It may come as something of a surprise, but pickup trucks are routinely the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. In 2018, for example, the top 3 selling vehicles included Ford’s F-Series, the Chevrolet Silverado, and the Dodge Ram.
In light of that, it’s no big shock that Tesla plans to introduce an all-electric pickup truck at some point in the future. Elon Musk confirmed as much in late 2017 when the company officially introduced the next-gen Tesla Roadster and the Tesla Semi.
“I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y,” Musk said on Twitter a few years back. “Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it.”
Of course, with the Ford F-150 being the top pickup truck in the industry, Musk over the past few years has made an effort to position Tesla’s forthcoming pickup truck against it. For instance, Musk has said that Tesla’s pickup truck will likely be a tad bigger than the F-150 to account for a “game changing feature.”
And just a few months ago, Musk said that Tesla’s pickup truck will trounce all other trucks insofar that it will “be a better truck than a F-150 in terms of truck-like functionality and be a better sports car” than a Porsche 911. Musk also stated that the “Tesla Truck will have dual motor all-wheel drive w crazy torque & a suspension that dynamically adjusts for load.”
Certainly, there’s a lot of intrigue surrounding Tesla’s pickup truck, but it turns out that Tesla is poised to have some strong competition in the all-electric pickup market from Ford itself. While it’s no secret that Ford has been working on an electric version of its popular F-150 pickup, the company initially provided few details regarding a launch window except to say that it would go into production in a few years.
Recently, though, Darren Palmer of Ford sat down for an interview with Autocar and revealed that a “battery Ford F150 will come before 2022.”
That said, it will be interesting to see which vehicle comes to market first. Details regarding Tesla’s somewhat mythical pickup truck remain murky, but Musk this past July said that an unveiling might take place before the end of October of this year.
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