Tesla EV pickup truck!

[NachtRitter]

From the article:

Pretty soon, he may be locked out of the delivery truck market entirely.

Seriously? Just like Tesla was "locked out" of the luxury sedan market entirely?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Saskwatchian

I am never going to be in the market for something like this but I would think that if it's going to sell in North America it needs power going to the rear wheels. I mean it is going to be a luxury work vehicle and luxury buyers want what they want. I can't see FWD going forward in this market, especially it it is also supposed to be a sporty truck.

RWD can be provided by hub-motors, which would still allow a low-profile frame to be used, getting a lower cargo boarding height without sacrificing the suspension travel. That's why I have been quoting the Fiat Ducato frame as a possible reference to guide the development of the upcoming Tesla truck.

[Xist]

Have we discussed this in the last five and a half years?

Elon Musk Says the Tesla Pickup Has to Start at Less Than $50,000

He also said it has to be better than an F-150 at truck things, and interestingly, it also has to be a better sports car than the Porsche 911. Just going to say it, but achieving both of those things in one vehicle seems extremely improbable.

I do not see how a $50,000 Tesla pickup would be possible. Google says the X costs $82,000, so if they just converted that to a pickup, it would be 62% higher than what Elon said, which should not surprise anyone.

The X may be faster than a 911, but it still costs $82,000. Can the X do 90% of truck things as well as an F-150?

I can see it being faster in a straight line and more useful as a truck--for $100,000 or more.

This is Tesla, potentially much more.

Favorite comment: "50K in Elon dollars is 80-90K."

A 2020 Porsche 911 costs $113,300.

Dang! It weighs 3,500 pounds!

Someone shared a rendering of an S converted into a pickup:



If a Ford Ranchero is a pickup.

How much extra for the lift kit?

Many comments say "Batteries not included" or "The bed is extra."

What will they call it? Ford trademarked both "Lightning" and "Model-T."

[RedDevil]

A pickup truck can be structurally much simpler to make.
The Model 3 floorpan f.i. consists of 70 or so parts; Tesla wants the Y to use just 4 parts for that and ultimately 1. But it requires a lot of effort to get to that.
A Pickup truck is much larger so it would be way easier to design it out of large parts and still retain crash safety. It should therefore be cheaper to build than a car, even if it takes more material.
$49,000 does not sound unreasonable.

More practical than a F150, faster than a 911... Bring it on. The unveiling will be 'later this year'.

[Piotrsko]

Scary thought: rednecks on a beer high offroading in a tesla pickup at 100mph. Can you say "Dukes of Hazzard"?

Saw my first rice rocket modified tesla friday last, all tricked out with wider tires, slammed, blacked out chrome, but no beer can exhaust.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

A pickup truck can be structurally much simpler to make.
The Model 3 floorpan f.i. consists of 70 or so parts; Tesla wants the Y to use just 4 parts for that and ultimately 1. But it requires a lot of effort to get to that.
A Pickup truck is much larger so it would be way easier to design it out of large parts and still retain crash safety. It should therefore be cheaper to build than a car, even if it takes more material.
$49,000 does not sound unreasonable.

More practical than a F150, faster than a 911... Bring it on. The unveiling will be 'later this year'.

The problem I see is that my F150 is mostly used to pull a 6,000 lb camper (which is admittedly about the most aerodynamically horrible abomination I've ever seen) 300-400 miles at a time. Unless the entire bed is filled with battery packs that's not going to happen on an EV. Also, many people pull camper Much further than that.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Shaneajanderson

The problem I see is that my F150 is mostly used to pull a 6,000 lb camper (which is admittedly about the most aerodynamically horrible abomination I've ever seen) 300-400 miles at a time. Unless the entire bed is filled with battery packs that's not going to happen on an EV. Also, many people pull camper Much further than that.

That's a problem for you and those that pull campers. My guess is the majority of trucks are used to commute in, or light duty hauling of Home Depot goods. An EV truck will be perfect for contractors. I've got a Cummins full-size truck that I intend to never travel more than 150 miles round trip in.

Perhaps Elon made the $50k comment assuming battery prices would continue to decrease rapidly. Achieving that price point requires a sufficiently affordable battery.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

That's a problem for you and those that pull campers. My guess is the majority of trucks are used to commute in, or light duty hauling of Home Depot goods. An EV truck will be perfect for contractors. I've got a Cummins full-size truck that I intend to never travel more than 150 miles round trip in.

Perhaps Elon made the $50k comment assuming battery prices would continue to decrease rapidly. Achieving that price point requires a sufficiently affordable battery.

Well you're partly right, plenty of people use pickups as road warriors too, just driving empty down the highway for long road trips, which again isn't all that practical in an EV. For shorter trips with heavy loads, EV would be great, even a hybrid to extend the range: there's a reason modern heavy equipment often uses electric motors in the wheels and the diesel engine is just a glorified generator

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Perhaps Elon made the $50k comment assuming battery prices would continue to decrease rapidly. Achieving that price point requires a sufficiently affordable battery.

Since he grew up in South Africa, I wonder if he never heard the trite phrase about what happens when you assume? He assumes his engineers will figure out full self-driving with the existing camera hardware on Teslas and no lidar by, what, next year sometime? This year even? (I can't remember what BS date he gave the last time he talked about it).

[RedDevil]

Tesla batteries are already cheaper than $100/kWh at cell level, approaching that at pack level. So even a 200 kWh pack would not prevent a $49,000 price tag; the motors are assumed to cost less than $1000 each, there'd be more than $25,000 left for electronics and the body/structure.

Pulling a heavy load may half its 400 mile range, but it would not have to lose much time recharging at the right chargers. It would be able to take V3 supercharging at 250 kW until nearly full, and much more than that if even faster chargers come about.