We have to talk about…the Cybertruck
Tesla is pinning a lot on its radical electric truck, but the brutalist vehicle continues to divide people as to whether it’s a work of genius or a fatally flawed concept. Some claim it will be a huge hit, while others believe it could be a modern-day Delorean. Not least, there are a raft of serious safety concerns.
(Updated 28 June 2024)
Back to the future:
Ever since he unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019, things have not gone smoothly for Elon Musk’s most ambitious, most radical vehicle. It’s been plagued by issues with its powertrain, with its braking and with its suspension, as well as having structural and sealing problems and production issues with its batteries.
Four years on, the first Cybertrucks are only now hitting the road and — depending on who you listen to — the early signs are either that no other car in history has had so many pre-orders and it’s set to be a huge hit, or things aren’t going well and it’s destined to be as commercially successful as the Delorean, a similarly ambitious car from 1980 that failed to live up to its hype.
The first thing to say is that the Cybertruck would never have been produced by any legacy automaker. Everything about it defies both common- and commercial sense. Its design looks like it was created either by a schoolboy armed only with a ruler and a total disregard for what a truck should look like, or to be the next Batmobile. Love it or hate it, its looks still remain polarising.
In any other world, customer clinics would have rejected the design or at least forced it to be heavily revised. I doubt that Tesla put the Cybertruck through any such scrutiny. And beyond the design, the fact it’s a huge truck would have put off most manufacturers as there are many markets around the world where trucks of any size, let alone behemoths, do not sell, despite the fact they currently dominate sales in North America. Indeed, right now all three top-selling vehicles in the USA are trucks.
In 2020, roughly 3 million pickups were sold in the United States. Compare that to Europe where pickup sales in the same year numbered just over 116,000.
So when it comes to a vehicle with such unique looks and form, one either agrees its radical difference is a positive or that it’s only unique because no other manufacturer would ever have greenlit such a project in the first place.
But that’s all by the by because Tesla did and Cybertruck is in production. And perhaps that’s the best place to start. However, before we talk about some of the issues associated with the new vehicle, we have to consider what’s changed during the period between Cybertruck’s announcement and now.
Back in 2019, Tesla owned the electric vehicle space, which was still in relative infancy. It was the only car company making solely EV’s. Rival EV startups such as Rivian and Lucid, and Chinese marques like BYD and Polestar had only begun dipping their toes in the water.
But of course it’s not just new players who have entered the market, almost all legacy automakers are now producing EV’s of their own. And that includes marques from Rolls-Royce to Hummer. As a result, over the past four years, Tesla’s dominance of the EV market has waned. Indeed, China’s BYD has now overtaken Tesla as the world’s biggest EV producer.
While Tesla’s annual sales in 2023 were 1.81 million, BYD delivered over 3 million electric cars (of which 1.58 million were fully electric with the rest being plug-in hybrids) and it did so without selling any cars in the US.
Inevitably, the problem with all newcomers is they are prone to making mistakes that larger, more experienced automakers do not. And when it comes to the new tech that’s in EV’s, those mistakes tend to be all the more prevalent. Recent years have seen the global auto industry struggling not just making the move from petrol-power to electric-power, but a global pandemic, a major chip shortage and a weakening demand for new vehicles.
And the challenges are no different for Tesla, a marque that unlike almost any other car manufacturer, is defined by one man.
The only other car manufacturers I can think of where an individual has such an influence on the marque are Konigsegg and Pagani, which both carry their founders name and operate in the hypercar space as does Croatia’s Rimac, another relatively new European hypercar company.
Love him or loathe him, one cannot deny that Elon Musk has shown himself to be the very definition of a reckless entrepreneur, someone prepared to announce and even launch products way before they had been tried and tested. This rush to market philosophy is at odds with the thorough testing the auto industry is renowned for to iron out any kinks in new models and plays to Musk’s ego of being a market disruptor.
The truth is you cannot separate Tesla from its owner and it has to be said that Elon Musk’s personal standing has significantly altered since he first announced Cybertruck back in 2019. For many, his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and its transformation to X, has been more than just a financial disaster, it has damaged his reputation, which as it’s so inextricably tied to Tesla, can only have had a negative effect on the marque. At least for some.
Many, like myself, will attest to what he’s done with Twitter as being the perfect example of his recklessness: paying an inflated fee for a business and then rapidly changing it so that it no longer appeals to the very people who enabled it to be so successful. Remarkably, according to recent analysis by mutual fund Fidelity, since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, its value has fallen by a whopping 71%!
Notwithstanding its name change to X, the social media platform has been altered so extensively that users — and advertisers — have been leaving it in droves. Changes are implemented then almost immediately rescinded, and in almost every case, it appears the hand of Musk is responsible.
