Speaking at Tesla’s 2019 shareholders meeting on Tuesday, Chief Executive Elon Musk continued to build hype for the planned Tesla pickup.
“I think it’s the coolest car I’ve ever seen, to be frank,” Musk said of the truck which is said to have a “cyberpunk” design. “Not everyone may share that opinion, but worse-case scenario, we build a normal looking truck.”
Musk said the pickup will likely be unveiled by the end of the summer. It’s going to be interesting to see just how far the pickup’s design differs from other trucks on the market.
“This is something that if you’re driving down the road it looks like it came out of a sci-fi movie,” Musk said.
He said the company aims to build “something more functional than a [Ford] F-150, but a better sports car than a basic [Porsche] 911.”
Tesla’s pickup plan seems necessarily aggressive. In order to win over pickup buyers, Tesla’s truck needs to exude toughness, utility, and performance that will help compensate for doubts that an electric pickup is equally capable of heavy jobs.
When a shareholder asked if the Tesla pickup would be capable of carrying her horses, Musk said Tesla would match or exceed the towing capability of Ford’s F-150.
Musk recently said the pickup will start at $49,000. “You should be able to buy a really great truck for $49k or less,” Musk said.