That is One Ugly Truck?

[ucmndd]

This is one of those designs that may not be all that popular right now, but be worth $1Million in 20 years to a collector.

2003 Pontiac Aztek

 

[Uncle Paul]

Interesting that many collectors have sought out Azteks for collections. Makes all the other cars look better

 

[qdeathstar]

i think the price point will let people hold there nose on the look. It’s got the mystique of the Tesla brand, the practicality of an ev, the performance of a f250 and porch, and the price of an f150. People will appreciate the triangle.

 

[PWlakewood]

Side glass on a car is almost never laminated. Instead it’s rather intended to shatter into a billion pieces for ease of first responder access.

Yes you are correct. If you've added any type of tint to your windows it will still shatter into a million pieces but it wont fall in.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Armor glass has been developed by Tesla to be like the Gorilla glass that is used in iPhones. It is laminated with many layers. Some layers are under tension, giving great strength.

 

[dannycamps]

That's no different than any other tempered safety glass in a car. They laminate the glass with a very durable polymer that retains the core integrity of the glass without penetrations. It's energy distribution. Any modern car would have accomplished the same outcome.

No way - any modern car the side windows would completely shatter and the ball would've been in the cabin. This behaved more like a windshield where the ball got stuck in the glass.

 

[jsight]

2003 Pontiac Aztek

That car has almost 200k miles on it. I think a more direct comparison might be the Edsel. Still not exactly $1 million, but worth 10x or more what it was when new.

 

[woodguyatl]

I'm having a hard time seeing who his target audience is with that design. I live in Washington state and as anyone that lives here will tell you we have a very large concentration of trucks here. There are so many pavement princess drivers that I don't see them buying something as radical as this departure from the normal red neck 100 year old design that is so prevalent in all brands of full size trucks. As a fan of tesla I can appreciate his future forward thinking design but I'm still on the fence.

Substitute the word phone for truck in 2007 and you have what many people were saying after iPhone launch. I think Tesla is trying to make an entirely new market.

 

[woodguyatl]

Yesterday: It's ugly as hell. No way will I buy one.

This morning: I placed an order for AWD.

This evening: Wife asks why I didn't get the long range performance instead.

Also 5 people in my office ordered it today. That's more excitement than model 3 had here.

I ordered one, and I personally know two other people.

 

[ALSETJC]

This is what happens when there are no females on the design team.

 

[woodguyatl]

No way - any modern car the side windows would completely shatter and the ball would've been in the cabin. This behaved more like a windshield where the ball got stuck in the glass.

A small correction. About 1/3 of 2018 cars have laminated side windows because the Feds are enforcing new rules to prevent people from being ejected in crashes. A quick google will bring up lots of articles.

 

[PWlakewood]

Substitute the word phone for truck in 2007 and you have what many people were saying after iPhone launch. I think Tesla is trying to make an entirely new market.

I agree completely and I've always been a fan of the iphone but I've never had one (Samsung is everywhere in my house) . I would however buy the cyber truck.

 

[omarsultan]

Substitute the word phone for truck in 2007 and you have what many people were saying after iPhone launch. I think Tesla is trying to make an entirely new market.

Except the iPhone introduced new capacities such a full-screen, multi-touch interface, real mobile internet and bundling unlimited data. This is mostly a bunch of stying choices wrapped around a conventional truck, albeit one with an electric drivetrain.

For a company that seems to be perpetually on the brink of financial armageddon, perhaps it would have been wiser to go with a design the has broader appeal to grab a larger share of the 2.4M pickup trucks sold in the US every year. Tesla's original mantra for the Model S was "no wierdmobiles" and that seems to have worked out OK.

 

[PWlakewood]

Except the iPhone introduced new capacities such a full-screen, multi-touch interface, real mobile internet and bundling unlimited data. This is mostly a bunch of stying choices wrapped around a conventional truck, albeit one with an electric drivetrain.

For a company that seems to be perpetually on the brink of financial armageddon, perhaps it would have been wiser to go with a design the has broader appeal to grab a larger share of the 2.4M pickup trucks sold in the US every year. Tesla's original mantra for the Model S was "no wierdmobiles" and that seems to have worked out OK.

So elon should have designed a Ford, dodge, Chevy lookalike?

 

[woodguyatl]

Except the iPhone introduced new capacities such a full-screen, multi-touch interface, real mobile internet and bundling unlimited data. This is mostly a bunch of stying choices wrapped around a conventional truck, albeit one with an electric drivetrain.