One can’t help but be left with the impression that if Elon has a hunch that something needs to change, the change is instigated almost without consideration.
And with so much going on besides Tesla, from SpaceX to The Boring Company, there’s always something new or newsworthy to distract from a problem elsewhere in his empire. Even if not deliberate, it’s a convenient look over there, not over here.
What’s more, competitors have not been slow in catching up with Tesla and releasing electric cars of their own. History is of course littered with individuals and organisations who pioneered new tech, only to be obliterated by established manufacturers who quickly adopt the technology and consign the originator to the history books. All too often, first mover advantage is rarely the advantage it first appears to be.
And whilst one could contend that the very first Tesla was as radical a concept as Cybertruck, most would probably agree it was a prelude of things to come. That being said, I think few people would expect it to be the instigator of a new design language for all future trucks.
The reason for that is not simply down to aesthetics and whether or not you love or hate its looks. It’s actually to do with legislation.
“It’s a death trap and will be banned in most countries. Being bulletproof is great, until the projectile is a kid on a bike.”
Safety issues:
The Cybertruck is not viable for sale in many international markets as it will not pass the majority of countries safety standards. In recent years, these have become stricter and stricter to protect not only the occupants, but also pedestrians who may be involved in an impact with the vehicle.
To be approved as roadworthy, vehicles must pass a raft of complex safety standards such as crumple zones, impact absorbing bumpers, soft edges and designs that are devoid of hard or sharp protrusions. Most if not the majority of these regulations are administered by independent authorities.
However, unlike Europe and elsewhere in the world, the US extraordinarily does not require vehicles to be tested for safety before they are allowed to be sold to the public. Instead, automakers are left to self-certify, in other words, to decide for themselves whether their vehicles are safe. All they need to do is certify that each vehicle adheres to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. But nothing in those standards currently refers to pedestrian safety, which — as crazy as it sounds — means there are absolutely no pedestrian crash regulations in the US.
So any videos you may have seen of Cybertruck being crash-tested will have taken place in Tesla’s own crash test facility.
Speaking on the Daily Drive podcast in August 2020, Elon Musk said this:
“We made the exec decision to not make a world truck, so it does not comply with a lot of EU spec and stuff.”
On 5 December 2023, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering confirmed to Top Gear Netherlands that Cybertruck will not be sold in Europe and gave a specific reason as to why:
“European regulations require a rounding of 3.2mm on protruding parts. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to make a rounding of 3.2mm on a 1.4mm sheet of stainless steel.”
For that reason alone, it’s no surprise that, apart from the Delorean, no other production car has been made with stainless steel. The combination of using a metal that has no yield, the vehicle’s blunt edges and its extremely sharp edges means it can only be a lot more dangerous than conventional cars. In essence, Cybertruck could best be described as an armoured car.
What’s more, tipping the scales at 6,843 lbs for the top-of-the-line three motor version, Cybertruck is simply too heavy to be driven with a regular car licence in Europe. While Cybertruck’s weight is under the European 7,716 lbs limit, it doesn’t take into accounts the 2,500 lbs payload, which brings the total weight up to 9,343 lbs without passengers.
Unlike other automakers, Tesla’s approach to bringing out new models is comparable with a software company, where products are released into the market in beta format and faults are rectified in real time. It’s an approach that some have compared to “operating on a high wire, whilst juggling.” And there’s no doubt, Cybertruck is their most ambitious, most technically demanding product so far. All of which has meant a huge investment just getting it into production and a need to get cars into the hands of customers as quickly as possible.
And whilst modern-day vehicles — none more so than Teslas — are increasingly dependent on software, they are even more about hardware, which takes longer to develop, costs much more to produce and is much more expensive to rectify when faults occur. It’s why the gestation period of new vehicles take so long. Speed up that process and you risk compromising everything from build quality to market opportunity, as well as safety standards.
Hard metals / Sharp edges: From the day of its first unveiling, many have expressed concerns about Cybertruck’s safety, especially its combination of hard metals and sharp edges, something not seen in other vehicles, which are engineered with different materials that are designed to deform very easily in the event of a collision so that the energy of the impact is dispersed. That’s not the case with Cybertruck, which some like Edward Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla, claim is “engineered for spectacle, rather than actual use.”
In Tesla’s own crash test videos, we can see that its front end bows rather than crumples, which means it’s storing the energy, not dispersing it. As a result, all the mass and all the energy transfers directly to whatever it hits.
James Goodwin, Chief Executive of ANCAP (Australian New Car Assessment Programme) claimed the angular shape and stainless steel construction would pose serious risks to pedestrians and cyclists.
“It’s got a fairly harsh front and not a whole lot of areas that would provide some give if there was a strike with a pedestrian.”
Michael Brooks, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, doesn’t hide his disdain for Cybertruck.
