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Elon Musk Confirms That The Tesla Pickup Truck Is Coming — ‘Right After Model Y’

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 13:28 PST, Dec 26, 2017

The Tesla pickup truck is coming and we know this because Elon Musk said so. In a tweet today, the billionaire CEO confirmed that he has had the “core design/engineering elements” in his mind for about five years now. He also said that he wants to start making it after he brings the Model Y to market.

“Am dying to build it,” Musk said of the Tesla pickup.

As Engadget reports, The Model Y is a mass-market crossover EV that’s expected to become available in 2019. But don’t expect it to be based on the Tesla Model 3. At a shareholders meeting earlier this year, Musk said that he thought they made an error when they based the Model S on the Model X platform.

“It would have been better to just design an SUV the way an SUV should be designed. Design a sedan, the way a sedan should be designed. Otherwise, you would just try to shoehorn something that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

While some critics think that the decision is hare-brained, some expect it to allow Tesla to capitalize on new manufacturing innovations, Engadget notes.

As for the Tesla pickup, Musk said in a later tweet that it would be “similar in total size” but slightly larger than the Ford F150. He added that the slight increase in size has a purpose. He needs it to add what he thinks will be a “game-changing” feature to the vehicle.

For comparison, the Ford F150 comes with four-engine options: a 3.3-liter V-6, 2.7-liter twin-turbo V-6, a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6, and a 5.0-liter V-8, Car and Driver reports. All of these engines except for the V-6 carry a 10-speed automatic and a diesel engine is expected to reach the market in early 2018. It also comes with some optional features like a touchscreen entertainment system, adaptive cruise control, 4G LTE Wi-Fi capability, and automatic emergency braking.

Even though he confirmed the upcoming arrival of the first pickup truck from Tesla, Elon Musk did not divulge many details about the vehicle. But that could be because, as he said, the designs are in his head. But don’t be surprised if you see more concrete details about the vehicle emerging in the next couple of months or years. The pickup truck is a very lucrative product in the American automotive market and it’s likely that Tesla wants a piece. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average pickup truck generates about $10,000 in profit for the big truck manufacturers like Ford and General Motors.

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