Telo collects $ 20 million to build small electric trucks for cities

Large electrical trucks face a difficult time. CYBERTRUCK is a arrestStelantis only RAM was canceled 1500 voltsAnd even the promising FORD sales F-150 Lightning were a decrease.

But the United States loves trucks. So it is a key that made them love electrical Trucks … a very small one?

This is the bet that Telo, which is based in California, has made its headquarters since its establishment in 2022. The company designed a truck of a bite called MT1 at a non -Muslim starting price of about $ 41,000.

Now, investors want to enter into the same bet: Telo announced on Tuesday that it had closed a 20 million dollar financing round. The tour was jointly by designer Yves Bihar and co -founder of Tesla Marc Tarbing (who are also a founder of TELO), with additional investments from the CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff, and early stage boxes such as VC, E12 Ventures and NEO.

In the world of car manufacturing, it does not go 20 million dollars. On the contrary, the Slate Auto, which builds a small truck on a small electric truck I raised more than 700 million dollars, so far. Startups Fisker Inc.and KantAnd Lordsown Motors He also raised hundreds of millions before they all collapsed.

Telo has more modest goals and a more clear goal than those companies.

“Our excessive focus is on trucks in the middle of cities,” said Jasson Marx, co -founder, Jasson Marx, who is participating in the original San Carlos facility in Tesla.

While Telo may one day embrace other markets – Marx said that some small farmers are fully interested in the truck – the company considers that this is secondary. They are cities that you want to invade first; The CEO said he spent a lot of time to rotate the streets of San Francisco looking for parking to focus on any other use.

Telo is not a construction of hundreds of thousands of MT1S. Instead, she got a pre -list of about 12,000, and Marx said that Telo was initially planning to build about 5,000 a year by manufacturing contracts.

“All of our soul is, what is it required to reach the profitability of unity as quickly as possible,” he said. “We have put this differently from other car manufacturers that came out and said:” Hey, we need a billion dollars to reach production. “

Funding from series A will go to the construction of the final version of MT1, which corresponds to American safety standards, and a collision test. Marx said that the last piece is the key, because the short front end of MT1 has inspired the concept of many questions about the safety of the truck.

Telo hope to present the first MT1 at the end of 2026.

For maximum use of funding, Marx said that Telo will remain “as far as possible physically”. This means maintaining its working power to about 25 employees in the short term, while taking advantage of consultants and contractors-many of whom said they have long-term relationships with tarpenning.

The idea of ​​using external assistance is to obtain another batch with the A series A, where Marx said that Telo has filled the tour with owners and smaller companies from all over the EV world. He said: “It is a somewhat incredible society that just wants to see new structures to move.”

MT1 is a big idea, but it is not about size. Marx said that Telo spent a lot of time to make sure that MT1 is useful. For example, he directed the project on the idea of ​​”performance for each square foot”.

“We are the only car that can take five with a five -feet bed,” he said. This means despite the small Telo Truck standing, it presses approximately half an additional foot area compared to some trucks that may compete on, such as a 4.5 -foot family on the entire R1T R1T electric and the integrated Ford Mavrick.

But the largest part of the MT1 benefit may be its scope. Marx is designed that the truck will get about 350 miles on a full battery, putting it there with some of the most capable EVS in the market. Not only does that truck can be able to engines longer, but this means that the lower charging is required for the city’s cafes targeted by Telo.

Telo managed to hit this number, according to Marx, through a somewhat competing factors. It helps the small MT1 position because it is inherently not heavy as a regular truck, which enhances efficiency. But this made it difficult to pack a 106 kW battery package in a way that makes the MT1 just a platform of lithium ion cells with seats.

Marks did not get many details, as the Battle Patents in TELO are still hanging. But he said that MT1 mainly abandons some performance (such as speeds faster than 0 to 60) in exchange for making a battery package operating in a miniature Cooper imprint.

This strong range may be seductive if in the end it starts. The high popularity of the Japanese Kei trucks imported in the United States indicates that people are ready to go to the extreme of something in this factor.

There are true winds against EVS in the United States these days, but Marx believes that Telo can overcome them.

“You were told,” ran quickly, break things. “It is the nature of the Silicon Valley.” But the nature of the other silicon valley is, how can you do a ton with the smallest amount of capital and the smallest possible team? Are the things that major companies cannot do? “