“The stiffness of putting stainless steel construction on top of a stiff battery in a vehicle seems like it’s just going to turn these vehicles into a missile.”
What’s more, Brooks added, the decision to design the front of the truck with sharp-angled stainless steel sheets doesn’t bode well for anyone involved in an accident with one.
“That is not a recipe for a safe collision.”
Others share his concerns:
“The sharp front edges (both design and sharp metal) can lead to a lot of injuries of both pedestrians and cyclists even in a low-speed accident. This is no joke. I don’t know why NHTSA is allowing such designs at all.”
“Cybertruck is a big loss for pedestrians and other road users. Solid front with no crumple zones or impact absorbing bumpers. Death trap.”
No wonder the long-running joke is that Cybertruck’s crumple zone is the other car!
Bigger / Heavier: With trucks getting bigger and heavier, concerns about their safety have grown as pedestrian deaths in America continue to climb, reaching a 40-year high in 2023. And while vehicle deaths per million have been rising in the United States in recent years, they have been falling in other developed countries.
As the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an independent organisation that gives crash test ratings to new vehicles, points out: as well as being a danger to pedestrians, bigger and heavier trucks will lead to more fatal outcomes in collisions with other vehicles which will be crushed more easily.
In November 2023, the IIHS released new research finding that vehicles with higher and more vertical front ends are significantly more likely to kill pedestrians.
Despite these concerns, neither the IIHS or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far crash-tested a Cybertruck. And while NHTSA has recall authority, they have to wait until something happens before they can take action.
Aside from its weight, construction and rough around the edges design, there are other safety issues to consider. The first of these is vision.
Impaired vision: The excessively thick A and B pillars produce significant blind spots, making it dangerous when you’re changing lanes or making a turn.
The huge single wiper doesn’t cover the entire screen. In fact, when it rains hard, there is a band several inches high of water that the blade is unable to remove that blows back over the glass.
Whilst Cybertruck has a small rear window, when the tonneau cover is in use it completely covers the window. Whilst there are wing mirrors, the only way the driver can see what’s directly behind them is via the image on the fascia mounted 18 inch screen. That does present a significant safety issue because unlike a conventional rear view mirror, you have to look down to your right to see it.
Many drivers have reported issues with the screen image: when you signal to turn, the rear view image is replaced by a side mirror image and Cybertruck has a habit of losing the rear view image altogether in heavy rain.
With regards to the wing mirrors, Franz von Holzhausen had this to say on December 2023:
“We didn’t want mirrors. So in the beginning we weren’t even designing mirrors, but we couldn’t get the regulations changed. We would love to get rid of the mirrors.”
Currently, mirrorless driving isn’t authorised by the US Department of Transport. Because of this, Cybertruck has had to be fitted with wing mirrors, but compared to other trucks they are very small and triangular in shape. Clearly, they were not designed with ultimate safety in mind. This is especially important in trucks, where towing is a major usage.
There’s no doubt that Cybertruck should have been fitted with a rear view mirror that also has a video screen. One can only assume, it was omitted on cost issues.
No spare tyre / Faulty aero covers: Equally surprising, Cybertruck doesn’t come with a spare tyre. You can purchase one from Tesla, but there isn’t anywhere in the bed that’s been designed to accommodate it.
Offroading is one of the most dangerous places for tyres. As Cybertruck’s huge tyres are specially made by Goodyear, if you damage a tyre, getting a replacement will prove both tricky and expensive.
And just a few weeks after launch, a major problem has been revealed with the aero covers. The Cybertruck’s tyres have indentations where the rubber spoke extenders of the aero covers sit. What no one at Tesla appears to have thought through was everytime these extenders come into contact with the tyre as it flattens on the road, they rub against the tyre and soon begin to wear away the sidewall. If you wondered why you’ve never seen this kind of tyre/wheel cover combination before, it’s because it’s clearly a stupendously dumb idea!
In fact, as of March 2024, Cybertrucks are being delivered to customers without aero covers as Tesla hurries to redesign them. As far as I know, there’s been no admission of safety issues, they’ve simply not included them with new cars.
Dangerous frunk / Dangerous doors: Another safety issue that has recently been revealed is to do with the frunk. Unlike many other vehicles that have anti-pinch sensors to detect resistance when closing the hood or trunk, such safety devices are absent on Cybertruck.
On 10 January 2024, Torque News wrote:
“When closing the Cybertruck frunk, it’s important to keep your fingers and hands away from the lid, as a recent set of tests showed the vehicle doesn’t have any safety mechanisms in place to prevent it from closing.”
Here’s a video demonstrating just how bad the issue is, and as you will see it’s not just the frunk closure that’s dangerous, the side doors are equally problematical:
And, as the video shows, it’s not like Tesla doesn’t fit pinch sensors in its other cars. For example, it fits them on its Model X, although not in every part of the doors. Surely, fitting them on all modern vehicles should be standard procedure?
