Elon Musk On Tesla 'Cyberpunk' Pickup Truck For Military Use: 'This Is Incorrect'

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk's continuing reference to his company's upcoming all-electric pickup as an "armored personnel carrier" (APC) because of its futuristic look has caused a stir among leading Tesla pundits and the U.S. Air Force.

Electrek, the electric vehicle (EV) and sustainable energy website, on Wednesday smelled a scoop when Musk appeared at the Air Force Space Pitch Day in San Francisco on Tuesday and spoke about the Tesla pickup truck.

The portal wrote a story saying Musk pitched the "Tesla electric pickup truck to the U.S. military." The story added "the CEO also briefly pitched the idea of the Tesla electric pickup truck to the military branch."

The news was later picked-up by Teslarati, the all-things Tesla website, which wrote its own story about a military use for the cybertruck pickup.

Teslarati's story had the title, "Tesla’s ‘Cyberpunk’ Pickup Truck pitched for potential military use." Musk later said they were inaccurate.

He replied: "This is based on an incorrect Electrek article. The Air Force asked me to speak at a startup conference called “Pitch Day” & I happened to mention Cybertruck. They don’t buy APCs. It’s the Air Force."

Musk was probably referring to the U.S. Army, and not the Air Force, when he referred to which service buys APCs.

But in all fairness to Electrek, which broke the story, Musk's vague statement could have been construed as a pitch for the Tesla pickup as an APC.

Electrek noted Musk briefly pitched the idea of the Tesla electric pickup truck to the Air Force, saying: "We are going to come out with the Tesla pickup truck, or we call it ‘Cybertruck’ -- I mean it looks like an armored personnel carrier from the future. It doesn’t look like a normal car. You may like it, you may not. I like it. It’s going to look like it came off a movie set. When it goes down the road. Like, ‘Whoa, What’s that thing?'”

Electrek said this was the second time Musk had referred to the pickup as an armored personnel carrier. The first time had him also saying the Tesla pickup’s design looks like “an armored personnel carrier from the future.”