Elon Musk introduced Tesla’s first electric semi-truck at an event last night (November 16) in Los Angeles, California, which also included the surprise reveal of a record-breaking new Roadster.
The company also unveiled plans to develop an extensive network of “Megachargers”, that will deliver 650km of charge in 30 minutes.
On a night when the Tesla CEO claimed diesel trucks are “economic suicide”, Musk listed a host of features the semi-truck will include, such as enhanced autopilot, lane-keeping technology and a design that makes jackknifing “impossible”.
With 805km range and a 20 second 0-100km/h at maximum weight, the truck is claimed to offer faster acceleration, better uphill performance than its diesel counterparts, and a new heavy-duty windshield. The commercial vehicle can also reach 105km/h on a 5% grade.
The new Roadster – named after the first EV developed by Tesla – promises to break all world records for production cars. Musk claims the base model will do 0-100km/h in 1.9 seconds, breaking the two second barrier, and offer 1000km in range.
Despite continued reservations about the company’s capacity to meet demand for the new vehicles, production dates have been pencilled in for 2019 and 2020 for the semi-truck and Roadster respectively.