On 29 March 2024, Cybertruck lead engineer, Wes Morrill confirmed Tesla would be releasing a significant improvement to the vehicle’s frunk safety:
“Big improvement coming via OTA. Team worked super hard on this. So many carrots.”
On 5 May 2024, Joe Fay uploaded a video to YouTube in which he first uses a stick to demonstrate the problem with the frunk. The stick breaks. He then decides to do the same thing with his finger. And guess what? The closing frunk breaks his finger!
Apparently, Tesla’s Spring 2024 over-the-air software update includes better sensing on the frunk enclosure.
Hard to read screen info: At the beginning of February 2024, Tesla initiated a recall of 2.2 million vehicles. It was the largest recall in Tesla’s history and the first for Cybertruck. It was prompted by the risk of a crash due to the difficulty in reading critical safety information on the vehicle’s screen. The letter font size of the visual warnings for the brake, park and antilock brake systems was smaller than the 3.2mm minimum that the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require.
Personally, I’ve always felt that Tesla’s screens are filled with way too much information and that the tiny font size can only make it difficult for many drivers to read.
Luckily for Tesla, this particular issue is being addressed through an over-the-air software update. But it’s yet another example of a safety issue having to be rectified by the company after the vehicle was released for sale.
Trapped accelerator pedal: And new safety issues keep on occurring. The most recent of these was on 19 April 2024 when Tesla recalled 3,878 Cybertrucks made between November 2023 and April 2024 due to the risk of its accelerator pedal getting trapped by the interior trim.
An ex-employee, engineer Cristina Balan, is currently going through legal proceedings with Tesla. She says she first raised concerns about similar issues with Tesla brake pedals as long ago as 2014.
And the problems keep on coming.
Faulty wiper: On 25 June 2024, Tesla said it was recalling most Cybertrucks over issues with their windshield wipers and exterior trim. This was the fourth recall for 2024 model year Cybertrucks and centred on the windshield wiper motor controller failing due to excessive electrical current. Non-functioning wipers could of course increase the risk of a crash in wet weather.
The company said it will replace the wiper motor after it identified early wiper motor failures. In February, Tesla inspected 20 faulty wiper motors.
Loose trunk trim: At the same time, Tesla said it was also recalling 11,383 Cybertrucks because the trunk bed trim sail applique could have been improperly attached, creating the potential to become loose and create a road hazard. The company’s service team will either apply an adhesion promoter and pressure-sensitive tape or replace the missing trim free of charge for affected vehicles.
These recalls are the latest setback for Cybertruck, whose mass production is now expected to start in 2025.
Compromising design:
There’s no other truck or car that looks like Cybertruck. As Car magazine put it:
“The Cybertruck is so other-worldly, so completely different to anything that has ever been built before, that it leaves people agog and confused.”
They also added:
“It’s not a car that leaves anyone sitting on the fence.”
Speaking in December 2023, Franz von Holzhausen acknowledged his design is not for everyone. “It is polarising” he said.
“I still can’t get past the styling. To me it looks like a Sci-Fi movie prop. Not a fan.”
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Von Holzhausen has been in charge of design at Tesla since 2008 and has led design for the Model S, 3, X, Y as well as the yet to be launched Semi truck.
He became known to a wide audience in 2019 when he memorably smashed the Cybertruck’s side windows trying to prove that they were smashproof during its unveiling event.
According to Elon Musk biographer, Walter Isaacson, some Tesla engineers “hated” the look of Cybertruck so much that a few even secretly worked on an alternate version.
“They were like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was just too weird.”
Isaacson also reported that Musk didn’t want to hear concerns related to Cybertruck.
“I don’t do focus groups,” the Tesla CEO said.
We do know some of the vehicle’s design influences as Cybertruck mood boards clearly show multiple images of the Delorean DMC-12 as well as other concept designs featuring less radical, yet still angular, styling.
The first DMC-12 — a similarly sleek and futuristic, stainless steel bodied vehicle, with a slatted rear — rolled off Delorean’s Belfast production line on 21 January 1981. It didn’t last long as the company filed for bankrupty in 1982 with less than 9,000 cars completed.
The DMC-12 was plagued by quality control issues and production delays and was generally known for its poor build quality and less than satisfying performance which did not match the expectations created by its looks and price.
Incidentally, another of Cybertruck’s design cues was William Towns’ 1976 Lagonda saloon, a huge vehicle which I’ve always considered to be one of the ugliest car designs ever! Indeed, it was named by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as one of the 50 ugliest cars of the past 50 years!
The Lagonda is also notable for being the first production car to use a digital instrument panel, even if the development costs for the electronics alone were four times as much as the initial budget for the entire car!
