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Tesla Planning an Electric Pickup Truck, Says Elon Musk
cartechboy writes "Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk says the company will make an electric pickup truck to compete with America's best-selling Ford F-Series pickups. Musk made the comment yesterday at the end of an interview at a tech conference in New York. Surrounded by questioners, Musk was asked if Tesla would ever make commercial fleet trucks (like for UPS or Fed Ex) and he responded that a consumer truck would be the company's best answer, because America's pickup truck sales numbers don't lie — that's what buyers want, and if Tesla wants to replace the most gasoline miles possible, that's what they should build. Musk said it will be about five years before the company builds its pickup however, giving it time to focus on another hurdle: breaking into the pickup market. Texas is where trucks rule, and Texas, as we know, is the Bermuda Triangle for Tesla." That also gives me five years to save up for one, and (just maybe) five years for Ford, et al to jump in, too.
and (just maybe) five years for Ford, et al to jump in, too.
Ford has already made an electric Ranger.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Yes! Gotta capture that redneck high-tech environmentally-friendly market.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
...is towing capacity. The tremendous torque would make it no problem for power, but range is a huge issue. Buzzing around town light, no problem. But the traditional use of a full size pickup to haul boats, toy haulers, travel trailers and 5th wheels long distance would probably garner almost nonexistant range due to the wind drag and weight. It's hard enough to make that equation work with diesel and gas - I take a significant hit when hooking up the toy hauler trailer.
So you would have a choice of a gas vehicle that will do all those things, or an electric vehicle that is probably only good for short hauls or not towing, and then needing still another vehicle to do towing. A hybrid is a better case for that use, as long as the power is there when you need it.
For all those people that drive them only for a status symbol but don't actually make use of them, then that might be a good market for them.
I use my 7.3L turbodiesel about once a month to pull heavy things like god intended it to, and the rest of the time I'm in my 30MPG car.
I think range will be one of the bigger issues in Texas. Many truck owners put on a lot of miles, especially out in rural areas. You don't generally have the option to recharge inplaces like Vernon, TX, Post, TX or Detroit, TX. And I don't see it as likely in the near future. And these will be particularly tough to sell to anyone who uses them for hunting and such activities, since the destinations are frequently remote.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Nissan and Honda have tried to break into the truck market for years but the market is not the same as the car market. Truck buyers are hard to sway away from what they know, love and trust. Ford lovers don't buy Dodge and vice versa.
With electric engines torque won't be a problem but will reliability and durability be issues?
If Tesla succeeds at making a durable truck that gets at least 300 - 400 miles with a decent load capacity, a price tag to compete and more power, I can see some changing their preferred brand.
Several manufacturers have gotten out of the U.S. small truck market recently. Ford and Dodge both dropped their small and mid-size offerings due to falling sales in the small truck arena. It's a hard market to break into and there's a lot of brand loyalty among the consumers.
I guess we should have stopped taking flights in Boeing air planes after they had electrical fire issues right?
If everybody was as negative as you are towards progress we would still be trying to figure out how to contain fire.
Locomotives are electric[diesel-electric] and I think they work plenty hard. Stop regurgitating American truck commercials. Going to Walmart and McDonalds is not hard.
Like GM, Ford also squandered its early technology in the EV area.
Ford Ranger EV, 1,500 produced, model years 1998–2002.
GM EV1, 1117 produced, model years 1996–1999. They also had the small truck S-10 EV variant.
Toyota RAV4 EV was produced from 1997–2003, and is now back in production with Tesla.
Is anyone surprised that a Japanese company had longer foresight than the American ones? Thank you Wall Street.
.. Presuming it has at least a 1500 lb weight rating, can tow 30,000 lbs, all while maintaining a range of 250+ miles. Oh, and I'll need to be able to go from 0% - 100% charge in less than 30 minutes (preferably less than 5).
In rural Missouri.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
They had a workaround before the next 737 flew after the problem was isolated. You couldn't have stopped flying in that period because it would have been impossible to do so. That, and what would you do if you booked a flight on an airbus that, when you went to the gate, noticed that it was a 737? walk out and lose thousands of dollars for a flight that had roughly the same chance of arriving safely at the other end as the airbus that was scheduled?
From the time it was isolate to when there was a mechanical fix, there were zero crashes. Training fixed the issue. How to fly when your plane is broken is most of the training pilots get. Flying when everything is working is boring.
