#209 – Jason Marks | TELO – Purpose Built Electric Trucks for Urban Environments & Intentionally Building a Culture

Jason Marks is co-founder and CEO at TELO. TELO makes intelligently designed, compact electric vehicle trucks for city living and weekend adventuring. Links: Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/jasonmarks Edison Manufacturing Exchange: https://brandonbartneck.substack.com/publish/home https://telotrucks.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmurraymarks/ Keywords Telo Trucks, electric mini trucks, purpose-built, urban living, weekend adventuring, truck size, negative impacts, safety, sustainability, battery pack, sensor-based safety systems, Telo, vehicle safety, pedestrian safety, collision outcomes, cost-effective manufacturing, customer demand, efficiency and effectiveness Takeaways Telo Trucks is focused on building electric mini trucks optimized for urban living and weekend adventuring. Trucks have become too big, causing negative impacts on the environment, safety, and mobility. Telo Trucks is taking a purpose-built approach, designing a vehicle that is optimized for its intended use. They have developed a battery pack that is 50% more space efficient and implemented sensor-based safety systems to anticipate and prevent collisions. Telo is focused on building a vehicle that prioritizes the safety of pedestrians and vulnerable road users. They aim to optimize the design of the vehicle to minimize the risk of severe injuries or fatalities in the event of a collision. Telo emphasizes the importance of cost-effective manufacturing by leveraging state-of-the-art technologies and contract manufacturing. They have demonstrated customer demand through pre-orders and fleet discussions, and believe it is possible to build a sustainable company by focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Problem Statement 05:41 The Need for a Different Approach 12:55 Designing and Developing the Vehicle 18:33 Active and Passive Safety Systems 25:35 Cost-Effective Manufacturing for Low and Mid-Volume Vehicles 28:06 Demonstrating Customer Demand through Pre-Orders and Fleet Discussions 35:11 The Importance of Experienced Advisors, Risk-Taking, and Customer Feedback 44:16 Transition Riff.wav 44:22 Intentional Product Decisions 45:21 Designing for Driver and Road User Safety 46:46 Creating a Business Ecosystem for Success 47:15 Excitement for Tello's Future 47:21 Conclusion About Telo TELO makes intelligently designed, compact electric vehicle trucks for city living and weekend adventuring. Its signature TELO Truck, launched in 2023, features the standard bed capacity and crew cabin in a dramatically shortened 152-inch vehicle. With over 2,500 pre-orders secured since launch, TELO is representative of a different era of EV companies and is the most cost-effective company on the market. Co-founded by Jason Marks, Forrest North, and Yves Béhar with design input from fuseproject. Jason Marks Bio Jason Marks is co-founder and CEO at Telo. Jason led the Autonomous Vehicles and Driver Assistance Systems test programs at National Instruments (NI), where he was a Chief Business Development Manager. He developed the test systems for five major US automakers’ Autonomy and ADAS test systems for their 2024 model year vehicles. He’s an experienced Sales, Marketing, and R&D leader with patents in LiDAR. Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. Edison Manufacturing and Engineering: Edison is your low volume contract manufacturing partner, focused on assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don’t neatly fit within traditional high-volume production methods. linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/ brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/