Tesla’s electric pickup truck is Elon Musk’s favorite upcoming vehicle from the automaker, which has a busy product roadmap ahead of them.

Now, Musk hints at an accelerated plan for the electric pickup.

We already know quite a bit about the Tesla pickup truck after Musk sought suggestions about the vehicle in development and shared some of the targeted specs.

He talked about it being a 6-seater “big truck” with an option for 400 to 500 miles of range, “maybe higher”.

While those would be impressive specs for an electric pickup truck, it was not clear why Musk is excited about the product until he said that the Tesla Pickup Truck will have a ‘really futuristic-like cyberpunk Blade Runner’ design.

The CEO has been saying that the pickup is going to be a priority after the Model Y.

Now Musk says that it will even take priority over the Tesla Semi and next-generation Roadster:

Lot on our plate, so it’s either get van gliders (no battery, powertrain or compute tech) from Daimler & produce sooner or do all & produce later. Not a big difference to total vehicles produced either way. Priority list is Model Y, solar roof tiles, pickup, semi, Roadster. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2018

For context, those two vehicles are supposed to be in production in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

But when I asked about the order of the list, Musk said that it was about “resource priority”:

In order of resource priority, but not necessarily production ramp, as that depends on thousands of parts & processes, which are extremely difficult to forecast — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2018

It would mean that the Tesla Pickup truck is going to get more resources than the Tesla Semi in the coming year.

The actual timeline to production is still unclear. As Musk pointed out, the supply chain is difficult to forecast at this point.

Electrek’s Take

I said it before and I’m going to say it again: I am hoping that the unveiling and the start of reservations happen soon rather than later because I think it will kickstart the electric pickup truck industry in the US, which should have a massive impact on the emission from the American transport industry in the long-term.

But in terms of resources to bring the vehicle to production, I am not sure if it’s the right idea to prioritize it over the Tesla Semi.

Tesla Semi reservation holders are industrial customers who are going to expect delivery on time, especially after having spent millions in deposits.

I think Tesla should put a lot of resources to be able to deliver the vehicle on time and they have been guiding 2019, which is coming up fast.

My ideal scenario would be Tesla unveiling Model Y and Tesla Pickup at the same time in March 2019, but the company allocating more capital in 2019 to bring Model Y and Tesla Semi to production within the next year.

Capital expenditure for the electric pickup truck could ramp up the following year instead.

But that’s just my two cents.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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