Even more of an influence must surely have been another car than Towns was also responsible for: the 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog, which never made it into production.
And although the production Cybertruck looks very similar to the vehicle revealed in 2019, in truth it’s actually quite a bit different, something Franz von Holzhausen revealed in December 2023:
“The original design was about 5% bigger. We wanted to create the smallest overall vehicle, but it being the biggest on the inside.”
In fact, the production vehicle is approximately 3% narrower and 5% shorter, meaning it’s 8 or 9 inches shorter than originally promised. It’s also a five-seater, rather than the six-seater Musk said it would be. That moves it from the full-size segment, closer to the mid-size segment.
Form over function:
Although not always the case, most automotive designers, or at least most automakers, believe that the function of their vehicles design is more important than what it looks like. I don’t think that was ever the case with Cybertruck. Take the rear bed as an example. The dramatically sloping rear restricts both load versatility and rear visibility. And if you drive with the tonneau cover up, you will lose 10% of range.
Truck owners require their vehicles to be far more functional than a car.
“It seems that aesthetics are winning out over function. And when you’re talking about a pick-up truck, function should be the king.”
TFL Talking Trucks Podcast (2 Dec 2023)
The truth is how the vehicle looks was determined by the decision to manufacture it in stainless steel, something Franz von Holzhausen admitted to in December 2023:
“This design is really around the function. The simplicity of the shape and the form is derived from using stainless steel which you can only bend in one direction. So the shape of the car is defined by flat panels broken up and faceted, kind of like a diamond.”
Car magazine wrote:
“There isn’t a soft line on it, and its face is as welcoming as RoboCop’s. Aesthetically, it smashes everything else out of the way.”
von Holzhausen went on to say:
“One of the few curved areas of the Cybertruck are the edges of the plastic front bumper and that’s driven by aero efficiency, trying to get the air to steer around the wheel.”
On the subject of the steel, von Holzhausen also said this:
“We had to make our own steel, because regular stainless steel is more like stain resistant than stain proof.”
The side doors are made of 1.8mm thick HFS (Tesla abbreviation for Hard Fucking Steel) a new alloy created by Tesla. This is the material, boasting a hardness of 90 HRB, that they claim is bullet proof. The other panels are 1.4mm thick. I assume the difference in thickness is to do with protecting the passenger cell.
Cybertruck also has the biggest windscreen of any production vehicle. Being so large means a lot of heat will radiate from the glass. Many will probably seek a window tint such as Stek’s Graphene NEX. And should the glass get damaged, it will be extremely expensive to replace.
It’s another example of how Cybertruck’s design has compromised things like safety and efficiency. Indeed, I would suggest that apart from the addition of wing mirrors, no significant changes have been made to the vehicle’s initial styling at the expense of making it either safer or more efficient.
Finally, on the subject of safety, extraction experts have expressed concern about Fire Departments ability to rescue occupants from a crashed Cybertruck owing to its construction materials.
Speaking of which, the first known Cybertruck crash occurred in California on 28 December 2023. The vehicle was being driven by a Tesla employee when a Toyota Corolla, driven by a 17-year-old, veered into its path. The Cybertruck was relatively unscathed, while the Toyota was totalled.
Highway Patrol said that the only injury, a minor one, was to the Cybertruck driver. Without knowing what the injury was and what caused it, at first glance it suggests it may have something to do with the Cybertruck not absorbing impact in the way a conventional vehicle is designed to do.
To date, there has been little more than speculation as to precisely what happened and the condition of the Cybertruck. Being a Tesla-owned vehicle, we may not get to see an independent report as to the extent of the damage.
Insurance issues:
With so much about Cybertruck being so different from other vehicles, the subject of insurance will be an interesting topic to follow. We simply don’t how expensive it will be to repair a damaged Cybertruck, but it’s likely to carry a hefty premium over conventional vehicles.
Another thing to factor in is who will be authorised — or indeed able — to carry out the repair. And then there’s the question if your Cybertruck is totalled, how quickly will it take to get a replacement?
Availability issues:
Apparently, Tesla has received over 250,000 orders since the Cybertruck launch. The total pre-orders now number 2.3 million, which at current estimates equates to about 9 years of production. The reality however is that these numbers are likely to be quite deceptive.
Until recently, all that was required to place a pre-order was a $100 ‘fully refundable’ reservation fee. Now, on top of this, Tesla require a $250 ‘non-refundable’ order fee. Even when you add both together it’s really no commitment at all. And clearly, not every order will convert into an actual sale. Some will change their mind, others will decide that the wait is too long. Much depends on the reaction to the first raft of ‘Foundation’ vehicles and, perhaps even more important, the speed at which Tesla can ramp up production.
