tesla-pickup-truck

In a baffling bit of theatre, Elon Musk teased a photo of a potential Tesla pickup truck at last night’s media event in California. Plot twist: it’s about the size of a semi.

During the big reveal of its planned semi truck, Tesla took time to display a sketch of a massive pickup truck, one that seems more akin to a commercial flatbed than a competitor to the F-150.

The rendering showed a truck so big, in fact, that a four-door pickup truck – looking suspiciously similar to a 2018 Ford F-150 Crew Cab – is able to fit in its bed.

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Or is it? At the reveal event, Musk reportedly said ““You’ll actually be able to legally drive that with a driver’s license. It’s kind of wrong, but I like it,” leading this author to think he wants to put the Tesla Semi technology into a package that can be driven by the average Joe. Alrighty, then.

The Tesla Semi is billed as a 1000-hp workhorse, capable of hitting 60mph in five seconds (unladen) and able to travel 500 miles on a single charge. Its towering shape calls to mind an inverted boat hull, while its interior is shown to be a single-seat arrangement with twin display screens providing navigation support.

Back in September, Musk hinted at this concept, replying to a query on Twitter about a future pickup with the statement you see above. This leads one to think that a pickup truck from the all-electric manufacturer is in the cards at some point in the future. Whether it looks at all like the sketch shown last night remains to be seen.

More realistically, this draft image is a projection of possible applications for the technology being developed for the Tesla Semi. There’s no argument that the shadowy sketch of a truck looks great, with a futuristic front-end and knobby tires. Still, it would be an understatement to say this thing is a long way from production.