At last the wooden doorstop inspires a car company….
by Wallace Wyss –
Tesla CEO Elon Musk prides himself on being ahead of the curve. I think he’s not the first to announce an electric pickup truck (Rivian showed one last year at the LA Auto Show) but his could be the first from an American automaker to actually be on the market if he beats Ford’s F150.
Musk is calling his car the Cybertruck. The truck has three levels, all pegged by their range, how far they will go before a recharge is necessary: 250 miles, 300 miles, and 500 miles. I am taking the base price tag of $39,900 with a grain of salt because the Model 3 always seems to come at much more than its quoted base price.
The first ones won’t hit the showrooms (er, maybe they have one or two showrooms….) until 2021, but preorders can be made at this link if you want to put $100 down.
In a mighty effort to demonstrate its ruggedness, Musk had Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief of design, slam the door with a sledgehammer with little result but apparently the “armored” glass failed its demo with the ball thrown at it cracked the side glass.
The truck could be fast, Musk showing a video of it winning a tug-of-war with a Ford F150 and a drag race with a Porsche 911.
Tesla’s business is in a slump so this could help. They did crank out a profit but using $164 million worth of regulatory credits and money that it had banked from customers who’ve paid for the yet-to-be-released “full self-driving” version of Autopilot.
General Motors also plans to have an electric pickup on the market in 2021, but Rivian — bankrolled by both Ford and Amazon — could beat them by releasing their version in 2020.
Tesla Cybertruck Design Commentary
FRONT: Extremely blunt and unfinished looking.
SIDE: Too angular a wedge to qualify as a real life vehicle. Didn’t this designer ever hear of curves (we know he did the Pontiac Solstice so he must have…)
REAR: Not enough reference material.
IN SUM: A very unfinished looking car. Where’s the chrome, Elon?
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: A former ad copywriter in Detroit, Wyss has advised several automakers on marketing. At present, he is a fine artist, painting portraits on commission of the world’s greatest cars. He can be reached re art at mendoart7@gmail.com.
Tesla Cybertruck photos compliments of Tesla.
SummaryArticle NameNew Product: Tesla CybertruckDescriptionTesla introduces the Tesla Cybertruck - a very unusual design.Author
Wallace Wyss
Tesla ?
No, Tease-la.
They’re just playing with you, folks. (And with YOUR money)
Here is a good example of just because you can in practice…the body styling is intentionally radical and loved by some and hated by others, it would seem that the stylist were given a table saw and sheets of plywood and told that curves were not important… Likely it will be a huge success with folks desperate to make a look at me statement… there have been some slab sided designs in the past but none of them were ever successful, perhaps 2021 will be the break out year for them…
I think Tom T is right.We are being played and Musk and his head designer are laughting as the $20 million pours in from advance deposits. That designer did the Pontiac Solstice. He knows curves.
So this is just to get their toe in the electric pickup field and later on the production car will look like a Chevy El Camino done right. I predict it will be more like this 2020 El Camino SS rendering on a site called Autowise.com
I’m a building contractor. Where do I attach the lumber racks? Where’s the open bed?
Seriously, folks, is this truck progress?
Keep on truckin’, please.
April 1st has come early .
My main concern is the lack of wheel well space. My truck can drive through mud if I have to. This thing would get stuck in 5 seconds.
I like Elon Musk, and I like truck., but this truck is absolutely awful
I DON’T THINK I COULD EVER GET USED TO THE NEW TESLA TRUCK.