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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 car
by markbao 1y ago
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
- turnsout 1y agoTo 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 1y agoKei 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 1y agoI 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.
- 01100011 1y agoI just want my 2000 Toyota Tacoma but with a small EV(0-60 in 10s is fine, 150hp is fine, 200mi range is fine).
- cushychicken 1y agoLate 90s/early aughts Tacomas are GOAT vehicles. I had a stick shift one in high school. Absolutely loved it.
- rco8786 1y agoOh man I would scoop that up in a heartbeat.
- maxwellg 1y agoI dream of a low-milage early 2000s Taco with aftermarket Carplay
- seemaze 1y agoI daily a 2002 TRD 6spd with carplay. Currently 125k, I’m taking it with me to the grave..
- beoberha 1y agoThe Slate truck is probably pretty close to what you’re looking for?
- unethical_ban 1y agoThis 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.
- rco8786 1y agoThe kei truck itself has a ridiculous toy-like design also though.
- 762236 1y agoThey 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.
- echoangle 1y ago> 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 1y agoThat would get us back to the “bigger is better” hole though.
- atoav 1y agoNot 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.
- ghushn3 1y agoI think it looks great? It evokes a Kei truck to me, but with more modern styling.
- stevage 1y agoI'll take "looks like a toy" over "looks like a death machine", thanks.
- beAbU 1y agoWhat's wrong with toys? Toys are fun!
- asoneth 1y agoI 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.