Tesla’s upcoming pickup truck is set for a public launch later this year, CEO Elon Musk revealed Sunday. The truck, which has become something of a passion project for Musk, is expected to launch after the Model Y compact SUV. Both vehicles, alongside the $35,000 Model 3 sedan, form part of a wider plan to bring electric cars to more people.
“Personally, I’m most excited by the Tesla Truck,” Musk wrote on his Twitter page Sunday. “Maybe it will be too futuristic for most people, but I love it.”
The truck was first mentioned in Tesla’s second master plan back in 2016. At the time, Tesla was known for selling high-priced premium vehicles like the Roadster supercar, Model S sedan and Model X SUV. While these cars successfully established electric vehicles as powerful and desirable, the second master plan focused on bringing this technology to more consumers. The Model 3 entered production in July 2017, and the Model Y is set for a March 14 unveiling ahead of a 2020 production start, meaning the truck forms the final piece of this plan to broaden Tesla’s market.
Musk has been gradually teasing a breakthrough design for the truck. In October 2018, he told investors in an earnings call that the truck would be “next-level and the “project I’m most excited about.” The following month, he declared that the vehicle’s design would be “heart-stopping,” “like a really futuristic-like cyberpunk, ‘Blade Runner’ pickup truck.” Musk went so far as to state that “I actually don’t know if a lot of people will buy this pickup truck or not, but I don’t care.”
“If there’s only a small number of people that like that truck, I guess we’ll make a more conventional truck in the future,” Musk told Recode’s Kara Swisher. “But it’s the thing that I am personally most fired up about.”
While little is known about the truck, Musk suggested that same month that it’s taken on a higher priority than already revealed products like the Semi electric truck and the second-generation Roadster.
Previous comments also suggest that the vehicle will appeal to pickup truck fans. Musk took to Twitter in June 2018 to ask his followers what they wanted to see in such a car. Musk responded enthusiastically to ideas like 360-degree cameras, dual-motor all-wheel-drive, dynamically adjusting suspension, and “crazy” amounts of torque.
For a mass market vehicle, the pickup truck looks set to break new ground in design.
