This is cool I guess but I don’t get why some of these electric car companies have to design cars that look like toys. Rivian and this. It looks like a golf cart with a flatbed. I think an electric kei truck would have a huge market in the US but the design needs some work to be taken seriously.

There’s something to be said for being distinctive, but you can do that while not looking silly (Lucid is a good example). And simply being a small electric truck is enough differentiation anyway

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762236 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

They had a ton of design constraints, and looking like a toy wasn't one of them. This is what their solution to those constraints (such as more range via a low coefficient of drag) looks like. Very few people are capable of evaluating a vehicle without their biases influencing them, such as what a masculine truck needs to look like.

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atoav 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Not trying to offend anyone as this is a matter of taste, but I can't help finding the American "masculine truck" ugly and cringeworthy.

Maybe it is me being the from European Alps and having close contact with people who actually have to drive vehicles in challenging terain (for forest work and hunting). And those cars are typically the polar opposite of the pseudo-masculine big truck: You want them small, because where you go there are trees and rocks that won't move out of the way just because your car looks masculine. You want them light because you are moving across badly maintained forest roads, etc. You want them ugly because you will be scraping more things than you like. And unless you have need for moving bulk loads like water containers for alpine cows regularly a closed back is much more practical, at least in this climate (if you need to move such a thing, get a trailer).

Over here these trucks are relatively rare, and likely smaller than their American variants, and mostly driven by a certain type of man as what appears to be a fashion choice.

Maybe it is a cultural or generational thing, but to me a car is a tool and I don't connect a lot of my identity to it. That doesn't mean I don't like a specific car or don't like to be able to mainrain one myself etc. It is just that I like functional efficient machines and a big tank weighing many tons that you drive in mostly alone is the opposite of that.

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Fade_Dance 4 days ago | parent [-]

Of course they are a cultural status symbol.

That said, mountainous forest work is obviously a more prominent use case in the alps than it is in the US.

US trucks that are owned by individuals are not primarily seen as tools. 70% of US truck owners have only one vehicle, so their primary purpose is to be used as a luxury barge and family hauler. Not much different than the huge cars that Americans preferred to drive in the 1950s and 1970s. There has always been a thread of huge cruiser style vehicles in American auto culture and this continues today.

When it comes to work, towing capacity and generic American suburbia workloads tend to dominate (large houses with big projects, longer drives, etc).

Not saying that these tanks are a "practical choice", but they are perhaps better viewed through the lens of luxury barges.

Hunting is a good point, but from what I've gleaned it's a subculture that sort of stands alone and has a huge "gear" component. I think that it's somewhat common to have small specialized vehicles for that use case, like ATV style vehicles of various sorts. Ex: last time I was in North Carolina I saw someone with this dune buggy thing suited for that... and it was being hauled around behind a massive truck, naturally. Off-roading and hunting culture also overlaps a bit, and there is a legitimate off-road culture that is quite separate from the Big Truck culture. These people will often have two vehicles, so the Big Truck would be used for the aforementioned luxury cruising and status, while as you said, a more suitable vehicle is used for the actual rough terrain.

They do have a fairly unique status power in much of the US. If a small business owner drives up in a sports car, they may get jokes, but for some reason driving up in a new GMC 2500HD is sort of seen as a mark of a "working man's success" instead of being flashy and showing off. It's something you can drive up and meet clients without about how you are going to look. That said, I'm speaking from experience in southern and midwest culture, but that's where the majority of the US population lives. When I was in New York you would see these monster trucks much less often, and as you said the driver was often much more ostentatious I'm trying to flagrantly stand out rather than subtly rise above without getting called out as one does in the midwest.

	▲	atoav 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks for shining a light on this for me, helps me follow the line of thought, especially your part about how it is seen as a sign of success to own a specific new car etc. Most urbanite Gen Z students I teach don't have (need) driving license and don't plan to get one. Owning a car is somewhat a useless luxury in most European bigger cities, since you're much faster and more comfortable with bicycles and public transport anyways. The occasional family trip or bigger transport can be done with a rental or car sharing, if public transport doesn't cut it. This results in the car being seen much less as a status symbol, except for certain migrantic or economically strained subcultures. But you won't be able to impress your say average Berlin Techno-girl with a flashy car, in fact it would likely achieve the opposite effect. Where I live hunting isn't really that much of a sport, more a mix between a regular job, a hobby and tradition. So while there is expensive gear (hand-engraved traditional guns that sell for the price of a luxury car), most people just use whatever. From what I have seen in the US hunting (like literally everytbing else) is much more gear-focused over there.

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echoangle 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Very few people are capable of evaluating a vehicle without their biases influencing them, such as what a masculine truck needs to look like.

Right, thats why looks would have been a good additional constraint.

	▲	zoul 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		That would get us back to the “bigger is better” hole though.

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turnsout 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

To 99% of consumers in the US, kei trucks look like toys, so I'm not sure that's the best example.

Honestly, if you look at the truck market, it's dominated by masculine designs like the F-150. Arguably this has created a gap in the market for designs that are more compact and approachable. It may never be the majority, but TELO looks perfectly suited to address that niche.

	▲	markbao 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Kei trucks are small but they look like a workhorse in a similar way to a classic Hilux giving them a respectability that I think this design lacks. I agree there should be more approachable designs, just seems like this went way too far in the direction of toy-like
	▲	HeyLaughingBoy 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I find it amusing that people are discussing the masculine design language and how men driving trucks are overcompensating (OK, not so much in this particular thread), but for as long as I can remember, it's been women that have always told me that they prefer bigger vehicles.

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01100011 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just want my 2000 Toyota Tacoma but with a small EV(0-60 in 10s is fine, 150hp is fine, 200mi range is fine).

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beoberha 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

The Slate truck is probably pretty close to what you’re looking for?

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cushychicken 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Late 90s/early aughts Tacomas are GOAT vehicles.

I had a stick shift one in high school. Absolutely loved it.

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maxwellg 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I dream of a low-milage early 2000s Taco with aftermarket Carplay

	▲	seemaze 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I daily a 2002 TRD 6spd with carplay. Currently 125k, I’m taking it with me to the grave..

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rco8786 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Oh man I would scoop that up in a heartbeat.

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stevage 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'll take "looks like a toy" over "looks like a death machine", thanks.

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ghushn3 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think it looks great? It evokes a Kei truck to me, but with more modern styling.

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asoneth 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I suppose there's no accounting for taste.

Personally I find the increasingly large bulbous noses tacked on to the front of US trucks ridiculous. The fact that these "codpieces" are empty on EVs is such a wild metaphor that it seems like an intentional parody.

I'll grant that the Telo may have gone a little too far in the other direction given that they have issues with the aerodynamic drag of the front wheelwells, but it still looks slightly more sensible than a normal truck.

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unethical_ban 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This looks like a kei truck, who by definition looks like a toy.

Seriously though, it has the same shape and look of any kei I've seen. Like others, I wish for a 90s era Ford Ranger or Tacoma, but between safety requirements and capability demand from people that's probably not practical.

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beAbU 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What's wrong with toys? Toys are fun!

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rco8786 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The kei truck itself has a ridiculous toy-like design also though.