For a company that seems to be perpetually on the brink of financial armageddon, perhaps it would have been wiser to go with a design the has broader appeal to grab a larger share of the 2.4M pickup trucks sold in the US every year. Tesla's original mantra for the Model S was "no wierdmobiles" and that seems to have worked out OK.

Many, many people thought the full screen, multi-touch, and internet were terrible ideas and that there was no need for them. I remember taking lots of abuse from friends and colleagues when I got an iPhone since the Nextel push-to-talk phones did everything anybody would want a phone to do. In the end it was a knee-jerk reaction and a lack of vision about what smart-phones could become - a car key and means to manage an electric vehicle, for instance.

Remember how many people thought cross-over SUV's were a terrible idea since they couldn't do the same thing as a large truck-based SUV or anything that a station wagon couldn't? They were strictly a body design change. They didn't add any new capability to the market whatsoever. Yet here we are years later and I'll bet the cross-over SUV's outsell station wagons quite substantially.

Here are some thing that Tesla intends to bring to the truck market (off the top of my head):

1 - A truck that goes 0-60 in 2.9 sec. Does one already exist?
2 - A durable stainless shell. Most all of my trucks I have had to be repainted after about 10 years because of paint failure do to sun damage.
3 - Long range. The Rivian is delivering much less range for more more money. I suspect aerodynamics is part of it.

Also, for as much as people are complaining about the design I don't think it will negatively impact sales. If you read this forum and other ICE truck focused forums you will see that a great number "truck" people had already decided that any electric truck will fail to meet the super specific thing they need a truck to do - just like nobody could fathom giving up the Nextel push-to-talk capability.

 

[woodguyatl]

So elon should have designed a Ford, dodge, Chevy lookalike?

I am surprised how many people seemed to thing that Tesla was going to release a F150 clone with and electric drivetrain - especially since he repeatedly used Bladerunner and Cybertruck to describe it.

 

[omarsultan]

So elon should have designed a Ford, dodge, Chevy lookalike?

No, but there is middle ground between this and the F150. Elon understood luxury sedan buyers were conservative, hence the conventional looks of the Model S, and it served the company well. If there is anyone more conservative than luxury sedan buyers, it’s pickup truck buyers. I don’t see the point in spending the company’s time, money and resources to create a niche product when they could have created something with broader appeal and potentially become a dominant player in the segment like they did with the S and the 3.

 

[mact3333]

I believe Elon said on Twitter when asked that they had thrown the steel ball at the same window twice before the show, and said it bounced right off. he sounded genuinely shocked when it broke. But he seemed to handle it well.
turns out that got him more free press than he could have hoped for.

Handled it well???...you could clearly hear him say "OMFG" !...lol.

 

[PWlakewood]

No, but there is middle ground between this and the F150. Elon understood luxury sedan buyers were conservative, hence the conventional looks of the Model S, and it served the company well. If there is anyone more conservative than luxury sedan buyers, it’s pickup truck buyers. I don’t see the point in spending the company’s time, money and resources to create a niche product when they could have created something with broader appeal and potentially become a dominant player in the segment like they did with the S and the 3.

Elon has said all along what is plans were so it should come as no shock that the cybertruck is an extreme departure from the status quo. There have been products released to the public that have been shocking at first but eventually accepted. Not one of us were privy to the meetings around target demographic or design. Elon may be eccentric and out there but hes not a dummy.

 

[omarsultan]

Elon has said all along what is plans were so it should come as no shock that the cybertruck is an extreme departure from the status quo. There have been products released to the public that have been shocking at first but eventually accepted. Not one of us were privy to the meetings around target demographic or design. Elon may be eccentric and out there but hes not a dummy.

Sure, but Elon also stated back in 2016 in Master Plan, Part Deux that the goal of the next wave of vehicles was to "address most of the consumer market"

Expand to Cover the Major Forms of Terrestrial Transport
Today, Tesla addresses two relatively small segments of premium sedans and SUVs. With the Model 3, a future compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck, we plan to address most of the consumer market. A lower cost vehicle than the Model 3 is unlikely to be necessary, because of the third part of the plan described below.

Now the 3 has done that I would expect the Y will do even better, but I'd be hard-pressed to argue the Cybertruck is designed for mainstream appeal. Even Elon has acknowledged this possibilty on Twitter.