Tesla Pickup truck could ‘maybe’ come sooner, says Elon Musk as it becomes his favorite upcoming product

Tesla Pickup truck is Elon Musk’s favorite upcoming Tesla product and now he considers accelerating its rollout as it becomes an increasingly critical vehicle to boost EV adoption in the US.

The CEO has recently sought suggestions for features to add to the truck under development and he revealed some planned features, like an option for 400 to 500 miles of range, Dual Motor All-wheel-drive powertrain with dynamic suspension, ‘300,000 lbs of towing capacity’, and more.

Earlier this month, Musk said when talking about Tesla’s upcoming product programs:


“Probably my personal favorite for the next product is the pickup truck, and we are going to just do an amazing pickup truck.”

Now Musk says that he could maybe accelerate the Pickup program as rising truck sales are messing with emission reduction goals.

InsideEVs@InsideEVs

 · 5h

Wonder if there's any chance @Tesla and @elonmusk can speed up the launch of the Tesla pickup truck. @AirResources needs it to launch now! https://insideevs.com/californias-zev-targets-hampered-by-rising-truck-sales/ …

California's ZEV Targets Hampered By Rising Truck Sales

Simply put, until models like the Ford F150, Dodge RAM, the Toyota RAV4, or the Chevrolet Silverado become fully electric, this trend is hardly going to reverse all on its own.

insideevs.com

Elon Musk

✔@elonmusk

Maybe …

10:25 AM - Aug 25, 2018

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There’s no clear timeline for the release of the Tesla Pickup truck, but it sounds like it will be Tesla’s priority after the Model Y, which is set to be unveiled next year and go into production in 2020.

In an interview last week, Musk said that Tesla is now trying to figure out how to lead more than one development programs at the same time.

Electrek’s Take

In a previous op-ed after Musk said that Tesla doesn’t plan to unveil its electric pickup truck until the end of the decade, I argued that ‘Tesla should unveil it and open reservations right away for the sake of the US auto industry‘.

The idea is that pickups are the profit centers for all the American automakers and by showing that there’s demand for electric versions of those trucks, like Tesla’s reservation process did with the Model 3, it would jump-start efforts to electrify their own truck programs.

Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the advent of electric transport (and now renewable energy).

I think Tesla launching its electric pickup truck is going to have a great impact toward that goal in the US.

To be fair, there are other electric pickup trucks in the work from other companies, but I think that due to Tesla’s historical results with the Model S, Model X, and Model 3, it will likely have a better impact coming from them.

I can see it has a dual effect of pushing automakers to try to protect their big profits from trucks and also entering a segment that is highly gas-guzzling and a big contributor to emissions from the transport sector.

Fred Lambert

- Aug. 25th 2018 2:24 pm ET

@FredericLambert