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Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Automaker Tesla is set to unveil an electric semi truck Thursday that the company said will drive like a sports car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week the rig "will blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension."
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Musk's company has been quietly working on the truck project for two years under Jerome Guillen -- the man who ran Daimler's vaunted Freightliner semi-truck line before joining Tesla.
The electric trucks are expected to run 100 percent on battery power -- with lithium-ion cells laid flat against the floor, like other Tesla vehicles.
The batteries, though, are the single most expensive parts of the truck -- costing up to $100,000. Experts say any electric semi, regardless of size, would be more expensive than diesel counterparts because of the pricey batteries. Running a semi exclusively on electricity, however, could save thousands in fuel costs.
Tesla trucks will also require larger chargers than its other vehicles -- the Model S, Model X crossover SUV and the new Model 3.
The truck market in North America alone produces $30 billion in sales each year, or more than 250,000 trucks.
