Tesla Motors, the futuristic electric car maker led by entrepreneur Elon Musk, is making two product reveals during this month.
One of these reveals, planned for October 28th, is an update on what’s called SolarCity, a solar energy system for cars which Tesla is set to take ownership of. The other product unveiling comes sooner though, on October 17th to be exact, and it has not been made clear what exactly will be shown.
All Tesla CEO Elon Musk will tease is that the product unveil will be something “unexpected by most” who follow the company.
So what is it exactly that Musk and Tesla plan to surprise people with on October 17th? We probably won’t know for sure until the big day, but we’ve come up with several theories on what will be shown based on things Tesla and its CEO have said or done in the past.
The plausibility of these ideas ranges from a reasonable amount to honestly very little, but it’s fun to speculate regardless.
Something to do with the Model 3?
Not long after Elon Musk announced an ‘unexpected’ product was coming later this month, some online reports suggested the reveal will have something to do with the Tesla Model 3.
We know the Tesla Model 3, an all-new compact executive electric saloon, is on its way to take on the likes of the BMW 3 Series, and we’ve gotten some details such as pricing estimate and estimated range.
Perhaps on October 17th the Tesla Model 3 will get shown in its final production form and more launch details will be revealed alongside it? Maybe some major new driving feature, which has been a secret up until now, will be confirmed for the Model 3?
Then again, since we know some things about it already, another event related to the Model 3 may not qualify in Tesla’s eyes as an ‘unexpected’ product launch.
An electric motorcycle?
With the trio of the Model S, larger Model X and upcoming Model 3, Tesla is already covering some of the most lucrative areas of the car industry. But perhaps, Tesla will be ready this month to announce something for a very different market sector.
For instance, Tesla has previously revealed a concept for a motorcycle which they call the Model M. The bike was designed by Jans Slapins, who has created some radical car and bike concepts for the likes of BMW and Lamborghini.
The Model M concept is quite an eye-catcher and, like Tesla cars, it’s fully-electric as it runs on a 150kW electric motor. Plans to move to production have not been announced up until now, but such plans could prove to be the surprise product unveil.
An electric pick-up truck?
Back in July, Elon Musk revealed that Tesla intends to make an all-electric pick-up truck in the future.
Tesla’s entry to this sector would likely be large enough to rival big American pick-up trucks like the Ford F-150, which has been massively popular in America for decades.
It has been said in several reports that such a vehicle from Tesla is likely to be a few years away at least. But perhaps the company will be ready to reveal a concept at least in time for this October.
A Formula E racing team?
Up until now, there hasn’t been much speculation in regards to Tesla entering a team into the Formula E series, but there are some factors that make it at least somewhat plausible.
For one thing Formula E uses all-electric cars, something that will automatically appeal to Tesla’s zero-emission credentials. In recent months, quite a few big car manufactures have confirmed they are getting involved, either now or in future seasons.
The likes of Renault, Jaguar, Audi and BMW already have some level of involvement with teams in Formula E. The latter two companies are set to enter full-fledged factory teams into the sport in future seasons and Mercedes-Benz are also likely to join by the start of the 2018/19 season.
For the third season, which has recently started, Formula E also has involvement from companies focused purely on electric car development; including NextEV and Faraday Future. There are a lot of manufacturers then turning to Formula E to aid their development of future electric cars and promote them to potential customers at the same time.
It may take them years before they’re actually ready, but is Tesla the latest manufacturer to be enticed by this race series?
A Tesla aeroplane?
Earlier this year, Elon Musk revealed during an award ceremony in Texas that he was interested in making an electric aeroplane.
He revealed he had been thinking about “the vertical takeoff and landing electric jet a bit more”. He added: “I think I have something that might… close. I’m quite tempted to do something about it.”
We’ve not really had any more details since Musk gave this intriguing quote, but perhaps he’s been working on his electric aircraft idea since then and is ready to spring it on an astonished public.
Having worked a lot with his aerospace manufacturer SpaceX in recent months, which is working on ground-breaking and re-usable spacecraft, an innovative new aircraft doesn’t sound like that much a stretch when you consider Musk’s track record.
A giant laser beam?
You might laugh at this suggestion (and you’re probably right too) but we do know that Elon Musk and Tesla has been working on something called Project Goldfinger.
We know virtually nothing about this project, but a sign for it was spotted during the summer when journalists toured the Tesla ‘Gigafactory’, a production facility for new car batteries.
It might of just been a joke, but Musk is an eccentric genius who has seriously talked about dropping nuclear bombs on Mars and owns the Submarine Esprit from 007’s The Spy Who Loved Me.
With things like that in mind, we wouldn’t be completely surprised if Musk unveiled a giant cutting laser that could rival what Ulfric Goldfinger used to threaten James Bond in a 007 film. As we have discussed in the past, some of Musk’s background and actions suggest that he’s actually a real life supervillain!
