The Tesla Cybertruck is probably the single most anticipated vehicle of 2023 in the U.S.
Expected to be announced later this year, its big, bold design is a radical departure from the American pickup, with its sharp triangular contours. And the Tesla faithful are stoked.
Cybertruck threads dominate Reddit’s Tesla Motors community and tweets about daily sightings of camo Cybertrucks (see below) keep the hype machine well oiled. To top it off, CEO Elon Musk is on the record saying that the “[Cybertruck] is the car I will be driving on a day-to-day basis.”
All this interest is making traditional pickup truck people skeptical.
CEO Jim Farley of Ford— which makes the F150, the gold standard of traditional pickups — is one of the most skeptical.
“If he wants to design a Cybertruck for Silicon Valley people, fine,” Farley told CNBC. “It’s like a cool high-end product parked in front of a hotel,” he said.
And many of the non-Tesla-faithful are equally dubious.
Quora threads ask burning philosophical questions like, Why is the Tesla cyber truck so ugly and yet appreciated? or more basic questions like, Who agrees that the Tesla Cybertruck is the first ugly Tesla?
Comparisons have been made to the Pontiac Aztek, hands down one of the ugliest cars ever made.
Skeptics also believe it’s going to be a nightmare to manufacture.
A new report (Wired) says that the preproduction “alpha” version of the Cybertruck has been plagued with “basic” issues with its “suspension, body sealing, noise levels, handling, and braking.”
Even Elon Musk is providing some fodder for skepticism.
Addressing the series of production delays — the first in the summer of 2021 — Musk was candid about the challenges Tesla is facing when he said in May:
“So the Cybertruck is a hard car to make…because it’s a such a radically new design.”
And if he wasn’t clear enough, he added:
“Extremely non-trivial to build the Cybertruck.”
Will critics, skeptics quell broader enthusiasm? (No)
But aside from carefully calibrated comments on manufacturing challenges, Musk is leading the Cybertruck hype charge.
“We’re finally going to start delivering production of Cybertrucks later this year,” he said in May.
“There will be an s-curve of production so it’ll be slow at first and then…ramping up.”
“We’re likely to do probably a quarter million a year I think…maybe more…It might be 500,000. I don’t know but we’ll make as many as people want.”
And the Tesla faithful are more than willing to follow.
“Beautiful…insane…10 out of 10…F150 funeral hearse,” are just a few of the comments made on Twitter.
Musk is also positioning Cybertruck as a starting point for an RV.
“We don’t have any plans to build an RV quite yet although I can certainly see how a Cybertruck could be converted into an RV,” Musk said in May. “Adding a lot of…attach points to Cybertruck…that enhance Cybertruck and turn it into a camper.”
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