Tesla Pickup will ‘most likely’ be unveiled in November, says Elon Musk

Are you looking for information on the Tesla Pickup Truck release date? It will most likely be unveiled in November, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The last time we were updated on a possible unveiling of the Tesla Pickup was in July, when Musk tweeted that the unveiling would likely come in “two to three months.”  This placed the unveiling as somewhere around September/October.

At that time, Musk stated that most of the design work on the vehicle was finished, but that the “magic is in the final details.”

All we know about the pickup’s design so far is that it’s going to have a futuristic “cyberpunk Blade Runner” look to it.  We’ve seen one teaser image, but it doesn’t show much. Nevertheless, this has inspired a lot of people to guess at what the truck might look like with their own design concepts.

While this announcement is a minor pushback of the previous timeline, it’s only a difference of a couple of weeks, so it looks like the Tesla Pickup is still roughly on the same schedule.

Hi Elon, any chance to have the Pickup truck unveiling event before the end of October? Need to schedule my next biz trip and don’t wanna miss the exciting event, thank you!

— vincentyu.eth (@vincent13031925) September 7, 2019

November most likely

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2019

We still don’t yet have a date for when the pickup will hit the road, as Tesla is working on finishing and releasing the Tesla Model Y before the Tesla Pickup hits the road, and work still continues on the Tesla Semi and Next-gen Roadster.  We will likely hear more about a release date at the November event, but this will be subject to Tesla’s standard… “optimistic“ release date guidelines.

But Tesla does need to be quick, because competitors are threatening to be first to market. Rivian, a startup company that has yet to release its first vehicle, was recently spotted testing its upcoming R1T truck in Tierra del Fuego. At last year’s LA Auto Show unveiling, Rivian’s truck was a huge hit. It was easily the most exciting thing to be announced at the show.  Their booth was placed right across a pathway from the Ford booth, and much more attention was paid to the Rivian than to the F150.

Rivian has also recently garnered large investments from Ford (hmm, wonder if that booth had anything to do with it?) and Amazon, and plans to hit the market next year.

There are other companies working on electric trucks as well, with Workhorse’s W-15 still in development, and Bollinger working on releasing their B1 and B2.

So there’s a lot of excitement about electric trucks at the moment, but Tesla would have to rush to beat everyone else to market.

Tesla is the most established name in electric vehicles so they have a fair chance at it, but it seems unlikely they’ll beat other companies that seem further along already.  But we’ll have to wait till November to see if they think they can do it. Be sure to follow our guide for the latest information on the Tesla Pickup Truck release date.

Electrek’s Take

We’ve long thought that pickup trucks are prime for electrification. There are a lot of advantages to be had in a pickup truck format. The design already has a large, flat area that would be perfect for batteries, high low-end torque, and superior torque control from electric motors would be great for towing and offroading, and the ability to charge tools from the pickup’s battery or to charge the truck from job site electricity hookups would both be convenient.

Fleet managers would absolutely love reduced maintenance and fuel costs from an electrified fleet. Other pickups have been working on fuel economy lately, with Ford moving to aluminum bodies and many pickup ads mentioning “high” mpg (which is usually in the low 20s). Meanwhile, an electric truck would probably end up with an mpge rating of somewhere around 70, which would put everything else to shame.

The Tesla truck might be expensive, but a very nice work or offroading pickup truck can still cost the better part of six figures, so there’s room in the market even for something with a high price attached.

So we’re very excited to see this truck, and to see what Tesla can do with it. If they manage to make a truck that caters to the needs of pickup buyers, with thoughtful add-ons like Rivian has shown us, it’s going to make a big splash in the industry.

We’re just a bit worried about the design. The pickup truck market can be relatively set in their ways, as we saw with the Rivian reveal, where a mostly conventional truck design was still panned for being adventurous with their headlights. Tesla’s public statements so far seem like they’re going for an even more adventurous design than Rivian, and the pickup market may not like that. But we’ll have to wait for November to see.