Big cars just got crazier because they have to run on huge, heavy batteries. The Telo is a tiny electric truck the size of a Mini Cooper, but will anyone in the US buy it?

SUVs make up more than 70 percent of passenger car sales in the U.S. Big vehicles are popular. And that seems to be carrying over into the world of electric vehicles, with Ford’s massive F150 and the even more absurd electric Hummer. The problem is that the batteries simply can’t handle all that excess weight. The answer is smaller, lighter vehicles, like Telo’s small truck, that pack an outrageous amount of utility into a small package. Which nobody wants.

"The greater the mass, the greater the force required to move that mass. Your battery life is going to be significantly shorter if you have a larger vehicle to move," Kyle MacDonald, VP at GPS vehicle fleet tracking company Mojio, told Lifewire via email. "Recent real-world testing of Ford's electric truck by auto enthusiasts on YouTube, for example, shows that battery life is significantly shorter when towing even an empty aluminum trailer. When trying to go electric, the solution is smaller, not bigger."

Telo is turning the idea that pickups need to be big on its head by rethinking them from the ground up. A pickup needs to be able to carry a lot more than a car, but it doesn’t have to be huge to do so. Plus, an electric pickup is better suited to the city, where charging is easier and people don’t have to drive as far. In the countryside, a gasoline-powered vehicle is still likely to be more practical. Car and Driver magazine, for example, estimates that the F100 Lightning’s range will drop to less than 100 miles when towing a large load.