This truck design had better be a joke....

[Hugh Mannity]

Because this is what a real contractor needs to work. You take a chassis and build it to your needs. I wish I had a pic of my trucks, 1,000 ft of 20' sticks of pipe on top, with lumber, extension ladder, conduit, tool boxes almost to up to the rack on both sides, hoses, extension cords hanging all over it, more tools and fittings than you could even begin to put in cyberstupid including filling the back seat to the top. You have to be able to open a box and get what you need without unloading everything. Time is money for contractors, efficiency is key, you have to have everything you need with you, and then some.

Why in the world would I want a SS body? To see how long it would be stuck in a body shop, if it needs repairs, so that I can't work, or maybe to set a world record on repair costs? If your work is so bad that people are shooting 9mm at your truck, or hitting it wih sledge hammers, you're in the wrong business.

How stupid would one have to be, to want employees driving a very heavy, loaded, truck that can do 0 to 60 in less than 3 sec. No fing way.

Now if you can even begin to tell me how you could build cyberstupid out to do all that, I will tell you the other reasons no smart contractor would want it.

Its market isn't contractors, at least none with brains, it's for people who drive it to their office job 5 days a week, and play with it on weekends, with their other toys, minor home owner stuff, and haul a xmas tree home once a year. Providing they can get past the fugly, I can't, and they are already disliked in the neighborhood, should be ok.

Where Tesla missed the boat is in Elon always having to remake the wheel, with the exoskeleton design. With a chassis, they could drop any body on top, van, box truck, more conventional pick up, sell the chassis, so people like contractors could build it out per their own needs. The specs areView attachment 481075 great, with a chassis it had big potential, the way it's built its a one trick pony, and a butt fugly one.

thank you for the detailed write-up; for sure it's going to be interesting to see how they figure out the part where they need to get a utility box into the back of this truck; the stainless steel point is a good thing but I suspect damage wise it wouldn't need to go to the shop that much ? Unless you are in a very serious accident most buffs/scrapes wouldn't even be a concern.

I was out walking quite a bit today and I saw several of the fleet vehicles of the city I live in; only about 20% of them would work with a cybertruck config ... again ... be interesting to see how that all washes out ......

 

[groovidad]

Of interest, just read where 200K orders placed in the last 3 days. Reminiscent of how the Model 3 began. Interesting...….

 

[ZoomsansVroom]

It could actually be, simply, reworked, to an excellent van design.

That could really appeal to lots of fleet customers - and, frankly, is something they should look at adding.

But, they’d need the range, without the speed.

A van design would solve much of its failures as a work vehicle.

Stainless corrosion is much more serious and more difficult to remedy than carbon steel corrosion.

Also, if it does dent, stainless is not nearly as stable as carbon - much harder to get into shape - it shifts when heated

 

[ricohman]

The more I review everything the more it seems that the truck really was built for Mars and little has been done to take into account the issues this creates for a mass market product. The exoskeleton means any substantial accident would compromise the overall structural integrity, the strength of the body panels would prove fatal to most pedestrians involved in even fairly low speed impacts, etc.

If the body is really that stiff, what happens when it does get damaged? How easy is it to repair?
Anyone using their truck for a living does not want to wait months for repair.
But then without a frame or a live axle those who use their truck for a living probably won't choose a unibody anything.

 

[brucet999]

If the body is really that stiff, what happens when it does get damaged? How easy is it to repair?
Anyone using their truck for a living does not want to wait months for repair.
But then without a frame or a live axle those who use their truck for a living probably won't choose a unibody anything.

According to Motor Trend, CT skin is 3mm thick. That is 118 thousandths; almost 1/8". Conventional auto body sheet steel runs 38 to 47 thousandths; 1/32" to 3/64".

 

[vanzandtj]

Ok, so the body is bullet proof. Maybe that’s one way to improve the aesthetics? Riddle the body with gun fire and maybe it won’t be as ugly.

So would this make a good getaway car?

 

[crazy150]

I think if they had introduced a body on frame pickup that was a slightly more conventional version of this... it would have kept stock high, and would have probably led to even more pre-orders. They could have brought both out on stage, and you could have seen how the design language led to the production version... but the things that make a truck great for Mars or the Military present real challenges for mass market consumers.

A body on frame or even a truck version of the model X, would likely have a starting cost of 60-80k. Aluminum body on a truck is very dent happy as f150 owners can attest and body work for aluminum Teslas is one of their big issues.

Stock price did drop, but with 200k orders already, if they get to 500k by Xmas the bears will come back. Basically, Tesla has reservation for probably as many cybertrucks as they can make anyway.

 

[crazy150]

I think you're correct here. I bought a Ridgeline "truck" several years ago for essentially those uses. I chose this because it has:

* Unibody vs body/bed/frame for smoother ride (+1 for Cybertruck)
* Appearance is less, er, idiomatic (+1 for CT - geez!)
* Honda reliability, which at the time blew the doors off most other trucks (+1 for CT, at least in terms of fewer things to fail)
* Great crash test ratings (presumably +1 for CT, but who knows)
* Independent rear suspension for better handling (+1 for CT)
* that cool hidden compartment under the bed (+1 for CT)
* fit easily in my garage (CT *must* come in shorter version for this market!)

