Tesla Still Plans to Build a Pickup Truck, Elon Musk Says

Last year, Tesla announced what it called the second part of its Secret Master Plan. Among several other promises, Tesla said it plans to offer a pickup truck at some point in the future, potentially called the Model U. Since that announcement, we haven’t heard much about the pickup truck, but according to Elon Musk’s latest tweets, it’s still coming. Eventually.

Last night, Musk took to Twitter to ask how Tesla can improve. When one user mentioned the electric pickup truck, Musk replied saying it will arrive after the compact crossover, the Model Y, goes on sale. “Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years,” said Musk. “Am dying to build it.”

I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017

When asked how large the truck will be, Musk said to expect something similar in size to a Ford F-150 but maybe slightly larger. He also said he plans to include an unnamed “gamechanging” feature. What that feature will be is anybody’s guess.

Similar total size. Maybe slightly bigger to account for a really gamechanging (I think) feature I’d like to add.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2017

With the Model Y currently slated to arrive sometime in 2019, the pickup truck probably won’t arrive until 2021 or so. Then again, Tesla years rarely line up with calendar years, so who knows when the Tesla pickup will actually go into production. Plus, Tesla still has to get Model 3 production up and running at scale, do the same for the Model Y, start production on the Tesla Semi, and then design and build the pickup truck without any major delays.

Considering how many trucks U.S. customers buy every year, it’s probably a smart move for Tesla. But based on Tesla’s previous history, we’d be willing to bet that it’ll be a while before anyone gets their hands on a production Tesla pickup truck even if it does eventually get here.

Source: Elon Musk via Twitter

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