In January 2024, Tesla introduced an additional ‘Early access deposit’ of $1,000 which is due at the time of ordering and is non-refundable.
According to Torque News (26 December 2023) two Tesla employees have confirmed the company is close to 10,000 Cybertruck orders per day since the delivery event, meaning that the vehicle will be sold out for years. With 2 million of those orders coming from North America alone, it means it’s unlikely that other markets will see Cybertruck for a very long time.
Australia, for example, is currently the world’s third biggest market for Tesla’s, but with so many North American orders to fulfil, there’s little incentive for Tesla to build RHD versions.
In 2022, Tesla UK removed the option to pre-order Cybertrucks and it hasn’t returned since.
On 17 April 2024, Mail Online was reporting that some customers had received text messages from Tesla saying it is cancelling their Cybertruck ‘delivery appointment’ due to an ‘unexpected delay’ regarding preparation of their vehicle.
The Mail Online also showed drone footage from Tesla’s Giga factory of an estimated 600 unfinished Cybertrucks.
Pricing issues:
At its 2019 unveiling, Tesla originally said the entry price for a Cybertruck would be $39,000. The current price on their website is just over $60,000, making it $21,000 more expensive than first announced. The all-wheel drive version will cost $79,990. And then there’s the triple-motor Cyberbeast version, which will be $99,990.
The very first models sold are all the dual-motor, all-wheel drive Foundation series, which cost $101,985, a $20,000 upcharge from the base price.
Some have claimed that until production has ramped up, the cost of making each Cybertruck is way more than the initial sales price. In other words, Tesla is likely to be making a loss on each vehicle sold.
Quality issues:
Tesla has been beset by quality issues for years and has received considerable negative publicity for flaws in its cars. Much of this of course has been focused on self-drive vehicles going awry, but whilst those kind of incidents may be the most newsworthy, the company has done a reasonably good job of subduing the many other problems its cars have created.
One of the reasons for this is because unlike most car companies, Tesla controls the entire process from sales through to repairs and, despite a multitude of issues from below par manufacturing standards to defective parts, the company has been able to suppress bad news stories.
They’ve even flat-out denied that widescale problems, such as suspensions collapsing on brand new vehicles, even exists, blaming drivers for what they termed ‘vehicle abuse’. However, a recent investigation by Reuters reveals Tesla has been tracking chronic flaws and failures in its cars for years.
At the beginning of 2023, Elon Musk apparently told the Cybertruck team that there needs to be a higher focus on quality with the vehicle because its sharp design and stainless steel finish make flaws more visible.
And early signs show some of these problems have continued with Cybertruck. There are examples of larger than expected panel gaps, of misaligned panels, of inferior interior finishes as well as fingerprint issues with the porous stainless steel. Many of these would not pass even the most lax quality control of any other manufacturer.
Some owners, such as YouTuber Kobra ToldYa, have reported problems with the gear selector coming away from its position on the windshield and eventually just dangling, as well as tailgates that either refuse to open or open on their own, even whilst moving. And that’s especially dangerous because the tailgate houses the rear view camera, meaning when it’s open, the driver only gets to see the road beneath rather than behind. What’s more, there are reports of annoying interior creaks and a succession of warning messages suddenly appearing.
Detailing experts are already sharing their experiences with cleaning the stainless steel, trying to find which products work best to remove fingerprints and bugs and discover how to create a smear-free finish on the body panels. Tesla themselves apparently recommend using Dawn, a brand of domestic washing-up liquid, not something most people would use on a normally painted vehicle.
In fact, on the subject of cleaning the Cybertruck, Tesla now list no less than twelve ‘cautions’ relating to exterior cleaning. These range from ‘Do not wash in direct sunlight’ to ‘avoid washing mitts’ as well as ‘if washing in an automatic car wash use touchless car washes only’ and ‘do not use chemical-based wheel cleaners’. These cautions are somewhat bizarre given how ‘bulletproof’ Tesla said the vehicle was.
And when it comes to dead insects, with accumulate on the slab-fronted front, the manual says they need to be cleaned off immediately to prevent corrosion. Is it any wonder so many Cybertrucks are being wrapped with PPF?
Despite being built more than 40 years apart, the criticisms levied against the DMC-12 are surprisingly similar to those being made about Cybertruck:
Back in October 1982, the New York Times wrote that the DeLorean’s stainless steel body “showed every fingerprint, every speck of dirt, and needed constant cleaning.”
And a few months earlier in July 1981, Car and Driver reported that the first 500 sets of DeLorean doors were pressed on sloppy prototype tooling. “They simply can’t be made to fit properly.”
