Elon Musk Launches Tesla’s Truck; The Internet Has Been Asking “Kitna Deti Hai”

A few hours ago, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi – the electric car company’s big-rig truck – by driving it into an airport hangar near Los Angeles.

A day prior to the event, Musk – known for his humour – tweet out what the Semi could do, in an evident reference to the Transformers series.

However, he did finally get down to unveiling the prototype of the truck, describing it as Tesla’s move to getting the economy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

Not all people are happy with the new product launch however, with analysts fearing that Tesla – which has never posted any profits yet and has described itself as in a “manufacturing hell” – will be an expensive white elephant or distraction.

Prior to the launch, Tesla executives showed the Class 8 truck – the heaviest class of trucks – describing it as “trailer agnostic” or capable of hauling any kind of load.

The interesting part of the truck’s design is that the driver’s seat is located at the centre of the cabin, in a bid to boost visibility, with two touch screens on either side of the driver. The battery is built into the chassis of the vehicle.

The range of truck, of course has been a feature that left many people surprised. Initial reports in August said that the range would be anywhere between 200 to 300 miles (320 to 480 km) on a full charge, quite low a figure compared to long-haul diesel trucks that usually go as far as 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on a full tank of fuel. While Musk had claimed that it would be able to do 400 miles, he finally announced that it would do 500 miles on a single charge. He also said that the current prototype would offer semi-autonomous capabilities and that future models could very well be autonomous.

However, Musk and Tesla have a long list of challenges ahead. For starters, they need to be able to convince the American trucking community that the Semi is a serious contender. Heavy batteries in a truck will certainly reduce the hauling capacity and the truck just needs to be affordable.

While truckers in the Untied States have shown mixed reactions, one carrier confirmed that they would not use a Tesla, stating that they did not “see a fit with the truck and their fleet”.

Tesla’s shares did not see much of an activity, and with the Palo Alto-based company struggling to launch its $35,000 Model 3 sedan, it would take some time before the company is able to make a serious dent into the market.