Tesla Truck Rendering

August 5th, 2013 by Important Media Cross-Post

This article was first published on Gas2.

Yesterday we brought you a video of Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk fielding questions from Tesla vehicle owners. One of the questions revived the issue of a Tesla truck, an idea first raised by Musk himself when discussing a potential Tesla factory in Texas. It’ll be awhile before we see a Tesla truck though, so I had Jo render one based on the Model S.

Source: Gas2

I’ll admit, this is probably not the truck Elon Musk has in mind, which he described as having a self-adjusting air suspension and a serious payload capacity. Rather, this is more of a El Camino-type car/truck, or a “ute” as the Aussies might call it. With that in mind, I’ve taken to calling it The Model U.

With two half-doors, a stubbier nose, and four or five feet of bed space, it certainly won’t replace the Ford F-150 as America’s best-selling vehicle anytime soon. But the SUV-like Tesla Model X is being built with towing in mind, even though towing with a Tesla vehicle isn’t always the best idea. Tesla could easily apply lessons learned in building the Model X to future Tesla truck. I’m envisioning a vehicle with at least 6,000 pounds of towing capacity, and a half-ton payload. That might be a bit ambitious for Jo’s rendering, but this is just the first of many renderings we plan to bring you.

That said, an all-electric truck with a 200+ mile range and the natural torque advantages electric motors have could be a serious contender for light or medium-duty work. Then again by the time such a vehicle comes to market, battery range could be 300 miles or more on a charge, easily.

Anyways, this is just our first take on a potential Tesla pickup. What do you like? What don’t you like? Leave some feedback so we can integrate it into our next rendering of what a Tesla truck might look like.

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Tags: Tesla, tesla truck, tesla truck rendering, Tesla trucks

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Important Media Cross-Post -- CleanTechnica is one of 18 blogs in the Important Media blog network. With a bit of overlap in coverage, we sometimes repost some of the great content published by our sister sites.

TaxEmLike1938

I’ve had 5 Ford Rangers in my life. I’d love to see a Tesla truck, similar to my Ford Rangers.
Shiggity

Please delete that picture, forever. I know you meant well, but get rid of that picture.
http://www.smartmeetings.com.au/ David Jago

Make it look more like this: http://www.holden.com.au/worldrecordute.

Much better!
J_JamesM

Ugh, that thing reminds me of an ugly subaru half-truck or one of those horrendous economy car pseudo-trucks from the 1980s. It would be better to just slap an electric drivetrain conversion in an actual El Camino than compare that to it.

But I’m not at all opposed to the concept of an electric truck, however. Obviously, they would need to have a whole lot more ground clearance than that, as well as seriously puncture-proof batteries and a doubly-reinforced undercarriage plate. The modified suspension seems totally doable.

The biggest draw, by far, would be the unprecedented and instantaneous torque an electric motor could provide. I could easily see it having an F-350-like arrangement of four rear wheels just for the increased traction they provide. Paired with an asymmetrical dual-motor drivetrain and motors specifically designed with high torque similar to the Chevy Spark’s, I can see it easily eclipsing 1,500 total pounds-feet of torque. That’s about four times as much torque as a F-750 commercial construction truck.
bussdriver78

waste of time. don’t do articles like this – just have less articles instead.