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Transportation Businesses Power

Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Pickup Truck Coming 'After Model Y' (electrek.co) 200

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that a Tesla pickup truck is coming "right after Model Y." He said that he already has "the core design/engineering elements" in his mind and wants to bring it to market right after Model Y. Musk later added that the Tesla pickup will be "similar in size" or "slightly bigger" than a Ford F150 "to account for a really gamechanging (I think) feature I'd like to add." Electrek reports: Musk had previously confirmed that Model Y, a small SUV or crossover built on the Model 3 platform, would be Tesla's priority once Model 3 production is ramped up. That's why it was surprising for Tesla to unveil the next generation Roadster at the Tesla Semi event since the vehicle was expected to come out after Model Y, which has yet to be unveiled. At the same event, Musk also released the first image of a Tesla electric pickup truck, but some people still think it's a joke. He claimed that it was a smaller version of Tesla Semi and "a pickup truck that can carry a pickup truck." While it sounded like a joke, Musk had previously mentioned his intention to leverage work on the Tesla Semi to create a Tesla pickup truck.
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Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Pickup Truck Coming 'After Model Y'

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  • Not really (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @07:57PM (#55812727)

    They need to meet production goals for the model 3 before they can move on to other things, really.

    • If they can get pre-payments for the pickups, they can use them to fullfil orders for the model-3 or Y? /s

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        If they can get pre-payments for the pickups, they can use them to fullfil orders for the model-3 or Y? /s

        You make Tesla sound like a pyramid scheme... and maybe you have a point.

        • Isn't "pyramid scheme" an excessively simple thing for you to misunderstand by that much? Surely at your age you've heard a lot of things described as "pyramid schemes" before, are really so dull you never once considered looking up what that means, or at least asking somebody to explain it?

        • Re: Not really (Score:4, Insightful)

          by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @09:07PM (#55812995) Homepage

          By that definition, every company which started off by getting venture capital is a pyramid scheme.

          The difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate venture is that the former creates nothing of value and must inevitably collapse when it runs out of new suckers, while the latter uses borrowed money to develop legitimate products, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

          • By that definition, every company which started off by getting venture capital is a pyramid scheme.

            Correctamundo. Tesla is more like a ponzi however, with some exceptionally dodgy accounting practices to boot.

            The difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate venture is that the former creates nothing of value and must inevitably collapse when it runs out of new suckers, while the latter uses borrowed money to develop legitimate products, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

            As time goes on it becomes increasingly clear that Tesla is not the latter. How many Model 3 orders have been fulfilled so far before Musk goes on yet another magical mystery tour of the next terribly exciting product he's dreamed up to drum up more investor cash and deposits?

            • How many Model 3 orders have been fulfilled so far before Musk goes on yet another magical mystery tour of the next terribly exciting product he's dreamed up to drum up more investor cash and deposits?

              I don't understand why this has become a talking point amongst the handfull of grouches obsessed with criticising Tesla. I mean, if you want to criticize them for falling behind on their original production estimates, sure, that's fair game. They're far from being the only company to ever fall behind early projections, but the criticism is still warranted. What I don't get is why you would then go from legitimate criticism to the utter absurdity of suggesting that production delays are somehow related to

              • I don't understand why this has become a talking point amongst the handfull of grouches obsessed with criticising Tesla.

                Tesla and Musk's fanboys never seem very interested in results, or with the obvious problems other companies have been dealing with for some time that magically don't apply to them.

                Do you honestly think that that's how manufacturing works? That a reduction in R&D can somehow magically eliminate production line problems?

                Let me clue you in to how things work in the vehicle manufacturing world since you obviously haven't the faintest idea. Releasing any new vehicle model, even for the Toyotas and VWs of this world, is hugely capital intensive in terms of money, resources, time and any variable you care to mention. Massive. These are companies who

            • How many Model 3 orders have been fulfilled so far before Musk goes on yet another magical mystery tour of the next terribly exciting product he's dreamed up to drum up more investor cash and deposits?

              Yeah, all those engineers working on vehicle design should get out of their offices and get down to the assembly lines.

        • by lucm ( 889690 )

          If they can get pre-payments for the pickups, they can use them to fullfil orders for the model-3 or Y? /s

          You make Tesla sound like a pyramid scheme... and maybe you have a point.

          That's not a pyramid scheme, that's a ponzi scheme. It takes a lot less effort.

        • You sleepy? That's the first goofy thing I've ever seen you post... ;)
      • If they can get pre-payments for the pickups, they can use them to fullfil orders for the model-3 or Y? /s

        Tesla doesn't have the mountain of built up capital of a Ford, GM, or Toyota. They're still a relatively new company and are still relying on investors to fund their ambitious plans.

        • If they can get pre-payments for the pickups, they can use them to fullfil orders for the model-3 or Y? /s

          Tesla doesn't have the mountain of built up capital of a Ford, GM, or Toyota. They're still a relatively new company and are still relying on investors to fund their ambitious plans.

          I hit reply too soon...

          My point being, they have to announce plans 2 or 3 models in the future to keep the buzz about them alive to keep attracting investors.

          • My point being, they have to announce plans 2 or 3 models in the future to keep the buzz about them alive to keep attracting investors.

            We should all have no difficulty in finding historical examples where the rope runs out on that strategy. At some point you have to deliver what you say you would otherwise it all unravels.

            • My point being, they have to announce plans 2 or 3 models in the future to keep the buzz about them alive to keep attracting investors.

              We should all have no difficulty in finding historical examples where the rope runs out on that strategy. At some point you have to deliver what you say you would otherwise it all unravels.

              I think they are delivering... just slowly at first. A positive example of how the hype train works is Amazon. They were losing money hand over fist and coming out with new services that were losing money (and pumping the hype) before their primary model was profitable. Amazon is very profitable now. Tesla is hoping to follow Amazon's model. Won't tell if they succeeded or not for a number of years yet.

