We haven’t heard much about Tesla’s plans to unveil its electric pickup truck prototype lately, but CEO Elon Musk insists that they are still planning to unveil it next month.
While Model Y is Tesla’s next vehicle to come to market, the upcoming pickup truck is currently getting more attention ahead of a planned unveiling.
Over the last year, Musk has been talking a lot about the vehicle.
Tesla’s CEO has previously sought suggestions for features to add to the Tesla 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, as well as ‘300,000 lbs of towing capacity’.
Earlier this summer, he said that the Tesla Pickup truck will cost less than $50,000 and ‘be better than a Ford F150’.
As for when it is coming to market or when we are going to actually see the prototype, the best information we had was Musk saying that it will ‘most likely’ be unveiled in November.
Now just a few weeks away from November, Musk reiterated that Tesla still plans to unveil its electric pickup truck next month:
No change
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2019
Back in July, the CEO said that the Tesla Pickup truck prototype was ‘close’ to ready for unveiling, but they still needed to work on some details.
As previously mentioned, we already have a good idea of the specs and many features thanks to Musk’s comments, but the biggest question to be answered by the unveiling is ‘what the truck looks like?’
Musk bewildered many when he said that the Tesla Pickup Truck will have a ‘really futuristic-like cyberpunk Blade Runner’ design without explaining what it means other than saying that ‘it won’t be for everyone’.
On top of the comments not being clear, Musk didn’t really help anyone when he released a very cryptic teaser image for the pickup truck during the Model Y unveiling earlier this year.
Most people didn’t even understand which part of the electric pickup truck was shown by Tesla in the teaser image.
Some amateur designers tried to interpret what it would look like based on the teaser image and Musk’s comments – like the one pictured above by Justin Duel James (aka Duelj).
Electrek’s Take
Sounds like it really could be just a few weeks away.
It’s really exciting.
Even though we have seen a rise in popularity for electric pickup trucks lately from companies like Rivian, Ford, and GM, I think Tesla could have a great impact.
In the US, pickup trucks represent the biggest automotive segment and therefore, electrifying it is important.
Tesla’s pickup truck itself could go a long way in doing that, but the simple unveiling of the truck and start of reservations could also help a lot by demonstrating demand for electric pickup trucks and encouraging other automakers to accelerate their own electric pickup programs.
However, Tesla hasn’t released reservation numbers for its most recent unveilings (Model Y, Roadster, and Tesla Semi).
It will be interesting if they do it this time to show that there’s demand for electric pickup trucks.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.