With the cybertruck design, Tesla is sucking oxygen from Ford, GM and Chevy(?, not sure, not a truck guy, not a US cars guy).
Cybertruck is designed to be:
1) cheap to produce (no stamping, no painting) and
2) aerodynamic, i.e smaller battery, i.e. again, cheap to produce
and, Tesla already had some cost advantage on battery/drivetrain/integration/software.
These three advantages add up. Ford/GM/Chevy will need $70K-$80K for traditionally styled electric truck to match Tesla's $40K version (poor aero, huge battery, heavy etc). They were likely hoping on charging $20K-$30K premium over their gas counterpart. And will now have a problem getting away with it.
Hence, even if it doesn't take huge marketshare, Tesla just made job for everyone else much harder. Sucked the oxygen (profits) out of the room.
Others will have to compromise on one of the:
1.price and margin, in order to keep volume,
2.volume, in order to maintain high price and margin, or
3.design aesthetics in a follow the leader move, that will weaken their positioning, becoming "followers", instead of "incumbents"
This is like watching crash in a super slow-motion. I felt like that in 2015, when I had great conviction that Tesla will slaughter the rest of the auto-industry. Since then, big chunk of that conviction has disappeared due to all on-goals (MX ramping, M3 ramping, funding secure, pedo guy, fighting SEC, Q1 ER).
Anyhow, that conviction is coming back, especially as I see everyone else fiddle so badly with transition, which I expected, but didn't know for sure will happen.
Just random musings on Sunday...