Telo MT1

[baby_souffle]

I spoke to them a lot at OpenSauce.

- The body panels were composite but they want to go to stamped metal for production. - It's based off of the subaru ascent; at least most of the frame and suspension is. - NMC chemistry, didn't get an OEM name for the actual cell/pouch though. - Mostly off the shelf Bosch power-train components. Will be interesting to see a tear-down once they're for sale. - No commitment on how "open" the vehicle will be to modifications. They have designed in attachment points for upgrades but it didn't seem to be anywhere as extensive as what Slate is doing. This makes some sense; they have a more "finished" vision where Slate is intentionally taking the "our vision is for you to buy the canvas from us and then make it your own" approach.

On that last point, I don't think Slate has released anything substantial either w/r/t the CAN bus either. As far as I know, their plan is still a BYOD approach for the head-unit so here's hoping that it'll be relatively straight forward to interrogate the busses from an android or linux device. The Telo had a head-unit integrated so who knows how much control you'll have over the vehicle.

[cduzz]

I wonder if there's some business model like a mixture of send-cut-send and TSMC where a "FAB" agrees to stamp out 3000 fenders/doors/roofs and ship them to the customer (who then puts together the cars and paints them and such).

This is similar to what lotus did to help bootstrap tesla...

And hey, maybe tesla's going to have some spare capacity lying around so they could be that FAB... ?

I personally really want this truck to succeed. I'd happily trade in my 10 year old model S for this; it'd make dump runs and trips to the garden / home centers a lot easier than in the S...

I do wish they'd go full eccentric and use a citroen inspired oil suspension...

[sheepscreek]

I love the fantastic designs and form factors popping up in mini-EV truck/SUV space. My worry is for the business feasibility for these. Why isn’t Tesla making these? They have the supply chain and expertise to easily pull it off and they’d be such a big hit. People switching to them for light cargo would be a REAL contribution in cutting use of carbon.

I can think of one possibility. At Tesla’s scale, production becomes feasible only if they can produce X million units. This is because setting up production tooling, supply chain channels, and other associated costs is prohibitively expensive. Additionally, the demand for these vehicles will be relatively low until influential YouTubers in the construction, farming, and rural sectors become advocates and start promoting them.

In my opinion, electric vehicles (EVs) are perfectly suited for this task. They are ideal for transporting heavy items between nearby destinations, such as moving Home Depot supplies to a construction site or Costco products to a restaurant or store. A range of even 200 miles is practical for this use-case and keeps the cost low (MT1 is a beast by my standard).

For clarification, I am all for more competition. But I am also selfish and I really want this segment to become wildly successful . In any case, I really and truly hope they can make the business case work and be profitable/sustainable.

[rsync]

I immediately searched the site for interior pictures and had my pessimism confirmed ... it's a design-free interior with no physical controls.

At least they kept the stalks on the steering column ...

[NoWayJoWei]

They partnered with Yves Behar for the exterior and interior design, so the current version leans more on the design over function side of things. The interior is getting a whole revamp for the actual units that'll go to customers. One of the things I confirmed is they're going with physical buttons below the screen. The door cards will be slimmed down, and they won't use cork like it currently does.

[softgrow]

At least it has a steering wheel. Wait until that disappears to be replaced by a joystick or worse still a USB port, bring your own mouse.

[matcha-video]

Also what's up with the knit dashboard?

[Jach]

Still as ugly as last time it appeared on HN, it has none of the charm of a Kei truck. I wish any company would just take the old Ford Ranger designs (2011 and earlier) and make a truck on that. Or better yet, Ford themselves could redo the electric version of the Ranger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ranger_EV) from 25 years ago with modern tech but the same look.

[Tadpole9181]

Without a doubt one of the best American pickups of all time. I cannot fathom how a company fumbled what was essentially a perfect product.

[numpad0]

> 152 in Length 73 in Width 66 in Height

This is 3860 x 1854 x 1676mm, or 14% x 25% x -16% bigger than Japanese Kei car specifications(3400 x 1480 x 2000mm max.) Closest match in features among Kei cars would be Daihatsu Hijet Deck Van, except that one is 465mm / 18" shorter that this having an awkwardly short 880mm / 35" long bed.

[doctorpangloss]

well, one thing you'll learn from their marketing is that Mini Coopers are kind of big

[999900000999]

41k ?!

The entire point of the Slate truck is to try to come in under 20K or around it, and without the EV subsidies that's probably not going to happen.

[AlotOfReading]

There's a reason limited production vehicles are almost always sports cars. Huge economies of scale are needed to target the budget market that you're not going to get as an unknown brand.

[styfle]

Slate is going to start closer to 28K now that the tax credit is gone (remember it’s not going into production until next year).

That said, $41K is still a big jump in comparison and it makes the Telo much closer to the price of a Model Y starting around $45K.

[apparent]

When I scrolled quickly through the landing page looking for the price, I noticed it wasn't there and figured it would be expensive. I didn't think it would be this much though...

[bilsbie]

There. It’s be something really expensive about EV’s. I keep hearing about batteries getting cheaper but these prices are insane.

[CarVac]

It's twice the capabilities of the Slate though.

[fumar]

This is a breath of fresh air. Modern pick up trucks post-2017 are giant vehicles with high danger to pedestrians. They are often touted as off road capable with high utility, and I see them in pristine condition on city streets hauling a totality of one human.

