Interview: Yves Béhar on the Telo Urban Adventure Vehicle
The acclaimed industrial designer explains details from his debut car design
Imagine the sportiness of a Toyota Tacoma with the utility of a Mini Cooper. This is the vision of Telo, a San Francisco-based startup, and its brainchild, the Urban Adventure Vehicle. An off-road capable EV that’s as much at home in the city as it is in the mountains, which vaunts a 60 by 60 by 18 inch truck bed—the same dimensions as the aforementioned Tacoma. However, at just 73 inches wide, 66 inches tall and a length of 152 inches, it also mirrors the dimensions of a two-door Mini Cooper.
“The story we have been telling ourselves is that trucks need to be big and aggressive and that’s what you see in the streets,” says Yves Béhar, founder of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm, and the head of design at Telo. “With the Urban Adventure Vehicle, we are able to create something that is new to the US market and perfectly adapted for city life.”
Derived from “telos,” a Greek word meaning purpose or goal, the company’s name reflects its aim. Whereas the codification in its current segment is filled with monikers that allude to size, strength and scene—Titan, Super Duty, Frontier, Ridgeline, Tundra, Ram, Gladiator, Raptor, Sierra—Telo instead wants to offer a different solution.
“The expression of Telo is practicality and functionality, not machismo,” Béhar tells COOL HUNTING during its debut. “There’s not a big grill in there: I think a lot of people, both men and women, are looking for a practical pickup truck and the extraneous marketed look of toughness is certainly something we wanted to stay away from. Telos looks strong and mighty but friendly and accessible.”
Culling from his decades-long design work, which spans from the Happiest Baby Snoo through Samsung’s Frame and much more, Béhar and his partners (automobile industry veterans Jason Marks and Forrest North) focused on usability. The battery pack, designed by North, provides roughly 350 miles of range. The 0-60 mph can be achieved in four seconds.
Telo has no front engine, nor a front truck (aka a frunk). “A lot of people remarked on the lack of a front grille; it is not needed, it is utterly useless. On EVs, it is there for looks,” Béhar explains. A very shallow battery pack allowed the trio to move the passenger cabin forward. Air intake occurs through the hub wheels, which are molded in carbon fiber before being bonded to the aluminum frame. The outtake to cool the battery pack is positioned across the first and second side doors.
While the interior will have its own premiere later this fall, Béhar explains the versatility and configurations of the truck bed. “It was truly part design and part engineering work. We started with, ‘how can this vehicle fit into someone’s everyday life?’ The truck bed is expandable—we designed a partition between the back-set and the truck bed to fold down. A 4 by 8 foot sheet of plywood can fit with the tailgate up, so can a nine-foot surfboard. A roll-up tonneau cover means those items won’t be exposed to prying eyes or hands, which often comes with city life.” If it’s passengers the owner is looking to accommodate, it’s possible to slide that partition back up for a five seater.
Requiring a deposit of $152 (a nod to the vehicle’s 152-inch wheelbase) Telo’s Urban Adventure Vehicle aims to hit the market in two years for $50,000.
Images courtesy of Telo
