So you’ve heard about the Tesla Cybertruck, right? The amazingly quiet, energy-efficient, convenient, and relatively affordable vehicle that could revolutionize ground travel forever?
If you haven’t, don’t worry, you will soon enough; it’s not the sort of thing that can remain secret long enough to prevent everyone from hearing about it. So naturally, there are already competitors in development, and many analysts believe one of them might actually be better than the original. Here’s what we know so far about that particular contender…
What is this new Tesla killer?
According to Car and Driver, Tesla Motors is close to finalizing a deal with Toyota for jointly developing an electric pickup truck. The plan would have Tesla building its electric drivetrain in exchange for a percentage of sales; similar partnerships between Toyota and Subaru (for BRZ/FR-S) and Mazda (for CX-5) are already active. If true, it makes sense that Tesla would want to produce an off-road capable pickup truck of some sort.
By 2022, Tesla plans to have a complete lineup of vehicles including sedans and SUVs for sale. It will also likely begin producing trucks at some point during that time. A pickup truck from Tesla would compete with traditional pickups from Toyota, Ford, GM, Ram and Nissan (not to mention those from Mazda and Subaru). Such a vehicle would not only have to be rugged enough for any sort of driving but able to haul long distances without losing power. It’s likely that Tesla will use its upcoming Gigafactory to produce as many lithium-ion battery cells as possible for as low a cost as possible.
It’s worth noting that Tesla already has a new car in development, and it could be an even bigger game-changer. With a 200-plus mile range on a single charge, Tesla’s upcoming Model 3 is primed to make an assault on Nissan’s Leaf and Chevrolet’s Bolt EV. Sales of those vehicles have been slow since their introduction last year, but they’ve helped push down battery costs—something Tesla CEO Elon Musk said would enable his company to produce a more affordable vehicle. In other words, if you think electric cars are all but dead today (they’re not), just wait until 2021 or 2022.
Why will it kill Tesla?
The Tesla car is new and improved. The tesla car costs 100,000 to buy and has 1,000-mile battery life. The Tesla truck will take 2 years to be released and cost 1 million dollars. When it is released in 2022 it will be a way better power source than your standard 2025 Tesla truck. It has a maximum range of 800 miles and can travel up to 200 miles an hour with no problem at all. Its design is guaranteed for 100 years, you could drive it for about 500,000 miles before having any major problems come up at all.
Tesla will still be a successful company. Their first car was released in 2012 and they have had a lot of time to get better at making cars. The tesla truck may be more expensive than other trucks but it is worth every penny. It will continue to have about 90% of its battery life left after 100,000 miles compared to other trucks that can only go for about 250,000 miles before having all their battery life left drained out of them. Tesla Trucks are also made in California so they have much fewer chances to rust or break because of bad weather conditions such as rain, snow or hail than any other competitor would ever expect at all.
What’s coming next year?
These days, self-driving trucks are really more of a question of when than if. But, who will be the first to market? During Tesla’s shareholder meeting yesterday (Tuesday), CEO Elon Musk gave a few hints on what we might expect. Not surprisingly, it appears that Tesla will join Mercedes-Benz and Peloton (owned by Volvo) in trying to beat out Waymo and Uber. In fact, Musk suggested that Tesla may even beat both those companies to market with their own offering in 2022. We’ll have to wait and see if he wasn’t just being overly optimistic, but either way, it looks like Tesla is getting serious about entering into an industry most people didn’t expect them to venture into any time soon.
The race to put driverless trucks on our roads is already heating up. Just last month, Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk hinted that his company would join others in developing autonomous vehicles for long-haul trucking. Although he didn’t elaborate much further, it appears we now have a pretty good idea of what Tesla has planned. According to reports out of Norway (Tesla isn’t currently selling its electric semi in Europe) and Electrek, Tesla is expected to roll out its all-electric truck sometime in 2022.
What’s coming in 2022?
With Tesla having released images of its sleek and sexy new electric semi-truck, a new competitor has revealed its plans to enter the cybertruck marketplace. The New Tesla Cybertruck Killer (NTCK), as it has been named by industry analysts, claims that it’s been developing a similar product with superior specifications to Tesla’s offerings. NTCK promises more power, a double-walled aluminium design and an improved cargo hold. Industry insiders are intrigued at what Tesla might have to say about these claims in six months’ time.
Before launching their new product, NTCK will have to file patents for their technology and design. This process can take several months but it’s generally regarded as a vital step to protect your ideas from being copied. Patents are relatively inexpensive to obtain, but make sure you register in every country that you do business in. Tesla was accused of not doing enough to protect its intellectual property when Chinese manufacturers started copying their cars and selling them at cheaper prices. As an early entrant into cybertrucks, Tesla is vulnerable, especially if competitors choose to use its successful model as a basis for developing innovative new products of their own. Another big challenge that NTCK has yet to overcome is regulatory approval by various transportation departments.
Expected Tesla Sales Forecast
Although Elon Musk previously announced that Tesla would unveil a new type of semi-truck in September 2017, many people were surprised when Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder announced that he is going to reveal a new Tesla Semi truck in October 2016. Apparently, Tesla has some Tesla semi news to share. According to Musk’s tweet: Tesla Semi truck unveil & test ride are tentatively scheduled for Oct 26th in Hawthorne. Worth seeing this beast in person. These trucks are expected to compete with similar trucks made by Daimler and Cummins Inc., which have been developing their own range-extended electric trucks for quite some time now.
A range-extended electric truck is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) where an auxiliary power unit is used to increase the driving range between charges. The main benefits of using a range extender are lower cost and improved fuel efficiency when compared to conventional vehicles in similar weight categories that use only batteries for propulsion. While Tesla may have surprised everyone with its plans to release a semi-truck so soon, its competitor Daimler has been developing its own version since 2010. Daimler expects to be mass producing these trucks by 2019, but it’s possible that Tesla will beat them out of the market by then.
In addition to announcing that Tesla Semi truck testing rides would begin later in October 2016, Musk revealed more details about its newest semi-truck design.
Conclusion
Each truck is already backed by one of America’s major commercial truck manufacturers, but they have been forced to make significant design changes. Now that Tesla has revealed what their new cybertruck will look like and how it will function, these companies must go back to redesigning their trucks once again. It seems Tesla really has set out to not only revolutionize personal transportation but also commercial transportation as well. The race for who will be first in releasing a new cybertruck to compete with Tesla is on!
Although we are all excited to see Tesla’s new cybertruck, there are many different possible designs that will likely be released. Each one is expected to use and improve upon Tesla’s design in some way, but all eyes are on who will win when it comes to producing a cybertruck that can handle heavy loads while still being able to drive far distances without needing frequent charging. Although we have seen what Tesla has designed so far, there is no official release date for their new product just yet. The race for who will win as Tesla’s first real competitor seems to be heating up now with each company currently tweaking its final design.
What do you think of Tesla’s new cybertruck? Is it going to be as good as they say? Do you have an opinion on who will win in their race against Tesla? Post your thoughts below and share your thoughts with us! We’d love to hear from you.
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