Telo's tiny electric MT1 pickup feels roomy on a one-block first drive

Jason Marks owns a pickup because of a 150-pound, three-legged dog he drives to the office every day ^[13]. His cofounder Forrest North owns one for the outdoors ^[13]. Those two trucks are the nearest thing to user research in The Verge's first drive of the Telo MT1. The reviewer's own view of big pickups is that they are "far from suitable for city life" ^[14].

Telo's spec sheet is written for the occasional big job. Marks likes to point out that the MT1 is the same size as a two-door Mini Cooper ^[4], and Telo lists an 8,000-pound tow rating and a 96-inch bed, eight feet long, on that footprint ^[5][16]. When the founders describe their own trucks, they describe the daily job: a dog on the commute and trips outdoors ^[13].

The drive tested the daily job. Marks drove the reviewer to Telo's offices before handing over the wheel for one block ^[9]. With the bed empty, the ride from the driver's seat was stiff and slightly bouncy ^[3]. Inside, the reviewer found the cabin surprisingly spacious, with firm seats that were not uncomfortable on short, bumpy trips ^[1]. From the passenger seat the ride was firm but stable, and the reviewer credits the battery pack under the floor for a low center of gravity ^[2]. The truck "easily rockets from a standstill," the reviewer wrote ^[15].

The cargo half of the pitch went untested. One block with an empty bed shows nothing about how the MT1 handles an eight-foot load or a trailer near its 8,000-pound rating ^[3][5][16].

North argues that size is a safety question. He said he hopes the truck shows how useful a small pickup can be, "because the current big trucks are literally killing us" ^[6]. Of large trucks, he said: "they're killing an extra, roughly, 5,000 people per year, so do we want to just give them a pass for that?" ^[7]

The test we'd apply sorts a pickup's real trips into two piles. One holds the trips that needed the hitch or the full bed. The other holds the ones that carried passengers or a short load. If the second pile is nearly all of it, this drive covered the part of the MT1 that buyer would use, and the decision comes down to price. If the first pile is real, the MT1 is still a set of Telo's figures, and the drive that settles it is one with a trailer on the back.