Tesla revealed 3 new products; the Tesla Semi, The new Tesla Roadster and Elon Musk showed off an image of a new pickup.
The new Semi has a 500 mile range at highway speeds (under a full load) and it can be recharged in 30 minutes to a 400 mile range.
The 400 mile range is touted as a safety feature, restricting the maximum amount of time that can be driven legally. Tesla claims the new Semi will have the lowest cost of ownership, a windshield that can withstand a nuclear blast and fuel savings of $200,000 with a payback period of 2 years. Much like the Superchargers for cars, Tesla will be rolling out a Mega-Charger network for their trucks that will be solar powered and guarantee the lowest cost of electricity.
The new Roadster is now the fastest production vehicle in the world. The specs AND first impressions have shaken the automotive world to its core. Tesla had several on hand and gave those who plunked down $250,000 (for the Founders Series or $50,000 for the base reservation), rides for the most amazing zero to 70 acceleration of their life. Now for those specs; zero to 60 in under 2 seconds, top speed over 250 mph and the big number that will crush the piston engine and forever seal its doom.. 620 miles of range. Production is slated for 2020.
Elon Musk very briefly showed an image of a very large pickup truck based on the Tesla Semi, (yes it is carrying a pickup truck). Speculation has been rampant across the internet as to exactly what this thing is… a viable product or just a glimpse of Tesla wrestling with design direction?
Last summer saw the defeat of yet another attempt at over-turning Connecticut’s foolish ban on Tesla direct sales to consumers. Several lawmakers simply dismissed Tesla as a niche market. While the state legislature was busy rejecting Tesla’s sales taxes, they were wrestling with a record budget deficit. All this leads to make one wonder if the legislature will wake up and work with Tesla to bring jobs through manufacturing the Tesla Semi, Roadster, pickup and or Model Y?
Connecticut has lost too many manufacturing jobs over the past several decades. We have an educated workforce and a very strong history of both manufacturing expertise and innovation. Elon Musk has stated the Tesla Factories are out of space/at capacity. Tesla could use an East coast manufacturing base to save on distribution costs. It would be very wise for our legislative leaders to reach out to Elon/Tesla and do everything humanly possible to create a long term agreement to manufacture any of these products in Connecticut.
