Let me set the scene. We’ve got a 2016 Audi Allroad that my wife loves — genuinely loves — and it’s somewhere north of 100,000 miles at this point, probably pushing 125k by the time we actually get around to replacing it. Comfortable, capable, goes anywhere, hauls everything. The problem is it’s aging out, and her replacement brief is simple and non-negotiable: she wants an EV wagon. That’s her lane and I respect it. I may have quietly floated the idea of a small EV pickup as an alternative. That conversation was short. Moving on.
On the other side of the garage sits my Model Y, which I have a very complicated relationship with. Three things I genuinely love about it: the torque is insane, regenerative braking is a game changer once you get used to it, and for the footprint it occupies, the interior space is remarkable. It’s a big small car. That’s basically where my enthusiasm ends.
Here’s where the math gets interesting though. Our kids are a few years from driving, and honestly the Model Y makes a lot of sense as their first car — the parental controls, safety tech, and general over-engineered crashworthiness are hard to argue with. So there’s a real possibility it gets handed down when the time comes. I go back and forth on whether I actually want to hand them a car, if I’m being honest. There’s real value in working and saving for your own vehicle. But then I think about a sixteen-year-old in traffic and suddenly every safety feature Tesla ever invented sounds like a bargain. Haven’t fully resolved that one yet.
What I have resolved is that whenever the Model Y moves on — to the kids or otherwise — I want something for myself that the market doesn’t quite seem to be making yet. So I went looking.
The EV Wagon Problem (Not My Problem, But Still)
Since we’re on the topic of the Allroad replacement — which again, is my wife’s decision and she has made that very clear — it is genuinely hard to find a good EV wagon in the US market right now. Europe has options. The US? Not so much.
I had my eye on the VW Space Vizzion for years. The concept was gorgeous. But VW has had some organizational turbulence to work through, and a potential Rivian partnership that might have helped doesn’t seem to be materializing for US buyers. The BMW i3 Touring is rumored for around 2027, which is genuinely exciting, but that’s still a ways out.
She’ll find something. I’m staying in my lane.
What I Actually Want: Enter the Telo MT1
For my next vehicle — post-Tesla, whenever that is — I’ve been thinking a small pickup would actually be perfect. I drove a 2019 Honda Ridgeline Black Edition for a while (full review on this blog if you want it), and it was a genuinely great truck. My only complaint was that it was a little bigger than I actually needed. I’d love something that stepped down from the Ridgeline in footprint while keeping the utility. Add EV torque to that brief and you have exactly what I’m looking for.
That search is how I found the Telo MT1, and the pitch is legitimately compelling: Toyota Tacoma capability in the footprint of a Mini Cooper. A 60-inch truck bed — same as a Tacoma, larger than a Rivian R1T. Four doors, five seats standard, expandable to eight via a clever midgate and tunnel storage system. Zero to sixty in four seconds on the dual motor version, 500 horsepower, 350 miles of range, 20-minute fast charging from 20 to 80 percent. Ten inches of ground clearance. 2,000 pound payload. 6,600 pound towing capacity.
On paper, that’s a staggering amount of capability packed into a 152-inch-long vehicle. For context, that’s shorter than a lot of midsize sedans.
The Telo is trying to do exactly what I want. And it almost gets there.
Where Telo Misses the Mark (For Me)
Here’s my honest take: the concept is right, the execution needs work, and the priorities feel slightly off for the US market.
The size. I get why they made it Mini Cooper-sized. Urban parking, European market appeal, the marketing wow factor of fitting a full truck bed into a truly compact footprint. But does it need to go that small? Making it the literal size of a Mini Cooper feels like a constraint imposed for the sake of a clever comparison rather than because it was the optimal answer. A little more length — not Tacoma length, just a little more — would open up interior comfort and real-world bed usability without sacrificing what makes this thing interesting.
The front end. This is the big one. The nose on the MT1 right now is… not great. Cab-forward proportions make total sense for an EV — no engine to cool means no need for a long hood — but the execution of the front fascia feels unresolved. There’s an odd body cutout that reads as a design problem rather than a design choice, the headlights lack cohesion, and the whole front end looks like it’s still searching for its final identity.
The fix isn’t complicated though. Extend the nose just slightly — cover the front wheels, round out the front end, clean up the headlight treatment. Think less “cab-over delivery van” and more “friendly European compact.” Rounded, confident, distinctive. Old-school Mini headlights. Matching tail light treatment on the rear. And since it’s an EV, ditch the grille — smooth it off with a clean body-colored panel. That would be genuinely something. Use the front end space for an on board generator.
The glass roof. No. Give me a solid roof, a bench seat, and call it done.
The stance. The MT1 has 10 inches of ground clearance which is actually quite good, but the overall stance reads more urban commuter than capable crossover. I’d love to see it sit at a Subaru Outback or Mini Countryman kind of ride height — just enough elevation to feel adventurous without going full lifted truck theater.
I got curious enough about the “what could it be” question that I spent some time working with AI image generation to mock up what a vehicle like this might look like if the design fully committed to that rounded European aesthetic.
The concept I kept coming back to: take the Telo’s fundamental architecture — crew cab, short bed, compact footprint, EV powertrain — and dress it in the rounded retro-modern design language that the original Mini, the VW Beetle, and the VW Microbus all share. Soft round body lines. Large circular LED headlights. Smooth closed-off front fascia — it’s an EV, the grille can go. Gently flared wheel arches. Two-tone paint — British Racing Green with a white roof if you want to commit to the bit. Crossover stance. A vehicle that looks equally at home in the mountains or in a city parking garage.
That’s the vehicle I want. Nobody is building it yet.
The Fallback Plan
If the Telo doesn’t come together in a form that works for me, the honest fallback is heading south and finding an older Tacoma from back when they were actually a compact truck and not just a full-size with smaller ambitions. We’re talking early 2000s — a clean 2001 or so, pre-rust, from somewhere it never saw a salt truck. The obvious downside is giving up EV torque, and once you’ve lived with instant electric power and regenerative braking, that’s a real sacrifice. It has genuinely changed how I drive.
The Scout Motors truck has some promise on paper, but it looks full-sized, which doesn’t solve the problem. The Rivian R1T is excellent if your budget has no ceiling — and I think it’s a genuinely good looking truck, except for those headlights. I don’t know what they were thinking with the front end. Everything from the A-pillar back is great, and then you get to the face and it looks like it’s wearing safety goggles. Fix the nose and it’s a beautiful vehicle.
So the hope is that Telo — or someone paying close attention to what Telo is doing — refines the design, adds a few inches where it matters, commits to the rounded friendly styling, and brings it to market before I need it. And hey, MINI — if anyone over there is reading this — a proper Mini truck would be an absolute blast. You already have the design language, you already have the EV platform, and you clearly have a history of making people smile when they get in their car. Think about it. I’ll be watching.
The Bottom Line
The Telo MT1 is closer to what I want than anything else currently announced. It just needs a bit more polish — literally and figuratively. Sort out the front end, extend the nose slightly, embrace the EV design language fully, dial in a crossover stance, lose the glass roof, add a bench seat. Do that and you have something genuinely worth getting excited about.
Until then, I’ll keep one eye on the Allroad’s odometer and the other on Telo’s development updates and hope the timing works out.
What do you think — is there a small EV pickup or crossover on your radar that I’m missing? Drop it in the comments. And go check out the Telo MT1 yourself at telotrucks.com — even if the execution isn’t all the way there yet, the concept absolutely deserves your attention.
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