That said, the Ridgeline didn't sell well, and Honda finally redesigned it to look more traditional. Hmm.

funny you mention the ridge line. The contractor who remolded my bathroom showed up in a top end Chevy Silverado when he put in a bid, but guess what he showed up to do the work in? First generation Honda Ridgeline. He hauled all the demo waste and brought all the sheet material in it with a small trailer. His helper drove a small Ford Escape filled with tools.

I don’t think many contractors will drive this, but not because it won’t be functional in the bed department. It will be because they won’t embrace EV and maybe the styling but also the cost. Let’s not forget you can buy a f150 Bare bones for under 30k. And at the top end CT you are in f250 diesel territory.

 

[nativewolf]

It will be fine for my farm truck needs. No vehicle is going to meet every purpose and the utility truck market needs are very particular and not a tesla sort of thing. It requires that you have simple frames and let users modify. @mvotb has pretty much nailed a panel truck need, used by mechanics etc. As a forester that's not my work truck need. I just need the bed to have a locking top (which it seems it will) and I am good. I need it to tow 14k lbs, it does. Being stainless is just a benefit.

Farm trucks are not setup like mechanic trucks. We don't need or want the lock boxes -weight, expense, and block access. We just want a bed. Oh, and ground clearance. The ground clearance is so very helpful. Oh and $ we don't want to spend $ on diesel.

 

[Fernand]

But look at how good that Cybertruck looks from this angle, where you see its length.

 

[crazy150]

Here's my shitty Microsoft Paint attempt. My main issue is the triangle roof, and I feel that a flat roof/trapezoid solves this. Both of these alternatives keeps triangulation through the body (although through the B and C pillars instead of through a giant C pillar/roof combo) and maintains the option of a tapered bed cover.
View attachment 481282 View attachment 481283

Yours looks better, but the body is structural unlike traditional pickup. If the C Pilar to go all the way to the back you get extra support for the payload, stiffer body/frame and for rear end collision.

What’s the payload for a decent model f150/Silverado maybe 2000+ lbs? If that’s your target you will need the extra support.

 

[crazy150]

But look at how good that Cybertruck looks from this angle, where you see its length.

View attachment 481533

This view was a selling point for me. I own the truck on the left and seeing it dwarfed by the CT impressed me. Was worried it was more model X sized, but seeing it compared to the f150 was impressive.

 

[BBMc]

That presentation will be shown in marketing classes for decades as what not to do at a product launch. Simply terrible. I was embarrassed for Elon. If the product were amazing that could all be forgiven. But the truck itself is a total disaster. Did they even talk to any truck buyers? Do they really think a farmer in Tusla is going to cross shop a F150 with that high school shop class design?

I am very certain that Tesla is not concerned about conservative farmers who live in the past. Tesla truck is designed for fleets, cop shops, military, the young, football players and drug dealers. To me, it is a mad man Batmobile and I couldn’t order fast enough.

 

[Merrill]

That presentation will be shown in marketing classes for decades as what not to do at a product launch. Simply terrible. I was embarrassed for Elon. If the product were amazing that could all be forgiven. But the truck itself is a total disaster. Did they even talk to any truck buyers? Do they really think a farmer in Tusla is going to cross shop a F150 with that high school shop class design?

Totally agree, if you call it a truck it needs to look and function like a truck. If you are making a Star Wars movie this would be in it.

 

[mhan00]

Okay, after thinking about it a lot, I’m buying a tri motor. It’s too big for my taste, and I’m still not a fan of its looks (but it has grown on me). But in the end, I think that when I’m old and gray (fingers crossed) and thinking back on my life, I’ll be much happier having owned a stainless steel tank than having not.

 

[daniel]

I'm just curious: What percentage of pickup truck owners actually have no real use for a pickup truck, but just own one because they like the idea of it? What percentage own a pickup truck because once or twice a year they can move furniture with it, and it never occurred to them that it would be a lot cheaper to rent a truck for those rare occasions.

If these numbers are high, then all considerations of utility are moot when talking about the design of the truck. If those numbers are high, Tesla can ignore the segment of the market that actually use their truck as a truck, for what a truck can do. And it can still pull a heavy trailer.

 

[Petrocelli]

I thought it was ugly when I first saw it. I now think it's cool. At a minimum, you have to admire Tesla for pushing the design envelope.

 

[Oveeus]

The design is definitely growing on me.

And the more I think about it, the more I appreciate the design decision Tesla took.
They made a PU truck for people who NEED a PU rather one that has one. A family with kids (like myself) can have very good use for a PU (like going camping, snowboard and whatever outdoor activities) but would never get one because the low utility outside of those time.

With the CT, Tesla took what's important of a PU truck for these people (the bed behind, can resist a beating, plenty of spaces), take away the problems (easy to dent here and there, fuel efficiency, price) and ended up with what we see now.

The design is not without compromise, but those compromises were needed IMO to make the CT appeal to the general public (and not truckers). And the more one thinks about those compromises, the more the design will make sense. And it's making PU truck to appeal to a much bigger market than the traditional PU makers were able to see.

 

[HVM]

It looks cool from the front... Side view:
View attachment 479797

 

[Fernand]

My wife is pushing to get one. We have no real need for it. She likes the idea of camping with it, says we can sleep in the back. In reality we can sleep fine in our Model 3. I say it's too big to park anywhere. She says so what. I don't really know why, but she switched from wanting a used Model X to wanting the (cheaper) single motor Cybertruck. Go figure.