By Phil Royle – Sept. 15, 2026
Telo Trucks is becoming a favorite of mine of the new crop of tiny electric trucks, and it has nothing to do with polished marketing. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
I recently watched a couple of Telo’s YouTube videos, and I was sucked in by the low production value. There was no elaborate set, no breathtaking cinematic shots. I bet the camera equipment for these videos was a phone and a consumer-grade drone. For one video, the company’s CTO was simply standing in front of the truck explaining why the company had increased its truck’s tow rating to 8,000 lbs. It came across as honest. It came across as genuine. I ate it up.
Telo is a scrappy startup trying to cram an absurd amount of capability into a pickup that’s as tiny as their company (roughly 32 employees, if you’re counting, with a truck the length of a Mini Cooper). While companies like Ford and Slate garner considerably more attention for their upcoming small EV pickups, Telo is chugging along, doing its thing.
The truck itself is roughly 30 inches shorter than some of its competitors that are already on the market (like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz), yet it has a longer bed by several inches. Fold the midgate down and now you have an eight-foot bed. The video showcasing this got the point across with very basic production value.
Check that video out:
The video with the CTO? That was Telo announcing its pickup would have a tow rating roughly double that of the Maverick, and undoubtedly higher than Ford’s upcoming Fathom. And the production value of that video was even lower.
Telo seems to understand what its audience cares about. It isn’t trying to cosplay as a macho pickup. There are no enormous chrome badges or screams from the rooftop about how tough the thing is. Instead, Telo appears locked in on practical items like packaging, bed length, towing, and payload. In other words, they’re maximizing utility over showmanship, not unlike how their videos maximize messaging over a dog-and-pony show.
In its messaging, the company willingly acknowledges its truck’s limits. Back to that tow rating video, the CTO plainly states that if you want to tow something a short distance, Telo is your truck; if your intent is pulling big weight over long distances, buy a diesel. Mmmm, honesty…it’s refreshing to hear the truth be spoken.
Here's the tow rating video:
It’s not all glowing reviews from me, though. Telo’s attempt to rationalize its truck’s higher purchase price to the Maverick and Santa Cruz by mentioning the lower operating costs of an EV in one of its videos was disingenuous. While decreased operating costs is technically true when compared to an ICE vehicle (hybrid or not), it’s accounting slight-of-hand that’s always rubbed me the wrong way. If the truck’s sticker says $40,000, you still need to qualify for a $40,000 loan, and you’ll be paying interest on that loan for five (or many more) years to come.
Plus, Telo’s price of operation argument falls flat when comparing it to the forthcoming sub-$30,000 EV trucks from Ford and Slate.
I still have questions about whether the business can survive and if consumers will accept paying $40,000 for something that’s so small when the competition will have a price advantage. Still, I’m rooting for Telo, and maybe it’s because the company feels like it knows exactly what its product is: A quirky little truck that punches above its weight, with a company willing to tell people about it without pretending to be something it isn’t.
Sometimes, authenticity beats production value.
(Image courtesy Telo Trucks)
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