What will the Tesla pickup truck be like? Will is be similar to a traditional heavy duty truck, a medium duty truck, or … ? We are getting another glimpse into the vision from Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors. He made a couple of announcements about the forthcoming Tesla pickup on Twitter this week. It’s still unclear when the pickup truck will be produced for public consumption.
- “What would you love to see in a Tesla pickup truck? I have a few things in mind, but what do you think are small, but important nuances & what would be seriously next level?” @elonmusk
- “The Tesla Truck will have dual motor all-wheel drive w crazy torque & a suspension that dynamically adjusts for load. Those will be standard.” @elonmusk
- “… Since it will have a pneumatics system, it totally makes sense to add a utility port [for air tools].” @elonmusk
- “Pickup truck will have power outlets allowing use of heavy duty 240V, high power tools in field all day. No generator needed.” @elonmusk
- “It will parallel park automatically & have 360 degree cameras & sonar” @elonmusk
- “400 to 500 mile [range] option definitely. Higher maybe.” @elonmusk
- “Seems like trear gate should rotate on a four bar linkage & drop down to the ground or close. Kinda like some big trucks have.” @elonmusk
It’s natural for a pickup truck of any kind to offer 4×4 or all-wheel-drive, so it’s no surprise that Elon Musk is looking to offer AWD as standard equipment on the pickup truck. The load-adjusting air suspension is a nice touch. 240V power export capability (or serving as a mobile power generator) is obvious. Ability to self-park is not that ground-breaking, as trucks such as the Ford F-150 can do that already.
Optional all-electric driving range of 500 miles or more sounds like science fiction at this point. Surely, this would apply to an empty truck. What happens if it’s loaded to the maximum and/or towing a large trailer? How is the driving range or performance affected?
The possibility of a powered liftgate/tailgate on the back of this truck is very interesting. This could be a very useful feature, especially if this AWD truck is high off the ground. Would something like this survive the day-to-day consumer use? That is a whole other question.
Here is a closer look at the Tesla Model X.
