Elon Musk says the Tesla Semi will blow your mind ‘out of your skull’
Never one lost for a hyperbole, Elon Musk promoted Thursday’s upcoming Tesla Semi Truck unveiling in Hawthorne, California, with a little Rick and Morty-inspired hucksterism.
The Tesla CEO, who has a known affinity for the acerbic, dimension-twisting show, also revealed on Sunday in the same tweet that, like the Model 3 launch in July, this one will be live streamed on Thursday, November 16, starting at 8 PM PST.
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Musk first teased the idea of a Tesla truck way back in 2013, but it wasn’t clear it would be a commercial vehicle until 2016 when Musk laid out a master plan for Tesla that included the Model 3 affordable sedan, Model X SUV, and an all-electric truck that could be used for hauling freight and as the foundation or an electric-bus urban transport system.
Musk ratcheted up the hype on the semi in April of this year, confirmed a fall release, praising his team’s work, and proclaiming the semi “seriously next level.”
There’ve been, though, some bumps in recent weeks. In the months following Tesla’s roll-out of the first 30 Model 3 electric vehicles, Musk and Tesla have struggled to meet production goals.
Those Model 3 production bottlenecks and Musk’s decision to increase battery production to help with Puerto Rico’s hurricane recovery efforts forced Musk to move the Semi Truck launch from October to November.
An 18-wheel semi-truck may seem like an odd choice for a company that’s been focused on consumer/family vehicles for nearly a decade, but cargo hauling is big business. According to the American Trucking Associations, at least 70% of all U.S. freight is moved by trucks, which consume approximately 38 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year. The Tesla Semi has the potential to disrupt a core part of the U.S. economy.
It’s no wonder that Tesla isn’t alone in the race to put an electric semi on the road.
Tesla’s semi was developed, in part, by Jerome Guillen who joined Tesla in 2010 after working for Daimler, which recently unveiled its own all-electric truck.
Aside from a silhouette image (above) and Musk’s description of the truck as a “beast,” little concrete information is available for Tesla’s Semi. There is, however, a lot of speculation, which includes that the truck may have a range of 300 miles per charge (below the maximum range on a Model S) and that it will be ready for autonomous driving. The other prevailing theory is that cargo-carrying Tesla-Semi Trucks will operate in platoons.
Mashable will be at the unveiling and we’ll be sure to share the live stream link as soon as Elon Musk tweets it.
Topics Electric Vehicles Tesla Elon Musk
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
