Elon Musk teases Tesla ute reveal date

Tesla is set to reveal its futuristic all-electric pickup truck in November, according to the company’s founder and Elon Musk.

The Tesla ute, which Musk has previously described as “really futuristic-like cyberpunk, Blade Runner pickup truck,” was originally meant to unveiled in mid-2018.

That date was pushed back to October this year, however, Musk casually announced this will now mostly occur in November in response to a question on Twitter, which set the Tesla fandom into overload.

The enigmatic tech billionaire’s initial announcement of the all-electric ute in 2017 – again during a Twitter interaction – generated plenty of interest in Australia, according to Tesla Australia’s head of public relations, Heath Walker.

“It’s certainly exciting because I think this market is very similar to the US and there’s a huge [ute] uptake,” Walker told WhichCar at the time.

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Tesla pickup renderings by Turkey-based car designer Emre Husmen

“All you need to do is look at the number-one selling car of the last twelve months – that’s the model type. It’s certainly a segment that we need to move into.

“The nice thing is, looking at our social media commentary; we actually get that request quite a bit.”

Musk has previously stated the Tesla pickup will be priced from about $A70,000, though if the Model 3 is any guide it’s way too soon to be talking pricing, let alone if or when it will be coming to Australia.

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By the time it does come here it might already have competition from EV rival Rivian, which has plans to sell its R1T dual-cab here as soon as 2022.

Rivian has also received significant backing from Ford and is working on Blue Oval badged products that could include an electric F-150.

Meanwhile Chinese motoring giant Great Wall reckons its production-ready all-electric version of its new Model P ute could also be available in Australia within two years.

Even if it’s beaten to the punch, the Tesla ute will generate plenty of interest in the emerging segment, which unexpectedly became one of the big issues of the last Federal Election campaign when Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared that EVs represent a “war on the weekend” and that Australia’s favourite 4WDs including the Hilux “are out”.