Texas-based REO gets a shot in the arm by hiring respected designer Frank Stephenson.

When Ford says it's going to produce a low-priced pickup truck, company history suggests the chances it'll succeed are pretty good. When Amazon-backed Slate says it can do so even more cheaply, it does have the logistics expertise. For REO Trucks—a Texas-based startup looking to go even more back to basics with familiar combustion-engined pickups—credibility is more valuable than diamonds.

The company recently bolstered that credibility quotient by revealing the design team who has already been working on the three products REO plans on rolling out over the next couple of years. It's none other than Frank Stephenson, a mainstay of the automotive design world who has penned everything from the BMW X5 to the McLaren P1.

Perhaps more importantly, Stephenson is also the driving force behind the relaunch of the BMW-backed Mini and the modern Fiat 500. These two runabouts both successfully married retro appeal with practicality and were all about doing more with less. That's exactly what REO Trucks has as its mission statement.

In a release from REO, Stephenson noted the opportunity to again relaunch a historic nameplate, and that the task ahead was unusually clearcut. The combustion-powered trucks REO is promising are a type of rebuke to the age of the software-connected car. They are being designed to be serviced outside of a dealership network, feature proper switches and levers rather than touchscreen controls, and have powertrains that can last a promised 500,000 miles.

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