Tesla surprised fans at the launch event for its forthcoming semi truck in Los Angeles last night by announcing its plans to produce an all-new electric sports car.
Attendees at the event were expecting Elon Musk, the company’s founder, to unveil the design and specifications of the highly-anticipated electric lorry. But before bringing the event to a close, he lifted the lid on the new roadster.
Auto Express reports that the sports car boasts a 0-62mph time of just 1.9secs and a top speed of over 250mph. This means it easily beats the majority of today’s combustion-engined hypercars.
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The new sports car is set to become the most efficient model in the Tesla range, the magazine says, as it’s expected to have a battery range of 620 miles. Prices start at $200,000 (£151,000), it adds, with deliveries due in 2020.
The roadster is Tesla’s second attempt at building a sports car. The company's first product was a small electric roadster based on the Lotus Elise.
While the sports car was arguably the biggest surprise of the event, the keynote’s focus was firmly on the semi truck.
According to BBC News, the all-electric lorry has a battery range of 500 miles on a single charge. It can go from 0-62mph in 20 seconds while pulling 36,000kgs of cargo.
It’s designed to offer lorry drivers a more high-tech and environmentally friendly alternative to widely-used diesel-engined trucks, the website says.
The semi truck is on course to be available for US buyers in 2019, says Sky News. It’s not yet known whether the lorry will be shipped to UK shores.
Tesla semi truck: everything we know so far
14 November
Tesla is gearing up for the launch of its first all-electric semi truck on Friday as the company expands into vehicles outside the consumer car market.
In a recent tweet, company founder Elon Musk revealed that fans would be able to tune in to the truck’s unveiling on 17 November. He announced that the launch would be livestreamed on the company’s website.
“This will blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension”, he said.
The electric car company has remained tight-lipped over details of the vehicle, with only a handful of teaser shots of the truck surfacing in the run-up to its official launch.
Nevertheless, leaked images of the vehicle and market analysts have provided a sneak preview of what fans can expect from the electric lorry.
Here’s everything we know so far:
When does it come out?
Tesla will livestream the launch of its new semi-truck on its website on 17 November. Fans will need to get up early as the conference begins at 4am GMT.
An official release date for the vehicle is expected to be announced during the event.
Design
While only a couple of shadowy teaser images have been released so far, it’s possible to see what shape the yet-to-be-named semi truck will take.
Unlike conventional trucks, which often have boxy designs, the Tesla lorry has a curvy, streamlined silhouette. This design should help reduce aerodynamic drag, helping the electric truck get more miles on one battery charge.
The truck sports LED headlights and a relatively low windscreen. But the top secretion of the cabin is large, suggesting it will provide long-distance truck drivers with a spacious area for sleeping and resting.
Along with the official teaser images, Tech Crunch says a spy shot posted on Reddit appears to show the vehicle on the back of a flat-bed truck.
The vehicle shares the same swooping wheel arches and LED headlight design as the truck in Tesla’s teaser images, but the top section of the cabin is significantly shallower compared to the truck in the official picture.
Unfortunately, the spy shot has since been removed from the chat forum.
Performance
What separates the Tesla semi truck from other haulers is that it’s expected to be powered exclusively by a battery-electric system.
Little is known about the performance of the vehicle and Musk has been unusually quiet about this on his social media accounts.
But he did say during a TED Talks interview in May that the truck is “heavy duty” and “long range”.
It should be fast as well, he says, as the electric motors provide better acceleration performance than a conventional diesel-engined lorry.
“You could drive this around like a sports car”, he joked.
Teslarati reports that analysts believe the vehicle will have a battery range of around 450 miles on a single charge.
While the site says this doesn’t quite match the “500-600 miles driven per day traveled by long-haul trucks”, the vehicle’s electric powertrain should make it significantly cheaper to run than a combustion-engined lorry.
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