During last week’s presentation of the new Tesla semi, company CEO Elon Musk introduced an unexpected addition to the Tesla lineup while segueing from the semi to the Roadster: a Tesla pickup truck. This was the second-biggest surprise of the evening, after the Roadster reveal, but with much more emphasis on the word “big.” If the renderings can be believed, the Tesla pickup’s bed can swallow a Ford F-150 SuperCrew. Affirming those renderings, Musk said, “It’s a pickup truck that can carry a pickup truck.”
The pickup looks like a repurposed Tesla semi tractor, minus one of the drive axles out back. If one of the original Mercedes Unimogs had escaped the factory in 1946 and evolved in isolation in the Schwarzwald, we’d expect it to emerge looking like Tesla’s offering. Musk foreshadowed the arrival of an approximate vehicle in September. When Jason Cruickshank tweeted “Can we get a light duty pickup next,” Musk replied, “What if we just made a mini version of the Tesla semi?”
This isn’t exactly light-duty, though, falling well outside the three typical categories of truck buyers. Musk said anyone could drive the rendered Tesla pickup with a standard driver’s license, meaning it wouldn’t exceed the specs for a Class 6 medium-duty truck. Vehicles in that class include the Ford F-650 and Chevrolet Kodiak/GMC Topkick siblings (the last of which served as Autobot Ironhide), but that’s the upper end – the Tesla pickup might look as beefy, but it could take things down a few notches. As is almost always the case with Tesla, who knows? We’ll find out for certain if and when the pickup makes production.
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