              • I think they are delivering... just slowly at first.

                You deliver on what you say, then you move on to the next shiny new thing. Tesla and Musk are promising half a dozen shiny new things every few months, and what's even more laughably funny is they are doing it in the most capital intensive thing imaginable.

                Amazon is very profitable now.

                Amazon is not profitable ;-).

            • Sure, and Musk has been delivering cars people want, albeit behind schedule. We should have no difficulty in finding historical examples where that strategy works.

    • Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)

      by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc.famine@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @08:35PM (#55812877) Journal

      Well fuck, I tried to mod this overrated, and hit underrated instead, So here's my comment to undo that mod.

      Who cares?

      I mean really, who cares?

      Musk has over-promised by about 40% on everything. Everything. But what was his promise? Disrupt everything. Change the world.

      Yeah, he doesn't nail it every time. But he gets so close to world-shaking that I'm not worried at all. My current car does 0-60 in about 12 seconds. For $40k I can buy a number of cars that can cut that down to 6s. All sucking down a ton of fuel. But the Model 3? 4 seconds. Maybe less. For the same money or less.

      Yes, production is lagging, but so what? Your world-changing technology is delayed 6 months. Are you really going to throw a fit about that?

      If Musk never produced anything he claimed to have made, I'd throw him in the bin of scammers and charlatans. But he fucking does what he says! On schedule? Nope. But not that far later, and not that much less.

      There aren't many futurists who have a record anything near what Musk has for delivering world-changing technology.

      • by Jodka ( 520060 )

        1) Musk has explained that with very steep rates of growth small errors in predicting timing mean large errors in predicted output. If you are planning to ramp up from manufacturing a few prototypes to manufacturing 5,000 cars per week within a few months, then a one month delay means your estimated production is then off by a factor in the thousands.

        2) He has warned, loudly, that this rapid growth is going to be rough. He calls it "Manufacturing Hell".

        3) People notice because he is selling stuff so uniqu

      • Tesla advertises the standard Model 3 as doing 0-60 in 5.6 sec, with a base price of about $35k.

        If your primary use case for a car is quick acceleration that probably is a bargain. But for most people the world isn't going to changed by a car that can do rabbit starts more effectively (unless they end up rear-ending someone in the process).

        Instead of a Model 3, someone could go pick up a Prius One for about $23k. Sure you won't turn many heads and playing "Fast & Furious" will be less satisfying, but e

      • If Musk never produced anything he claimed to have made, I'd throw him in the bin of scammers and charlatans. But he fucking does what he says!

        I'm afraid he hasn't, but he's done a very skilful job of making suckers think that he has.

    • They need to keep their design team working on new things. The design of the Model 3 is done. Sure, their designers will be doing some tweaks, but they need to be doing interesting stuff, or they'll move on to other companies where they can.

      You can't run a successful company for the long term by focusing exclusively on the current product, even when the survival of the company depends on the success of the current product. You have to keep the product pipeline running.

      • My guess as to the killer new feature is a swivel and tilt bed!

    • Naw, production and development are on different tracks, you would never want current production constraints to delay future development; especially when production is going really well, but growing pains limit growth speed.

    • you can do things in any order you want. Oh, that's right, you're irrelevant. I forgot.

      In that case, please enjoy criticizing relevant people on the internet.
    • The penny seems to be dropping with a lot of people on that one, doesn't it? You can only keep making big promises for so long.
  • by Actually, I do RTFA ( 1058596 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @07:58PM (#55812733)

    Can we wait on the Tesla news until it's less than 2 years out?

  • must say this is becoming ridiculous. that musk, who has a record of under delivering, thinks about doing something is not tech news, i my opinion. but it is obviously /.'s.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    We'll have Tesla models S 3 X Y...

  • Price it under $30,000 so people who are considering (or already own) a pickup truck will actually look at this.

    • Pickup trucks are often sold where they aren't practical or needed to people who want the 'tough' image that comes with one.

      I think there will be a big job convincing them electric is 'tough'. On the other hand, maybe they won't care so long as the shell looks like a classic pickup, because that is usually all they really want anyway.

  • Or are those going away in the tax bill?

  • by morethanapapercert ( 749527 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2017 @10:40PM (#55813333) Homepage
    I wonder if Elon is referring to a trunk in the front? I seem to recall that, back in the 90's GM did some design studies on electric vehicles. That was were the "skateboard platform" for vehicles came from. (assuming I am remembering it correctly)

    Since then, a company called Bollinger has come up with an all electric SUV (that is really reminiscent of old Land Rovers or maybe a LEGO version of a Jeep). Jalopnik had a good article on it with a focus on the "front trunk" [jalopnik.com] Something like that in a pickup truck could very well be a game changer and since Bollinger isn't nearly as well known as Tesla, Elon's outfit could easily garner credit for the invention in the public perception.

  • Your range can get cut almost in half and you are usually going a long distance.... these are for people that want to run around town with a cover on the bed.
  • Elon my man, I want a gaddamed Jeep equivalent.
    • by mentil ( 1748130 )

      He'll make a Humvee equivalent, with mounted machine gun to shoot down Elon haters.

      • He'll make a Humvee equivalent, with mounted machine gun to shoot down Elon haters.

        Those things are rather gross.

  • If it's around 80K and can go 300 miles with a full load it would probably be worth it; at least for Los Angeles. Not for people that live in the boonies and commute 600 miles in a truck everyday.

    The killer feature:

    Automated swapable beds?
    Completely swapable top vehicle on a battery frame? So get a dually, double cab, SUV, or standard truck. The SUV would be of interest to people that toe trailers.
    Swapable batteries?

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