Good overviews of the truck https://youtu.be/aEq-vTLimrQ?si=fS-UhjndoWuxwBip

https://youtu.be/1OgN_qctcGs?si=nEysWQHzafRpxfRp

[zmmmmm]

One thing I'm really happy about with the rise of EVs is that they seem to be unlocking a fresh wave of innovation. This is in part because at a fundamental level, they are much simpler and easier to manufacture and more flexible in terms of design, so they are far more accessible for the startup ecosystem to break into. I'm really looking forward to what else we see emerging in the next few years once all the basic EV technology is commoditised.

[levocardia]

I am glad to see EV companies doing something different, aesthetically. In this particular case I do not like it -- at all -- but I much prefer a high-variance aesthetic distribution to the genetic every-car-looks-the-same world we have now, sans a tiny few exceptions.

The side compartment under the bed / in front of the rear wheel is pretty cool too.

[grokx]

This made me think about the bagnole, which seems to target the same kind of market: https://kilow.com/en/pages/la-bagnole

[devmor]

83 mile range vs 250+, max speed of 50MPH vs 100+, 20HP vs up to 400HP, only seats 2 and a tiny bed. I don't think this is remotely the same market.

[speedgoose]

6kWh (or 12 in option) is quite a lot less than 106kWh tough.

[Kephael]

This is a bad marketing idea to compare a golf cart like this to a Toyota Tacoma. There is practically zero ground clearance and a unibody frame, this will high center in places where I regularly drive my Tacoma. Tacoma wins on ruggedness, lower total cost of ownership thanks to a significantly lower price and having limited depreciation.

Unless these are priced at under $30,000 for the AWD, these will flop commercially.

If the CAFE standards could be fixed, we could get ICE and hybrid trucks that are smaller and more affordable, the EV route is too expensive and the products are strange.

[CarVac]

It has ten inches of ground clearance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEcI967gXUg

[aidenn0]

I know the CAFE standards are bad, but isn't it just a tax if you miss the target? Anyone know how much would it cost a car company per vehicle if they made a modern version of the '80s Ranger or Hilux?

[markbao]

This is cool I guess but I don’t get why some of these electric car companies have to design cars that look like toys. Rivian and this. It looks like a golf cart with a flatbed. I think an electric kei truck would have a huge market in the US but the design needs some work to be taken seriously.

There’s something to be said for being distinctive, but you can do that while not looking silly (Lucid is a good example). And simply being a small electric truck is enough differentiation anyway

[762236]

They had a ton of design constraints, and looking like a toy wasn't one of them. This is what their solution to those constraints (such as more range via a low coefficient of drag) looks like. Very few people are capable of evaluating a vehicle without their biases influencing them, such as what a masculine truck needs to look like.

[turnsout]

To 99% of consumers in the US, kei trucks look like toys, so I'm not sure that's the best example.

Honestly, if you look at the truck market, it's dominated by masculine designs like the F-150. Arguably this has created a gap in the market for designs that are more compact and approachable. It may never be the majority, but TELO looks perfectly suited to address that niche.

[01100011]

I just want my 2000 Toyota Tacoma but with a small EV(0-60 in 10s is fine, 150hp is fine, 200mi range is fine).

[stevage]

I'll take "looks like a toy" over "looks like a death machine", thanks.

[ghushn3]

I think it looks great? It evokes a Kei truck to me, but with more modern styling.

[asoneth]

I suppose there's no accounting for taste.

Personally I find the increasingly large bulbous noses tacked on to the front of US trucks ridiculous. The fact that these "codpieces" are empty on EVs is such a wild metaphor that it seems like an intentional parody.

I'll grant that the Telo may have gone a little too far in the other direction given that they have issues with the aerodynamic drag of the front wheelwells, but it still looks slightly more sensible than a normal truck.

[unethical_ban]

This looks like a kei truck, who by definition looks like a toy.

Seriously though, it has the same shape and look of any kei I've seen. Like others, I wish for a 90s era Ford Ranger or Tacoma, but between safety requirements and capability demand from people that's probably not practical.

[beAbU]

What's wrong with toys? Toys are fun!

[rco8786]

The kei truck itself has a ridiculous toy-like design also though.

[siva7]

It's aesthetically not pleasing in my eyes. They even have a comparison with ford trucks on their page and all i'm thinking is yeah i'd take that ford instantly over that thing.

[treetalker]

The real question is whether it's compatible with standard truck nuts: if not, the Florida market will remain inaccessible.

[ThinkBeat]

One thing I have learned. If you own a pick up like vehicle You will be helping even people you barely know to move. and your extended friends and family whenever they buy something too big to fit in their car

[world2vec]

Doug DeMuro did a review a couple months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYe-QNRkdz8

[torginus]

I really like the idea of taking advantage of there not being an engine bay in the front, and moving the driver position forward, and eliminating the unused length of the engine bay - but this looks very unsafe for the driver in a crash, with no crumple zone to speak of - not to mention it turns a simple fender bender into a front axle replacement (though with modern cars and their sensors, there's no such thing as a cheap crash anyway)

[rsktaker]

(Not sure if this is just me, but) I find this truck so aesthetically displeasing?

Somehow, most EVs have curves and "bounciness" (and why such odd headlights??) in all the right places to make it look childish. I find the Tesla sedan extremely aesthetic though, that might be the one exception. The bigger Teslas (especially in color white) remind me of pandas for some reason.

[programmertote]

Looks good and a step in the right direction (speaking as someone who thinks the modern day trucks are getting too big for the danger of those driving alongside them on the roads).

I wonder though if the interior trim can be ordered without this felt-like material. I can easily see that being stained or dirty in a short period of time. I am sure there is.

[CarVac]

This is a truck that appeals to car buyers because it's not sacrificing a compact body or efficiency, while providing immense utility and off-roading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEcI967gXUg