Range issues:
Back in 2019, Elon Musk promised a range of up to 500 miles, however, according to Tesla, the actual range of a production Cybertruck is significantly less: between 320–340 miles. They are offering a range extending battery giving up to 470 miles of range, but this will come at a price, not only will it cost a hefty $16,000, but it will take up around half of the existing bed space.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before Cybertruck owners were discovering that Tesla, like almost all EV manufacturers, were overpromising and undelivering when it came to its stated range figures.
At the beginning of January 2024, YouTuber Kyle Connor aka Out Of Spec Motoring, could only get 254 miles from his Cybertruck before it ran out of juice. That’s just 79% of the advertised range.
As with all EVs, range can be impacted by numerous factors, such as speed, temperature, tyre choice and load. And remember, Tesla has yet to release the entry level version of Cybertruck, as well as the even more powerful triple-motor version.
And when take into account that many trucks are used for towing, the range will fall even further, as it does with all E-trucks.
Charging issues:
There have been widespread reports that charging Cybertruck is proving to take considerably longer than other Tesla models and what Tesla’s own charging time estimates initially suggested. There are of course many reasons why this may be the case including issues with the 4680 batteries, the Superchargers and the vehicle’s software. We will have to wait to see more evidence of what the actual charging curve is, but historically, Tesla has unlocked additional capacity and sped up charging once it confirmed it was safe to do so.
Production issues:
According to Torque News (9 January 2024) Tesla are building 50 Cybertruck’s per day at its Giga Texas facility. That equates to just 1,500 vehicles per month or an annual production run of 18,000. One of the issues facing Tesla is they can’t ramp up production of Cybertruck until they sort out the production issues associated with the vehicle’s ‘4680’ batteries.
Torque News anticipates Cybertruck production to be closer to 500 per day by the end of 2024, although others remain sceptical that such numbers will be attained so quickly. Of course, Tesla do have a history of overpromising and underdelivering.
After-market opportunities:
There will be numerous possibilities for customers to personalise their Cybertrucks.
As all vehicles leave the factory in matt silver, changing its colour will be a popular personalisation. Wrapping the vehicle will also alleviate the fingerprint issues and cleaning challenges that come with stainless steel.
While Tesla themselves do offer to wrap a Cybertruck in either matt black or matt white at a cost of approx $6,500, wrap specialists can offer many more options, both in matt and gloss finishes.
Wrapping won’t be confined to body panels alone, as tinting the glass — for both privacy and heat deflection — will also be a popular option.
Early evidence from wrap specialists suggests that wrapping a Cybertruck is more difficult than a regular car due to it being stainless steel. Apparently, the surface tension (e.g. rough particles) combined with the car’s extremely sharp edges, mean it’s hard to get the vinyl or PPF to stick compared with a normal paint finish.
We are already seeing Cybertrucks in a whole host of different colours and finishes, from the very subtle to the most extreme colourways.
Of the early wraps I’ve seen, my favourite by far is gloss black, which completely transforms the look of the truck:
Since then, I’ve seen another wrapped in satin chrome red which I think perhaps looks even better, especially with the chunky ‘carbon’ wheel arch additions.
And then, there’s this multicoloured Spectrum wrap from Inozetek, which has to be the craziest looking Cybertruck so far:
Bizarrely for such a future-focused vehicle, especially one only available in stainless steel, the wildest wrap is all about giving it a retro look. Indeed, giving it a woodie wrap, complete with fake headlights and grille is about as counter-intuitive as one can get. Known as the CyberSquire, it’s inspired by the Ford Country Squire.
Similarly, conversion specialists will offer interior makeovers, such as changing the colour and materials of the interior and installing better quality seats.
There already are a wide range of wheel options.
In addition, there will be numerous other accessories, offered both by Tesla and third party suppliers, ranging from everything like camping options to specially created storage solutions and ramps.
All of which will make Cybertruck one of the most customisable vehicles on the road.
Last but not least, Tesla themselves are even selling broken-glass decals for the side windows. Inspired by the unveiling event, these are available for $55!
And now for something completely different:
Having gained such publicity, it’s perhaps no surprise that Cybertrucks are turning up in some unexpected places.
In June 2024, the Dubai Police announced they had added a white and green liveried Cybertruck to their patrol fleet of exotic vehicles which already includes a Ferrari and a Lamborghini!
Also at the beginning of June 2024, Monaco’s Prince Albert II became the first person to ‘officially’ drive a Cybertruck in Europe when he drove it around the principality during the Top Marques car show.
A few weeks later, at the end of June 2024, a woman was seen driving a Cybertruck in Monaco, followed by a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. The matte black vehicle had Florida plates so it must have been shipped to the Principality. Of course, it is illegal to sell the Cybertruck in Europe.
Fun fact:
There are no Tesla badges anywhere on Cybertruck. Indeed, apart from on the Foundation edition, there are no logos at all on the vehicles exterior.
