Tesla Planning an Electric Pickup Truck, Says Elon Musk 293
cartechboy writes "Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk says the company will make an electric pickup truck to compete with America's best-selling Ford F-Series pickups. Musk made the comment yesterday at the end of an interview at a tech conference in New York. Surrounded by questioners, Musk was asked if Tesla would ever make commercial fleet trucks (like for UPS or Fed Ex) and he responded that a consumer truck would be the company's best answer, because America's pickup truck sales numbers don't lie — that's what buyers want, and if Tesla wants to replace the most gasoline miles possible, that's what they should build. Musk said it will be about five years before the company builds its pickup however, giving it time to focus on another hurdle: breaking into the pickup market. Texas is where trucks rule, and Texas, as we know, is the Bermuda Triangle for Tesla." That also gives me five years to save up for one, and (just maybe) five years for Ford, et al to jump in, too.
The main issue with an electric pickup... (Score:5, Insightful)
...is towing capacity. The tremendous torque would make it no problem for power, but range is a huge issue. Buzzing around town light, no problem. But the traditional use of a full size pickup to haul boats, toy haulers, travel trailers and 5th wheels long distance would probably garner almost nonexistant range due to the wind drag and weight. It's hard enough to make that equation work with diesel and gas - I take a significant hit when hooking up the toy hauler trailer.
So you would have a choice of a gas vehicle that will do all those things, or an electric vehicle that is probably only good for short hauls or not towing, and then needing still another vehicle to do towing. A hybrid is a better case for that use, as long as the power is there when you need it.
For all those people that drive them only for a status symbol but don't actually make use of them, then that might be a good market for them.
I use my 7.3L turbodiesel about once a month to pull heavy things like god intended it to, and the rest of the time I'm in my 30MPG car.
Trucks in Texas (Score:5, Insightful)
I think range will be one of the bigger issues in Texas. Many truck owners put on a lot of miles, especially out in rural areas. You don't generally have the option to recharge inplaces like Vernon, TX, Post, TX or Detroit, TX. And I don't see it as likely in the near future. And these will be particularly tough to sell to anyone who uses them for hunting and such activities, since the destinations are frequently remote.
Re:market (Score:3, Insightful)
or the red-neck-can't-afford-the-increasing-price-of-gas market.
Convince the Truck Buyers (Score:4, Insightful)
Nissan and Honda have tried to break into the truck market for years but the market is not the same as the car market. Truck buyers are hard to sway away from what they know, love and trust. Ford lovers don't buy Dodge and vice versa.
With electric engines torque won't be a problem but will reliability and durability be issues?
If Tesla succeeds at making a durable truck that gets at least 300 - 400 miles with a decent load capacity, a price tag to compete and more power, I can see some changing their preferred brand.
Re:market (Score:4, Insightful)
And, if there is one thing electric motors do very, very, very, well, it is torque. Especially if starting a heavy load from a dead stop, the comparison is hardly fair.
It probably doesn't hurt that (particularly among vocational users of pickups), more than a few of them are called upon to deliver a fair amount of cargo, than sit there, potentially charging, while the occupants do construction things or such with the cargo.
Hard market to break into (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If UPS/FedEx use this technolgy in their trucks (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess we should have stopped taking flights in Boeing air planes after they had electrical fire issues right?
If everybody was as negative as you are towards progress we would still be trying to figure out how to contain fire.
Re:Never be popular. (Score:2, Insightful)
Locomotives are electric[diesel-electric] and I think they work plenty hard. Stop regurgitating American truck commercials. Going to Walmart and McDonalds is not hard.
Re:market (Score:5, Insightful)
I can see this selling to rednecks. Even they are going solar as opposed to having to deal with the grid.
A Tesla truck has a lot of nice advantages that would be useful, especially for rednecks:
1: Max torque at 0 RPM. This can be extremely handy.
2: No fuel needed, which is a good thing as there is a growing off-grid mentality. Even if the truck trickle charges on a 120VAC, 20A connection via a set of solar panels, it still will be useful. With a larger solar or wind array, a 440VAC charger can be used. Of course, with a redneck, they just sling a generator in the back if worried about range.
3: There is also a very useful feature of an electric pickup truck. Stick an inverter on the batteries, and you have a very large battery for running electric equipment and no obnoxious generator noise.
4: There are times when one idles a pickup truck due to needing heat or A/C. Idling an electric car takes up 0 fuel other than what is used for accessories.
5: Less noise and smell... easier on animals.
Re:market (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sure, I'd Buy One (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:market (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, pickup truck != redneck.