...perhaps on second thought.

[Rade]

In 1999, my division of IBM was sold to AT&T. At that time, I was living in Tampa Bay and commuting almost daily from St. Petersburg to a Tampa office park. As part of the sale, we were given a retention bonus that was quite generous (companies did those kinds of things back then). I had a Ford Explorer Sport and wanted something with a little more... not cramped. I took my retention bonus, went to the local Ford dealership (I was a Ford person back then) and bought a 2000 Ford Focus with all the bells and whistles available on the model. Driving it was quite different than the Sport; the ride quality was nice, the visibility was superb. Then I started commuting in it. My daily route took me on I-275 across the Howard Frankland causeway and bridge. This was Florida in the late 90's. For most of that portion of the commute, I found myself driving at high speed and staring up into the wheel wells of mainly jacked up 4x4's and semi trucks; often the tires of said vehicles even with the roof line of my shiny new Focus. Disconcerting was one word that came to mind, just before stressful and terrifying. After about 6 months of this commute, it was back to the Ford dealership and I moved up into an Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition; something normal size for the highways I had to travel on.

Fast forward to today. I have been commenting in recent months about my souring experience with my Rivian R1T. I had been contemplating moving into a Telo and have been observing the developing materials from that brand new manufaturing company. Their mantra had been "The versatility of a pick-up truck in the form factor of a Mini Cooper." Intriguing. Until this past weekend when I found myself stopped at a traffic light next to a Mini Cooper. Front bumper to bumper, the Mini almost came so the end of my drivers door. From my vantage point, I was looking down into the entire, well appointed cabin. And the memories of 1999 flooded back. Do I really want to be looking UP into a wheel well again? Especially today when everyone seems to drive a 4x4 and/or is massivly distracted by handheld technology?

Telo sounds like a great concept, but in reality... perhaps on second thought; I'll to see where Rivian goes.

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[KRG]

This is why I gave up my Porsches in Dallas. Lol

No enjoyable roads + tall vehicles everywhere.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Yeah in the southeast, it feels like all the highways are semis, lifted full size pickups and suburbans, I remember driving my BMW (2 series convertible) down 95 in Florida last year. While relatively fast, I felt I was being bullied. Everything around me was huge and just flying by. Love the king of the road feeling of an R1S.

While I sold my Rivian, I was happy to see that the R2 retained that higher up feeling while also not feeling too large, so I'm keeping my reservation. People think it doesn't matter, but for commutes in situations like that, it most certainly does. Telo seems cool in theory but they are very much selling it like a city truck, not a highway super commuter. If I lived somewhere like NYC where the speed limit is 25 mph and parking spots are tight, the Telo would be ideal.

 

[Gen(R3)Xer]

In 1999, my division of IBM was sold to AT&T. At that time, I was living in Tampa Bay and commuting almost daily from St. Petersburg to a Tampa office park. As part of the sale, we were given a retention bonus that was quite generous (companies did those kinds of things back then). I had a Ford Explorer Sport and wanted something with a little more... not cramped. I took my retention bonus, went to the local Ford dealership (I was a Ford person back then) and bought a 2000 Ford Focus with all the bells and whistles available on the model. Driving it was quite different than the Sport; the ride quality was nice, the visibility was superb. Then I started commuting in it. My daily route took me on I-275 across the Howard Frankland causeway and bridge. This was Florida in the late 90's. For most of that portion of the commute, I found myself driving at high speed and staring up into the wheel wells of mainly jacked up 4x4's and semi trucks; often the tires of said vehicles even with the roof line of my shiny new Focus. Disconcerting was one word that came to mind, just before stressful and terrifying. After about 6 months of this commute, it was back to the Ford dealership and I moved up into an Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition; something normal size for the highways I had to travel on.

Fast forward to today. I have been commenting in recent months about my souring experience with my Rivian R1T. I had been contemplating moving into a Telo and have been observing the developing materials from that brand new manufaturing company. Their mantra had been "The versatility of a pick-up truck in the form factor of a Mini Cooper." Intriguing. Until this past weekend when I found myself stopped at a traffic light next to a Mini Cooper. Front bumper to bumper, the Mini almost came so the end of my drivers door. From my vantage point, I was looking down into the entire, well appointed cabin. And the memories of 1999 flooded back. Do I really want to be looking UP into a wheel well again? Especially today when everyone seems to drive a 4x4 and/or is massivly distracted by handheld technology?

Telo sounds like a great concept, but in reality... perhaps on second thought; I'll to see where Rivian goes.

Haha. Nice story. I drove a Honda Fit for 16 years, so I know exactly what you’re talking about. I love small vehicles, like the MINI Cooper, but when everyone else is driving giant trucks and SUVs it can be quite nerve wracking, especially on the interstate. There are also safety issues with visibility.

I’m leasing a Model 3 now. I’ve always wanted an EV and I didn’t want to miss out on the EV tax credit. It’s been a great vehicle, but I identify as a Rivian. I want to go car camping, travel more comfortably on road trips, have more room/cargo space, sit up higher, have better visibility, etc.

I think the R2 is the sweet spot. Rivian has learned so much over the past 5 years. All of that learning will be applied across the lineup at some point, first for the R3 and then back to the R1. Rivian keeps iterating. Buy the vehicle for the features it has now, everything else is a bonus. I think Rivian has a bright future.

