Who Owns TELO & Where Are Its Trucks Made?

EV startups come and go, often promising innovative vehicles but ultimately lacking the funding or expertise to bring their vehicles to market. One of the more promising recent arrivals to the EV startup scene is TELO, which is not only led by a number of experienced founders but also offers a unique take on the classic pickup truck design. The pickup market in America is a huge one — Ford alone sold over 700,000 examples of its F-Series in 2024. So, if TELO can capture even a small slice of that market, it might be able to avoid meeting the same end as Fisker, Lordstown Motors, ELMS, and so many EV startups that have filed for bankruptcy. However, that won't be an easy task.

TELO's launch model is the MT1 pickup, which is designed to be more compact and efficient than other electric pickups. According to the company, it's roughly the size of a Mini Cooper, but can carry a similar capacity as a Toyota Tacoma. Its longest range battery is slated to offer 350 miles of range, and will feature fast-charging technology so it can be quickly topped up when it's running low. Pricing for the MT1 will reportedly start from around $42,000, rising to just over $50,000 for the dual-motor, long-range variant.

The company has a facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it plans to manufacture its battery packs, while the final assembly for the initial production run of pickups will be handled by Aria Group. Although its name isn't a well-known one, Aria Group has a proven track record, and has previously manufactured small production runs of cars for other brands, as well as building various concept cars and movie cars. It builds cars from a facility in southern California.

Despite being a new name in the industry, TELO has already generated a buzz among buyers. In June 2024, the company claimed to have already received over 3,000 preorders for its truck, which is provisionally set to enter production in late 2025. For now, it's far from certain that the company can stick to its ambitious timeline — when MotorTrend went for a first ride in the truck in early 2025, they concluded that the prototype seemed quite a way from being production ready, with wind noise and steering issues readily apparent.

Its truck might not be ready to be delivered to customers just yet, but TELO's team has plenty of experience in designing and developing EVs. The company was launched in 2023 with three co-founders at the helm: Jason Marks, Forrest North, and Yves Béhar. Prior to founding the startup, Marks was a key figure in developing autonomous driving systems for multiple manufacturers, while North's CV included working on Tesla's early battery packs and creating the electric charging app Plugshare. Béhar is the company's design guru, and enlisted his design studio, fuseproject, to help with the MT1.

Another high-profile name on TELO's board is Marc Tarpenning, who co-founded Tesla. Evidently, the team has plenty of expertise between them, and according to their founders, the financial side of the operation is in good shape too. Talking to MotorTrend, Marks said that an annual sales total of 5,000 trucks should be enough for the company to make money on each one. That's a much more attainable figure than the tens or hundreds of thousands of units that some other EV startups aim to shift in order to reach profitability, but for now, it remains to be seen if TELO can turn its innovative little truck from a bright idea into a bright future for the company.