Marc Tarpenning is one of multiple individuals credited with co-founding electric vehicle giant Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). While Tarpenning is no longer active with Tesla, he could be making his comeback in the electric vehicle sector.
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What Happened: The electric pickup truck market has struggled to produce the same strong sales in America that traditional gas-powered pickup trucks see every year.
The Cybertruck has been labeled a potential failure as its grand ambitions have melted away, and Tesla may sell around 25,000 units annually in America.
Several startup companies are looking to disrupt the electric pickup truck market with new angles. Among them is TELO Trucks, a company targeting the small EV pickup truck market.
TELO Trucks recently raised $20 million, with Tesla co-founder Tarpenning among the lead investors, as reported by Electrek. Tarpenning is on the company's board of directors, according to TechCrunch.
The startup is working on the MT1, a pickup truck that compares to the Mini Cooper in size, with a base price of $41,000 without incentives. The price might come in higher than what consumers expect for a truck of its size, but would be less than options from Tesla, General Motors Co (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) and Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) in the electric pickup sector.
The vehicle is targeting a range of 350 miles, which would be more than the 325 miles estimated for the Cybertruck. TELO plans for the MT1 to have seating for five people.
Other investors in the recent round include co-founder Yves Behar, TO VC, E12 Ventures, Neo, Uncorrelated Ventures, Nova Threshold, MCJ and Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff.
Read Also: Tesla Cybertruck Underperformed In The US: Will The International Launch Be Different?
What's Next: TELO had only raised $8 million before its recent $20 million Series A funding. Most electric vehicle startups have raised significantly more than this due to the high costs of production, which means more funding could be coming.
Telo plans to use the $20 million to get to "production readiness" to get the MT1 on the road, which could prove impressive.
"TELO has the vision, product, capital efficiency, and manufacturing strategy to make the next great transportation company," Tarpenning said.
TELO has over 12,000 orders for the MT1 currently, according to the report.
The company may use contract manufacturing to build around 5,000 trucks per year, according to TechCrunch. TELO will look to get to profitability as quickly as possible on each unit, instead of needing to scale to a certain level to reach profits, according to the report.
TELO hopes to have its truck ready for market by the end of 2026. The company is the latest to enter the race to get more electric pickup trucks to market.
Slate Auto has raised $700 million, with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos among the investors. Slate is targeting a launch of 2027 and plans to be able to produce 150,000 trucks per year.
The company collected over 100,000 refundable reservations in its first two weeks of taking orders. Slate is targeting a starting price of $20,000, but that was with the federal tax credit of $7,500, which is going away later this month.
Ford and GM had EV pickup truck models that outsold the Cybertruck in America for the second quarter of this year. While the market remains small, consumers may be looking at items like price, range and capacity — and not just the Tesla name.
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