Musk now targets October to unveil Tesla semi truck

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric carmaker is tentatively scheduled to unveil its planned semi-truck in late October, about a month later than the billionaire had earlier estimated. "Tesla Semi truck unveil & test ride tentatively scheduled for Oct 26th in Hawthorne," Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday. The entrepreneur has tantalized the trucking industry with the prospect of a battery-powered heavy-duty vehicle that can compete with conventional diesels, which can travel up to 1,000 miles on a single tank of fuel. Tesla's plans for new electric vehicles including a commercial truck called the Tesla Semi were announced last year and in April Musk said the release of the semi-truck was set for September. Tesla has been making strides in self-driving technology and implementing it in an electric truck could potentially move it forward in a highly competitive area of commercial transport also being pursued by Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Alphabet Inc's Waymo. Reuters reported in August that Tesla was developing a long-haul, electric semi-truck that could drive itself and move in "platoons" that followed a lead vehicle, according to an email discussion of potential road tests between the car company and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. Tesla's electric big-rig truck could have a working range of 200 to 300 miles to compete with more conventional diesels, Reuters reported later in August. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Hay)