Tesla’s much anticipated entry into the heavy vehicle market is now expected to be unveiled around 26 October after several postponements of the major announcement so far.
Some spy photos of the Tesla prime mover have appeared on websites in recent weeks but then just as quickly disappeared but it is believed that despite this new delay the electric heavy hauler is on track for a reveal at the end of the month
Range of the new Tesla electric prime mover is the thing that most industry pundits are interested to find out and earlier reports from news agencies in recent months have indicated that this is likely to be somewhere between 320km and 480km for he Tesla prime mover, meaning it could potentially do Sydney or Mellbourne to Tarcutta, the half way point on the Hume, where a relatively quick battery pack change would be completed while the drivers dined or slept. However it is still far from being a satisfactory range for Australian trucks which have both higher loadings and much longer distances to cover on many runs.
It is believed that Tesla’s move into electric trucks has been at least seven years in the making and like several of his electric car launches a delay or two hasn’t seemed to have dented the big talking Elon Musk’s credibility.
Back in 2010 Musk made a key recruitment hiring former Daimler engineer Jerome Gullen which was seen by many as the point where Tesla’s truck design process was started. Gullen is seen as the main design brain behind new generation Freightliner Cascadia.
Gullen, is Tesla’s vice president of worldwide sales and service and is in charge of the ‘Tesla Semi’ effort and Tesla has paid tribute to his talents in public statements on several occasions. The truck program is believe to have been quietly but feverishly working away behind the scenes while most media focus has been on Tesla’s car programs including the more affordable Tesla 3, which Musk signalled as being the company’s main priority earlier this year.
