Tesla Will Build An Electric Pickup Truck, Elon Musk Promises

Tesla founder Elon Musk says his company will build an electric pickup truck, feeding interest among the entrepreneur's fans and sparking speculation about when it might be produced. Tesla is still working to get several vehicles to market, including its Roadster and Semi.Musk made the remark on Twitter, responding to a request for a pickup truck by saying, "I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y."The Model Y is Tesla's planned crossover SUV that will be based on the same architecture as the Model 3 — the family sedan that was supposed to herald the company's entry into the mass market but ran into production snags after it hit the streets in the second half of 2017.Tweeting about his plans for a pickup, Musk said, "Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it."Musk's tweet about the pickup has been liked more than 12,000 times in the 24 hours since he posted it. The tweet hit a sweet spot for people who are fans of both Tesla and pickups, scratching an itch that has generated a number of theoretical renderings of what a Tesla pickup truck might be like — including a complete photo gallery.Responding to questions about the unnamed pickup, Musk later predicted that the truck would be similar in size to Ford's stalwart F-150 — and in the sort of tease at which he is an expert in delivering to Tesla's faithful, Musk added, "Maybe slightly bigger to account for a really gamechanging (I think) feature I'd like to add."In November, Tesla unveiled two vehicles — the Semi truck and the Roadster — that Musk said would hit the U.S. market in 2019 and 2020. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org/.