized ones. One of many journalists in attendance was 6’10”, and he stated “I match advantageous.”
Each entrance and rear seats had loads of headroom and good foot room, owing to the floating seat design which permits rear seat passengers to place their toes below the entrance seat.
The knee room was maybe a slight limitation, particularly on rear seat ingress, because the door aperture is taller and extra slender than most. Identical with the driving force seat, my knees may have had just a little extra room, however we didn’t get an opportunity to fiddle with seat and steering wheel changes, so that is most likely a solvable downside.
And whereas we didn’t sit contained in the truck for lengthy, it’s actually no much less comfy than different working automobiles we’ve tried (step vans, field vans and so forth) regardless of being a fraction of the general measurement.
The cockpit space features a extensive heart touchscreen and a number of other gauges within the driver instrument cluster, although none of this was anyplace close to remaining. Some have been static screens, some could possibly be interacted with by way of distant, however the touchscreen wasn’t working but.
Then, I obtained the prospect to be the primary journalist to ever take a journey in TELO’s pre-production car.
It was only a fast journey across the block within the industrial a part of city, nevertheless it proved that this isn’t only a design venture.
TELO says the truck may have choices for both a 300hp single motor or 500hp twin motor configuration. Whereas the truck we rode in had two motors, they have been restricted to 40% of energy in the meanwhile. So the truck obtained round advantageous, however nothing distinctive.
The following query is whether or not a tiny truck even wants 500hp to start with, however that may wait for one more day – maybe till we’re capable of put it to payload/towing checks. TELO says it has a payload capability of 1,600lbs and towing capability of 6,600lbs.
TELO additionally may department out into providing some form of off-road bundle, and identified its almost 90º strategy angle, provided that the entrance tires go all the way in which as much as the very entrance of the car.
And right here you possibly can hear the great quiet of electrical mobility… earlier than any form of dumb noisemakers get added and spoil the enjoyable:
Regardless of being small, the truck remains to be moderately hefty with a 4,400lb curb weight, no matter battery choice (the bigger choice makes use of newer, denser cells to pack extra power in the same weight). That is nonetheless hundreds of kilos lower than different electrical vans (~6-7k lbs), however (understandably) fairly a bit greater than the Mini SE (~3,200lbs), and even not far off from the Toyota Tacoma (~4,500lb) to which TELO compares itself.
Talking of that comparability – the TELO truck is a full 5 toes shorter than the “compact” Toyota Tacoma or 4 toes shorter than the Maverick, to say nothing of different monumental automobiles within the US. TELO gave us a stay demo of what the truck appears to be like like subsequent to each a Mini Cooper SE and a full measurement RAM 2500 pickup.
This actually underlines how a lot of our area we’ve given up for one thing that doesn’t actually supply an entire lot extra utility (that you simply most likely received’t use anyway). And what number of of our lives we’re giving up for these pedestrian-murdering truck entrance ends.
As a result of, as vans and SUVs hold getting bigger, and automakers hold pushing increasingly more folks into them, and emissions and pedestrian deaths hold rising, the US desperately wants extra small automobiles – and wishes an organization that can really attempt to promote them, as an alternative of ignoring they exist and pushing folks in the direction of larger.
So we right here at Electrek are fairly excited for what this TELO truck represents – lastly, the arrival of a fairly sized utility car. They’re out there in Europe, they’re out there in Japan… however this might be the primary out there right here, at the least in a really very long time.
TELO provides a very compelling argument right here: a car that’s succesful however isn’t unimaginable to park, isn’t extreme when it comes to materials inputs, and doesn’t contribute to the ever-rising plague of pedestrian deaths from outsized automobiles. When you sometimes need a truck for truck issues, however in any other case need an environment friendly car that truly matches locations, this looks like an excellent choice.
And TELO’s $41k base worth and 260 miles of vary examine favorably to the most well-liked business EV: Ford’s E-Transit, with an 89kWh battery, 159 mile vary and $51k base worth (which is now the identical because the fuel model). That’s a a lot bigger car, however for a corporation that doesn’t want that a lot area however nonetheless needs to do intra-city deliveries, tradesman work, and so forth., this could possibly be an incredible choice
All in all, regardless of TELO not being all that outdated of an organization (or that enormous – it solely has 11 staff thus far, with one cofounder being Forrest North, an early Tesla worker, and the board together with Marc Tarpenning, a Tesla founder), it has produced a fairly neat car which appeared fairly properly put collectively – at the least for the couple of minutes we obtained to journey in it.
It’s an necessary milestone provided that TELO says it would ship its first automobiles by the tip of this 12 months. That’s a really shut timeline – although it’s solely anticipating to ship possibly 100 vehicles this 12 months, and can accomplish that via contract manufacturing, which retains startup prices low.
Chances are you’ll keep in mind one other EV startup that used contract manufacturing – Fisker. That didn’t go so properly, however one factor Fisker did do was come out nearly on time (it was unveiled in 2020 with a 2022 launch date, and the primary Ocean was delivered in Could 2023 – a fairly tight timeline, so far as automotive manufacturing goes). So, hopefully TELO doesn’t let its timeline slip an excessive amount of right here.
I nonetheless suppose it’s optimistic that this truck will ship this 12 months, as a result of there may be nonetheless quite a bit to be carried out earlier than this truck is manufacturing prepared. However TELO is at the least not overstating its quantity ambitions. It solely expects to ship in very restricted numbers at first, and can scale manufactuirng later via its contract manufacturing course of. Although it hasn’t but introduced a quantity manufacturing accomplice, it says it’s in discussions with a number of completely different well-known producers, and we’ll be taught extra about which one they’re working with as soon as ink hits paper.
You’ll be able to view the TELO configurator right here, the place you can too make a $152 refundable reservation (the identical because the size of the car in inches). TELO says it has 5,000 reservations already – up 1,300 from the final time we checked in December.
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