Tesla Semi is a ‘beast’, says Elon Musk – unveiling of electric truck pushed to Oct 26th

Tesla originally planned to unveil its upcoming new all-electric truck, Tesla Semi, at the end of September.

Now CEO Elon Musk says that it has been pushed to October 26th. As usual, he also hypes up the new vehicle, which he called “a beast” this time.

The expectations are already high. Morgan Stanley recently called the unveiling of Tesla Semi ‘the biggest catalyst in trucking in decades’ and they expect that the electric truck could be 70% cheaper to operate than a diesel-powered truck.

Not many details are currently known about the vehicle and certainly not enough to confirm Morgan Stanley’s prediction.

We should know more at the unveiling, which Musk now says is “tentatively scheduled” for October 26th:

Tesla Semi truck unveil & test ride tentatively scheduled for Oct 26th in Hawthorne. Worth seeing this beast in person. It's unreal.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 13, 2017

Words like “unreal” and “beast” are new to describe the vehicle, but it’s in line with Musk claiming that it will out-torque any other truck on the market.

Musk previously described Tesla Semi as having the “highest weight capability and with long-range”:

“It is a heavy duty, long range, semi-truck. So it has the highest weight capability and with long range. So essentially it’s meant to alleviate the heavy duty trucking loads. And this is something which people do not, today, think is possible. They think the truck doesn’t have enough power or it doesn’t have enough range. And then with those with the Tesla semi we want to show that no, an electric truck actually can out-torque any diesel semi and if you had a tug-of-war competition, the Tesla semi what will tug the diesel semi uphill.”

Tesla is reportedly already showing prototypes to early fleet customers who gave inputs into the vehicle program during development and they are seeking to test autonomous driving systems on the truck.

At Tesla’s shareholders meeting this summer, Musk also said that the truck is expected to reach ‘scale production’ in ’18 to 24 months’.