EXCLUSIVE: Tesla Is Planning To Make A Pickup Truck
The truck will likely be the same type of vehicle as Ford's F-Series pickup trucks. The Ford F-150 is the best-selling vehicale of any kind in the United States.
Musk said Tesla might make the truck in 5 years.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke at Business Insider's IGNITION event in New York yesterday. He made his remarks about the pickup truck during a post-interview Q&A session at the side of the stage. After he descended the stage, Musk was surrounded by a crowd of conference attendees, and he answered questions about Tesla and his rocket company, SpaceX, for about half an hour.
Musk's comments about the truck came after he was asked whether Tesla would ever make a fleet truck for the likes of FedEx or UPS. He said that, yes, Tesla was planning to make a truck, but not a commercial one, because the market opportunity for commercial trucks is much smaller. Musk said the Tesla truck would be modeled on Ford's F-Series in part because of that truck's remarkable popularity.
60,000 F-150s were sold in the month of September.
(On a related note, I drove a Tesla Model S for the first time yesterday. It was as remarkable an experience as people say. Stomping on the "gas" produces a burst of acceleration that is both breathtaking and silent. I'm not a luxury-sedan guy, and I can't run a charge cord out my window in the city, so the S isn't for me. But I quickly put in the first pre-order for the Tesla pickup truck.)
(On another related note, don't miss this clip in which Musk describes how both Tesla and SpaceX almost went bankrupt at the same time in 2008. In a desperate attempt to save the companies, Musk split his remaining assets between them. Byt by the end of the year, they were both days away from death. Musk said he nearly had a nervous breakdown. WATCH >)