What Cybertruck says about Tesla:
Guesting on the Slate podcast What Next, (7 January 2024) Edward Neidermeyer had this to say:
“Elon Musk has a deep need and desire to step into Steve Jobs’ shoes. He never does market research. He relies on his innate sense of what makes a good product. Creating Cybertruck reveals that Musk and Tesla have espoused core values over the years, whether it’s pushing the limits of technology or environmentalism, but more than anything I think what it shows is it’s all about making things that Elon thinks are cool.”
He then added this salutary warning:
“Like a lot of Tesla’s core values there has always been a lot of cynicism towards safety and I think Cybertruck really reveals that. It shows that Tesla is a hype train and it’s no surprise that safety is one of the big losers along the way.”
My conclusions:
Having carried out this deep dive, some of my initial thoughts on the vehicle have changed. However, for all its technological advancements, and largely due to its iconic design, I remain convinced that Cybertruck will prove to be one of the most dangerous objects a pedestrian or cyclist or indeed any other road user, could ever come into contact with.
The use of stainless steel, the vehicle’s excessive weight, its blunt surfaces as well as the abundance of sharp edges can only exacerbate Cybertruck’s safety issues. As much as one can blame Tesla for its styling and construction, responsibility ultimately has to lie with the extraordinary lax US safety regulations.
Aesthetically, like many designs that initially are so polarising, the more one gets accustomed to it, the less jarring it becomes. That said, I still believe it’s a compromised design as far as it being a fully-functional truck. What will be interesting is to see what styling influences it has on future Tesla’s — of which it currently has no visual connection — and on trucks in general.
Frank Gehry — the architect behind the Guggenheim in Bilbao and many other radically different buildings — was not afraid to challenge architectural norms. But his unconventional structures, many of which had metal exteriors, do not move and are not safety hazards. They just look different.
Ultimately, if Cybertruck’s form factor doesn’t shape the look of other vehicles — and the high number of initial orders don’t translate into purchases — Tesla’s most radical vehicle could go down in automotive history as nothing more than a quirky one-off, a bold concept that despite being ahead of its time, ultimately failed. Just like the Delorean before it, which was also only offered with a stainless steel finish, and shared many of the same issues that are now prevalent with Cybertruck, Elon Musk will be desperately hoping history doesn’t repeat itself.
My feeling is that from the get-go, Cybertruck was a disastrous concept: ill-conceived, poorly thought-through and subject to extremely lax design, safety and quality issues. Ultimately, once you get over its polarising (some would say, ‘iconic’) looks, it appears to achieve little in successfully moving the truck format forward.
In fact, by all accounts, as a functional truck, it can only be viewed as a colossal failure. Despite having a handful of interesting technological features (steer by wire, rear wheel steer being arguably the most significant) it will almost certainly go down in history — like the Delorean before it — as a source of amusement and target of derision.
And just like Delorean, the Cybertruck will owe its failure to the braggadocio of one man, one man who thought he knew better than everyone else and who had both the finances and obdurateness to make his dream a reality.
Postscript
On 10 April 2024, Accident & Injury News published an article entitled “Tesla Cybertruck accidents raise safety questions”.
It stated “a number of recent accident reports involving Cybertrucks raise questions about the vehicle’s safety.” Specifically it cited safety experts raising concerns about the vehicle’s shape and lack of ‘crumple zones’ as well as concerns about the truck’s sightlines, concerns that have been highlighted following “a spate of accidents involving Cybertrucks.”
The article concludes by saying:
“It is interesting to note that Cybertrucks cannot be sold in Europe as the bar for pedestrian safety is much higher and its rigid stainless steel exterior will pose a problem. No such issue exists in the United States because the system for evaluating vehicle safety only considers vehicle occupants and not other users of the road.”
About the author: Based in Sussex-by-the-Sea, on England’s south coast, Gary is a creative writer and image-maker. He specialises in creating out of the ordinary portraits of musicians and people with interesting faces, as well as photographing some of the world’s finest flowers and gardens, not forgetting an array of automotive exotica.
On the writing side, he has used his research skills to author deep dives into some noteworthy songs beginning with Bryan Ferry’s ‘These Foolish Things’ ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott the Hoople and ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan.
He has also written a biography of Robert Palmer and the stories behind Whitesnake’s blatant Led Zep rip-off, ‘Still Of The Night’ and Harry Styles’ anthem to positivity, ‘Treat People With Kindness’.
Most recently, Gary has penned the fascinating story behind George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and written several articles on subjects relating to Donald Trump including Fake News and Lingua Trumpa.
All these can be found here on Medium, along with his reviews of gigs and events and chats with musicians including the likes of Brighton rockers Royal Blood, Californian sister act, HAIM, guitar virtuoso, Joe Satriani, Fee Waybill of The Tubes and Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell.
