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Friday, March 29, 2024

Tesla to launch electric truck

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Elon Musk, CEO and chairman of Tesla Motors, shared a glimpse of the company’s planned electric truck, which he said will be launched this month. Musk spoke about the company’s planned e-truck during the 2017 TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Badged as the “Nikola”, Tesla’s Semi-Truck is a heavy duty all-electric truck that has a range of 200-300 miles on a full charge. Musk also revealed that compared to conventional trucks, the “Nikola” is 70 percent cheaper to maintain. “This truck will have the highest weight capability with long range capabilities,” adds Musk. The Semi Truck will be powered by an innovative battery that can handle an increased load bearing capacity and has the power to outrun any big rig in the market today. 

Powered by an innovative battery, The Nikola offers an increased payload capacity and longer range

While there have been advances in electric technologies in recent years, it generally has been aimed for smaller vehicles traveling shorter ranges. A tweet from Musk about the electric Class 8 earlier this month drew a mix of praise, curiosity and criticism from analysts and motoring journalists. 

At the TED conference, Musk did not reveal too many details, based on the official blog posting from the conference. However, that did not stop the renegade inventor from making a bold prediction that his electric truck can “out-torque any diesel semi” while be driven around “like a sports car.”

Musk also said Tesla is on track for completing a fully autonomous car trip from Los Angeles to New York before the end of 2017. While that ambition could run afoul of federal and state laws, he said “we should be able to go from a parking lot in California to a parking lot in New York, no controls touched at any point during the entire journey.”

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He said the Tesla Model 3, expected this summer, will offer autopilot using passive optical cameras and GPS, but not light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology.

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