Elon Musk hints at Tesla ‘pickup truck’ as a ‘mini Tesla Semi’

We have recently heard about several of Tesla’s upcoming vehicles, especially the Model Y and Tesla Semi since they are expected to be unveiled next, but we haven’t heard about the planned electric pickup truck in a while.

Now CEO Elon Musk hints that it could be based on the same tech developed for Tesla Semi.

When Musk unveiled Tesla’s product plan last year, he revealed that Tesla had an electric pickup truck in early stages of development. Musk had already been talking about Tesla making an electric pickup for a few years now, but in April 2017, he said that the company is only going to reveal it “18 to 24 months” from now.

That’s the last time we heard of Tesla’s upcoming pickup as the company focused on Model Y, which is expected to be a crossover based on the platform developed for Model 3, and Tesla Semi, the all-electric semi truck, which Tesla plans to unveil on October 26th.

Now Musk responded to someone on Twitter suggesting that Tesla should build a light duty pickup after Tesla Semi:

What if we just made a mini version of the Tesla Semi?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2017

To be fair, the response lets a lot open to interpretation, but it’s especially interesting in the context that Musk hinted at a possible other product to be unveiled with Tesla Semi at the event next month.

When talking about unannounced “things” at the Shareholders Meeting in June, Musk said:

“I really recommend showing up for the semi truck unveiling – maybe there’s a little more than what we are saying here.”

Of course, that launched a lot of speculation and the new comment about a “mini version” of the Tesla Semi is sure to add to that.

Electrek’s Take

In a previous op-ed after Musk said that Tesla doesn’t plan to unveil its pickup truck until the end of the decade, I argued that ‘Tesla should unveil its electric pickup truck and open reservations right away for the sake of the US auto industry‘.

The idea is that pickups are the profit centers for all the American automakers and by showing that there’s demand for electric versions of those trucks, like Tesla’s reservation process did with the Model 3, it would jump-start efforts to electrify their own truck programs.

At this point, Tesla’s new vehicle unveiling plans remain unclear. Based on Musk’s previous comments that Model Y is the priority at Tesla after Model 3, you would think that we were going to see that car first, but now all the attention is on Tesla Semi.

Furthermore, Tesla is already offering discounts on the next-gen Roadster through its referral program even though we have no idea when we are going to see that car.

Now where does Tesla’s pickup truck fit into this? What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

Featured Image: Tesla Model U design exercise by Carwow.