Tesla Unveils an Electric Rival to Semi Trucks<br />In a surprise, Mr. Musk also showed he was not letting up on the car side of the business, unveiling a new Tesla Roadster<br />that he said would be able to reach 60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds and travel 620 miles before needing to recharge.<br />In an elaborately produced nighttime presentation by its chief executive, Elon Musk, Tesla on Thursday unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck<br />that the company said would prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that now haul goods across the country.<br />The truck can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in five seconds without a trailer,<br />and in 20 seconds when carrying a maximum load of 80,000 pounds, less than a third of the time required for a diesel truck, he said.<br />Tesla said it had no partnerships to announce on the truck project at this point,<br />but an early adopter emerged Friday when Walmart said it had ordered 15 test vehicles — five for its United States operations and 10 in Canada — for use when production begins.
