Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk says the company will soon move beyond just electric sedans and SUVs to offer something bigger - much bigger. Musk tweeted Thursday that a Tesla semi truck is just months away and work is ongoing on an electric pickup truck as well.
"Tesla Semi truck unveil set for September," Musk said via Twitter. "Team has done an amazing job. Seriously next level."
Unlike most publicly-traded companies, it's not unusual for Tesla news to break via the CEO's Twitter account. Musk has over eight million followers on the platform, over six times more than Tesla's official Twitter account. Observers were quick to note that Tesla's stock price saw a bump after Musk's tweet.
Musk is basically narrowing the timeline for unveiling electric trucks, an ambition that Tesla laid out in its "Master Plan, Part Deux" last year.
"We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate," Musk wrote in the plan.
Musk also responded to a question on Twitter about the company's vision for a "new kind of pickup truck" mentioned in master plan revision.
"Pickup truck unveil in 18 to 24 months," Musk wrote.
Musk also mentioned the next generation of Tesla's first vehicle, the Roadster, will be a convertible.
While Musk didn't specifically mention anything about the role that autonomy will play with the company's upcoming truck models, the master plan notes that "as the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving."
Dear Tesla (or whoever enters this market). Model your pickup truck after a Dodge A100 pickup truck... Google that.
Push the cab all the way to the front for and put an upright bench seating for 3 adults. Single cab, Why have storage space in the front just to look like other trucks?? Forget about four doors or extended cab configs. Make the bed long and deep, long enough for full sheets of plywood. Use the space above the wheel wells for accessible storage. It must have a traditional tailgate. It with lots of 110v and 12v outlets near that tailgate. Deliver it with a factory tonneu cover, bed lights and even bed climate control.
EVs do not make sense as Semi Rigs. The ease of refilling with internal combustion allowed for efficiencies of time that an EV making a thousand mile trip will not be able to match thanks to battery tech, even if they could go a thousand miles at a time.