Franz Von Holzhausen:
The Cybertruck is one of those moments where, in a way, form followed function. A lot of times we put the form in front of the function, especially in the automotive world, and it's really tough to mix the two.
But Cybertruck is really born out the idea of a different way of manufacturing, a material that puts the toughness on the outside. So we really wanted to use stainless steel as a material so that the hardest part of the vehicle was on the outside, not the delicate paint. And it felt right for a truck that's used in like a Swiss army knife in any kind of environment has to be tough.
So stainless steel is really tough to form, especially when you make it bulletproof or thicker to withstand impacts and not be damaged. And so we really looked at new ways of manufacturing. You could only brake form and form it in one direction. You can't do compound curves or things with the thickness of the stainless steel that we're using. So it really led us to a design that was really planar, really simplistic, and it was also a chance to break the paradigm of what pickup trucks have been for the past 60 or 70 years. The same...there's kind of this three-box shape, and we just thought from an aerodynamic perspective, having a covered back with a sloping roof would also be helpful. And oddly enough, it may not look it, but the Cybertruck is an incredibly aerodynamic vehicle.