Learn to love Alaska
Actually, I was thinking that instead of full-on electric, train-based diesel-electric hybrid technology would make a lot of sense. I'm sure having something like the pulling power and range of a train would be all kinds of awesome in a pickup.
Do you also look down your nose at people who buy two-door F150's because they can't seat 5 passengers or tow 18,000 lbs? It's about buying what fits your needs, and not everyone needs a truck for 300 miles a day, 6 days a week, anymore than everyone needs a F450 Super Duty Crew Cab.
/statingtheobvious
A Ford F-150 truck with Ecoboost weighs 4,935 pounds. A Tesla S weighs 4,647. Right about the same weight.
The F-150 is a full-size truck with a heavy chassis, and a 11,300 pound towing capacity. A Tesla S is a little sedan. By the time the Tesla S is beefed up to truck capability, it is going to weigh a lot more than the Tesla sedan, and also a lot more than the F-150.
The F-150 pays fuel taxes which are used for road maintenance. The much heavier Tesla will pay zero. Plus, the F-150 owner will help pay for the Tesla's rebate.
No... these electric vehicles were destroyed because they were awful. They were slow as hell, and/or had crap range. And they took a half day or so to recharge.
Tesla has succeeded because they have good/ok performance, and ok range. The charging time and availability is still an issue, but that's something the buyers can deal with.
What's wrong with this guy. He keeps launching and suggesting new ideas every other week, without actually delivering something most of his fans are begging for.
Enough pie in the sky and train in the tube already.
Haul your tail in and make and deliver a decent 40K Tesla sedan.
From TFA:
It'll be a while, though. In the meantime, Tesla has a Model X crossover to launch and a smaller, more affordable sedan to develop--so don't expect to see a pickup for another five years or so.
And for what it's worth, he's clearly stated he won't be involved with the HyperLoop because he's too busy with Tesla and Space X. And what's so terrible about having ideas?
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Slightly off-topic, but what is stopping Tesla from establishing a franchise store in Texas? What stops Elon Musk from personally establishing an dealership like any other?
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
Why a truck? 99% of the pickup trucks on the road are just for show, almost no one who owns one actually carries anything in them. I think we should actually ban trucks in larger cities like Toronto with out a special permit. We have societies obsessed with bigger and more power trucks when in the end all they really need is a smart car. Lets stop building pickup trucks and focus more on size and power efficient cars. I know this isn't in line with this post but I think someone has to mention this issue.
Locomotives are turbine-electric and diesel-electric HYBRIDS.
They are not. They are diesel-electric (not hybrids). And outside of some historical experiments, they never incorporate turbines*. In this application, electric power is used since mechanical transmissions are not practical or cost effective. Electric power gives more control and torque at low speeds. There is no battery storage of power, so they are not "hybrids". Similar technology is used in some marine applications for reasons of controllability, eliminating a mechanical transmission, and flexibility.
*a turbocharger is arguably a kind of turbine, but it is a power augmentation device, not a power producing one.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
The EV1 was destroyed because California pulled the rug out from under GM. The whole reason GM built the EV1 was to qualify for California's Zero Emissions Vehicle requirement. California passed a law saying that by (I think) 2000, a certain percentage of all vehicles each company sold had to be ZEVs. Some of the automakers researched fuel cells, GM and others went the EV route.
About a year before the deadline, it was pretty clear GM was the only company with a viable ZEV. They stood to make $billions licensing the technology to the other companies so they too could meet California's ZEV requirement (and thus be allowed to continue to sell cars in California). The other companies got together, lobbied California saying the technology just wasn't ready for a ZEV yet, and presented the hybrid as an interim alternative. California agreed and rescinded the ZEV requirement. The environmentalists howled (because hybrids still burned gas - yes, the environmentalists initially hated hybrids). And GM was royally screwed. The $1 billion or so in R&D they'd pumped into the EV1 program was now worthless.
GM systematically dismantled and destroyed every EV1 it had made. They were silent about why, but if you know the whole story it's pretty obvious. If you dangle a carrot in front of a company to lead them to invest a billion dollars in R&D, you don't take the carrot away just as they're about to grab it. California set up a law to reward companies who spent substantial R&D money qualifying for the law, then changed the law at the last minute to take away the reward. But they still wanted the benefit of the R&D those companies did. GM wasn't having any of that, and if they weren't going to profit from developing the EV1, then neither was California.