Tesla Starts Test Drives With New Truck Prototype: Report

A truck leasing company has said Tesla had approached with an offer to test drive a new truck prototype whose initial version the luxury EV maker revealed last year.

Electrek’s Fred Lambert reports the company, TCI Transportation, last year test drove the first Tesla truck, the Semi, and was now presented with a new version of the same truck, after it ordered 50 Semis earlier.

“The new Tesla Semi Tractor Prototype is here at TCI today!! We had an awesome turn out and people were even given a test drive in it. What a great day for TCI and it’s customers!” the truck leasing company said in a tweet today.

The Tesla Semi has two versions, one with a range of 300 miles and one with a range of 500 miles. The price tags are, respectively, US$150,000 and US$180,000 but Musk, Lambert recalls, said Tesla was aiming for even higher ranges of up to 600 miles.

The Semi is not yet in production. Last year, Musk said it was scheduled to begin mass production this year and no updates to this timeline have been announced.

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However, Lambert says the so-called new version of the Semi that TCI Transportation tweeted about is probably not exactly a new version but an updated, improved version of the original Semi showcased last year.

Trucks are not the only new addition to Tesla’s lineup. Late last year Musk tweeted about a pickup truck that’s also on the agenda, although it will probably be a while until we see it because another model, the Model Y, is higher up the priority list.

Musk said Tesla might team up with Daimler on the pickup truck in order to bring it to markets sooner rather than later. Funnily enough, before the release of the Semi, Daimler’s head of trucks mocked the truck, telling Bloomberg, “If Tesla really delivers on this promise, we’ll obviously buy two trucks -- one to take apart and one to test because if that happens, something has passed us by. But for now, the same laws of physics apply.” 

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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