Los Angeles (AFP)

Half armored vehicle, half stealthy aircraft, Elon Musk has unveiled Thursday night near Los Angeles a strange machine covered with stainless steel mat now known as "cybertruck", which he presented as the future 100% electric pickup will soon be produced by his firm Tesla.

"It does not look like anything else," summed up Tesla's CEO grinning, pointing to the massive pickup truck with angular lines in a highly anticipated show, which was meant to be futuristic but often took a surreal turn .

Failing to display a sleek design, the "cybertruck" shows on the paper impressive performance, extensively praised by Elon Musk with demonstrations involving mass shots, throwing balls of steel or even shots of 9 mm bullets (recorded on video) to prove the solidity of the bodywork. Two windows were sunk, without shattering.

"This is an ultra-resistant stainless steel alloy that we have developed and we are going to use the same alloy for the space rocket (built by SpaceX, ed) as for the + cybertruck +," Elon Musk said.

The future pickup Tesla will have six seats, will carry more than 1.5 tons and will be able to tow 7 tons, he detailed.

The "cybertruck" will be declined in three models, 39,900 dollars and 400 km of autonomy for the entry-level, up to 69,900 and 800 km of autonomy announced for the higher model.

And he can go from 0 to 100 km / h in about three seconds, welcomed the fantastic boss of Tesla.

Elon Musk had promised that his famous pickup would cost less than $ 50,000, an average price for this category of vehicles, and that he would surpass the performance of the Ford F-150, the number one in the United States on this segment since long time.

No specific date has been communicated for its release on the market but analysts believe that this pickup Tesla will not leave the factories before the end of 2021 at the earliest. It would not be the first vehicle of its kind to enter the United States, the start-up Rivian (in which Ford has invested heavily, as well as Amazon) having a good chance to advance with his R1T.

Pick-ups and SUVs are among the best-selling vehicles in the United States. Significant margins on these models enable builders to cope with the rising costs of steel and aluminum, the expected capping of sales and the decline of compact cars (sedans and city cars).

Pick-ups are particularly popular in the US market, where their share rose from 13% in 2012 to about 17.5% this year.

© 2019 AFP