 

[BCondrey]

Check out Slate.

 

[narmstrong79]

I hope Telo makes it. It looks like a car that would work best in the European market , and I think it's slightly over priced for what it is. Had it been $35K (RWD LR) and $40K (AWD LR) i think that that'll be more fitting

 

[Riviot]

In 1999

I got this far

 

[oregonridet]

As a former paramedic… bigger is better. You want to be the fly swatter not the bug.

 

[SwampNut]

I happily drive this and love it….

 

[CharonPDX]

In 1999, my division of IBM was sold to AT&T. At that time, I was living in Tampa Bay and commuting almost daily from St. Petersburg to a Tampa office park. As part of the sale, we were given a retention bonus that was quite generous (companies did those kinds of things back then). I had a Ford Explorer Sport and wanted something with a little more... not cramped. I took my retention bonus, went to the local Ford dealership (I was a Ford person back then) and bought a 2000 Ford Focus with all the bells and whistles available on the model. Driving it was quite different than the Sport; the ride quality was nice, the visibility was superb. Then I started commuting in it. My daily route took me on I-275 across the Howard Frankland causeway and bridge. This was Florida in the late 90's. For most of that portion of the commute, I found myself driving at high speed and staring up into the wheel wells of mainly jacked up 4x4's and semi trucks; often the tires of said vehicles even with the roof line of my shiny new Focus. Disconcerting was one word that came to mind, just before stressful and terrifying. After about 6 months of this commute, it was back to the Ford dealership and I moved up into an Eddie Bauer Ford Expedition; something normal size for the highways I had to travel on.

Fast forward to today. I have been commenting in recent months about my souring experience with my Rivian R1T. I had been contemplating moving into a Telo and have been observing the developing materials from that brand new manufaturing company. Their mantra had been "The versatility of a pick-up truck in the form factor of a Mini Cooper." Intriguing. Until this past weekend when I found myself stopped at a traffic light next to a Mini Cooper. Front bumper to bumper, the Mini almost came so the end of my drivers door. From my vantage point, I was looking down into the entire, well appointed cabin. And the memories of 1999 flooded back. Do I really want to be looking UP into a wheel well again? Especially today when everyone seems to drive a 4x4 and/or is massivly distracted by handheld technology?

Telo sounds like a great concept, but in reality... perhaps on second thought; I'll to see where Rivian goes.

Telo is short in length, but not in height:

Beltline and roof are only slightly shorter than the R1T. While fitting a 5-passenger cab and a bed 6" longer than R1T in the space of just the frunk and cab of the R1T.

While approach and departure angles are great, and clearance is supposed to be 10", that breakover angle ain't the greatest, so it's not really a good off-roader. But for city driving? Great. For highway driving? Probably acceptable. Heck, with 400kW 800V charging, it might even be a better tow vehicle than the smaller battery R1Ts, if your trailer is under 6600lb. (And possibly better than the big-battery if you aren't going to be going 150+ miles between charge stops.)

 

[Yamazaki]

Another post that reminds me of my old Cappuccino... The small size wasn't a detraction, it allowed for greater maneuverability. I could park in places others couldn't, and I could even drive under semi-trailers (barely, and I never tried under a moving one). In traffic, I could slide in and out of lanes because I didn't take up any space. Rear-wheel drive turbo hard top convertible... it was a great car, and I regret having sold it.

 

[Dave Cundiff]

We're pretty good about foreseeing and avoiding deer, but nobody's perfect.

If one of our R1s collides with a deer or elk, the Rivian will likely be totaled. But I'm pretty confident we'll be OK.

Best wishes!

 

[Rade]

And so the conversation is beginning...

An afternoon of errands with the husband; we took the R1T for the outing. Rhode Island is in the middle of this recent "heat dome"; the onboard thermometer was reading over 100 degrees under unfettered bright sun for the entire trip. (Note: I periodically checked the battery temperature, was went no higher than 107).

The trip was incredibly pleasant; the ride was remarkably smooth, the A/C C'd the A. The butt coolers cooled the butts. Apple Music played without pause and finally, UHF drove for about 90% of the trip along the interstates (even handed the ramp from I-195 to I-95S). Even in the afternoon Providence rush hour traffic, it was pleasant.

Then onto the shopping. The frunk was essentially an air fryer, the bed, under the black tonneau cover, was equally as blisteringly hot, and the shopping sale finds were going up exponentially with each stop (mid-summer major closeouts). We stowed the a few of the larger, non-heat vulnerable objects in the bed that would fit, one item was far too large to fit under the tonneau, so we crammed that and the remainder in the back seat. Thank GOD I loved "Tetris". On placing the crate of peaches from Trader Joe's on top of the lot, my husband quipped... "We need a bigger truck.".

Funny you should ask... all things considered, I really am going to look hard at the R2; specifically when LIDAR becomes integral to the architecture. Yes, a TELO sounds good, as does the price point of a Slate... but it's the STUFF! The R1T is tricked out with exactly the things that make riding for this Senior Citizen a joy. Those wonderful creature comforts like the butt coolers, the UHF, the ride quality... I can see an R2 in my future. If it can fit a bed in the back, it will certainly haul our crap.

Time to dream about a configuration...

Rade

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