Automotive enthusiasts are steering their attention toward the reveal of Tesla’s new semi truck. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk promised that the truck will be officially unveiled in a webcast this week, Forbes reports. The company has provided hints about this all-electric vehicle, but the public will finally get the full picture.
“Tesla Semi Truck unveil to be webcast live on Thursday at 8pm!,” Musk wrote in a tweet “This will blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension. Just need to find my portal gun…”
After Tesla revealed a teaser image and the internet made speculations based on unconfirmed images, we might have an idea of what this truck will look like. According to Forbes, the truck will be a Class 8 semi with a range of 200-300 miles. It will have at least two electric motors but it won’t have a hood like a traditional tractor trailer. But it will have a large, sloped windshield, a part that makes up 35% of a car’s structural integrity. Some experts predict that given Tesla’s history, it will likely have some sort of autonomous capability.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla is entering the truck market at the right time, as Class 8 semis make up $30 billion in annual sales. And according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the value of freight moved is expected to jump from $882 per ton in 2007 to #1,377 per ton in 2040.
The company tested the semi in October, which Musk teased in a tweet, according to Forbes.
“Tesla Semi truck unveil and test ride tentatively scheduled for Oct 26th in Hawthorne,” he wrote. “Worth seeing this beast in person. It’s unreal.”
This could be a lucrative opportunity for the company, since they have recently faced various hardships. According to Bloomberg, the Tesla Model 3 is months behind schedule, a delay that is costing them billions of dollars per quarter. Lee Klaskow, a senior transport analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a statement to Bloomberg that he is skeptical that the truck will take off immediately, since the market is not primed for this type of technology.
“This is not a proven technology for trucking,” he said. “I think electrification is the future, but I don’t think it’s the future of tomorrow, or next week, or 2020. It’s going to take time before people are comfortable with it.”
