The TELO electric pickup truck now has a drivable chassis and 2,000 pre-orders

TELO, an electric truck startup based in Silicon Valley, now has a driveable chassis for its electric pickup truck, which it still expects to begin deliveries in late 2025.

TELO is a startup co-founded by Jason Marks, who led autonomous driving/ADAS testing programs at National Instruments, and electric vehicle industry veteran Forrest North, one of the first Tesla Roadster engineers, co-founder of Mission Motors and former COO of Recargo/Plugshare .

We first heard about the TELO pickup truck back in June, when the company showed us its renderings and design prototype, along with specifications and future plans. Since then, designer Yves Béhar has joined the company as creative director and as an official co-founder alongside M&N.

As a quick summary, the goal of the TELO truck design is to bring a small electric truck to the US market with the same overall length as the Mini, but with a usable 60-inch bed — the same as the base model Tacoma or the giant Hummer EV “super truck.”

TELO plans to offer a 106 kWh battery, 350 miles of range, a 20-minute charge time from 20-80%, 500 horsepower, a 0-60 time of about 4 seconds, and seating for five adults. All that in a package that’s just 152 inches long, five feet shorter than America’s best-selling compact pickup (the Toyota Tacoma).

The truck is supposed to be available for $50,000 before incentives, and may have lower option levels available in the future at likely lower prices. TELO wants to be available by the end of 2025, and to be manufactured in large quantities in 2026.

On the way there, the company is taking fully refundable reservations for $152 in advance — the same as the car’s length in inches. The company says it has more than 2,000 reservations at this early stage.

But other steps on the way there include building prototypes. When we spoke to TELO in June, she said she wanted to have a prototype ready to go by the end of the summer. That timeline came and went, but after a month and a half (hey, that’s less of a delay than Tesla), TELO has now sent out a video of a stripped-down prototype walking around.

The video shows some interesting things. First, it shows how the rear seats will be able to fold to fit 4×8 plywood sheets, and the additional storage space behind the second row of seats that will serve as a “truss tunnel” or even a footwell for the car’s third row of seats.

It then shows five adults (and one dog in the “bed”) sitting on benches as the structure makes its way up and down a suburban street.

Of course, this is very early with no body attached, so no one can make any claims about how comfortable the truck will be once the truck is built in its final form. But it shows the company is making some progress regardless, and only slightly behind the timelines it set for itself earlier this year.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on a TELO, the company is taking pre-orders today on its website, telotrucks.com. Pre-orders cost $152 – the same as the truck’s 152-inch length. You can also join TELO’s Discord server where he will ask for feedback on the development. And if you want to know more about the truck, read our original article about it from June.