Tesla wants to reinvent the pickup with the $39,900 Cybertruck

[Karlston]

Tesla wants to reinvent the pickup with the $39,900 Cybertruck

The wedge-shaped vehicle looks like no pickup you've ever seen before.

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On Thursday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed his company's take on that most quintessentially American of automobiles, the pickup truck. "Trucks have been basically the same for 100 years. We want to do something different," Musk told a rapturous audience. He wasn't underselling things. It's called the Cybertruck, and it looks like a cross between the Aston Martin Bulldog, a wedge-shaped concept from the early 1980s, and that cool APC you remember from Aliens.

 

"We moved the mass to the outside," Musk said, referring to the fact that the Cybertruck has a stainless steel monocoque construction, like the Model 3. Criticizing the body-on-frame construction technique used for almost heavy trucks on sale, Musk told attendees that "the body and the bed don't do anything useful," before launching into a lengthy demonstration of people hitting or shooting body panels and glass from the Cybertruck to prove the toughness of the exterior.

 

The shape is highly unconventional, but the size could have been picked by a focus group—almost exactly as wide and tall as a Ford F-150, and about exactly as long as some of the four-seat versions of America's favorite pickup. At the rear, the 6.5-foot (2m) bed—called the Cybertruck Vault here, has a lockable aerodynamic cover that gives the vehicle 100 cubic feet (2,831L) of protected cargo storage. The Vault will also support loads of up to 3,500lbs (1,588kg).

 

Some of the Cybertruck's other features suggest that Musk might be paying attention to Bollinger, which is working on a very UnTesla-like range of boutique battery EV off-roaders. A Bollinger will have 15-inches of ground clearance via its air suspension, so the Cybertruck will have 16 inches, Musk revealed. Like the Bollinger, the Cybertruck will also offer 110V and 220V AC outlets, so the vehicle can act as a power source on remote job sites.

 

There will be three versions of the Cybertruck. The single (rear) motor configuration will have a range of 250 miles (400km) with a towing capacity of 7,500lbs (3,402kg) for $39,900. For an extra $10,000, there's a dual motor (all-wheel drive) variant, which ups the towing capacity to 10,000lbs (4,536kg) and drops the 0-60mph time by two seconds. A trimotor Cybertruck—presumably with one front motor and two rear motors—will cost $69,900, and is tow-rated for 14,000lbs (6,350kg), but you get 500 miles (800km) of range.

 

Tesla is now accepting $100 refundable deposits for the Cybertruck, which the order page says will go into production in late 2021, with the three motor version following a year later.

 

Listing image by Tesla

 

 

Source: Tesla wants to reinvent the pickup with the $39,900 Cybertruck (Ars Technica)

 

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[mp68terr]

1 hour ago, Karlston said:

stainless steel monocoque construction

Does it mean that if the outer structure got damaged the whole monocoque would have to be changed?

 

Also, reminds me about trucks with stainless parts: these mirror-like vehicles can be a big pain for other drivers on sunny days.

[Karlston]

Hot takes as opinion cools on Tesla Cybertruck

Ars staff call it like they see it on Musk’s Cybertruck.

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Tesla

On Thursday, Tesla showed us its take on the pickup truck. Instead of the tried and tested approach of a frame construction like every other full-size pickup truck out there (not to mention the Tesla Models S and X), Musk's team has gone for a monocoque chassis design. Its body is made from naked stainless steel, the same grade alloy that SpaceX uses for its now-destroyed prototype rocket. The reveal was disjointed and unpracticed; supposedly unbreakable glass broke when it was hit in a demonstration of how unbreakable the Cybertruck is. But we expect no less from one of Musk's reveals.

 

The Cybertruck definitely has an out-there look, but then I had been forewarned by a friend with advanced knowledge to expect "something like a stealth fighter." And I'll be honest, I rather like it, although I think it would be more at home outside a built-up, human inhabited environment. I could certainly imagine these driving around Mars, but that might just be down to having seen some of The Expanse season 4 recently. But like I say, I was forewarned. My coworkers didn't stay up late to watch actors dressed for the Thunderdome pose on stage next to a concept car; instead, they all got to wake up to the news. It would be an understatement to say that there were some strong opinions, and so we've decided to air them here, in the hope that everyone gets it out of their system.

 

The reaction was overwhelmingly negative. "That thing looks like they couldn't afford an actual CAD software package," said Science Editor John Timmer. Science writer Chris Lee was no kinder: "Side view: uh, okay… Views at an angle: my word, exceeds expectations, troll-level 11 unlocked," he told me.

 

"I think my initial reaction last night was 'Oh no... That's more Mad Max than Blade Runner,'" said science writer Scott Johnson.

DuhLorean, or D’ohLorean?

"It's like a DeLorean that made love to the tank from the '80s arcade game Battlezone," said Managing Editor Eric Bangeman. The cocaine-smuggling, fast-talking entrepreneur who built a stainless steel car was a common theme. "CyberTruck? More like CyberWTF. That is truly a billionaire’s idea of what a pickup truck is. It is even less pickup truck than some of Detroit’s and Japan’s abominations are. It’s like a Ridgeline got pressed into a DeLorean," IT Editor Sean Gallagher told me.

 

"It’s as if a DeLorean and a toaster oven had a baby," shared Health Reporter Beth Mole.

 

Meanwhile, reporters Kate Cox and Jon Brodkin each just sent me pictures of the Homer, the infamous car designed by Homer Simpson.

 

Perhaps predictably, Gaming Editor Kyle Orland went to the world of video games to put the Cybertruck into context. "Nothing I say about the new Tesla truck is going to beat this tweet," he said, before adding that "it looks like something from a PS1 game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland."

 

 

"It was the polygonal shock heard 'round the world, this angular truck-thing. I couldn't sleep in my vacation bed, jet-lagged and picking through another region's Netflix selection, when my social media feed exploded with responses to the Tesla Cybertruck," said Culture Editor Sam Machkovech. "I keep some pretty gaming-fluent company, so my favorite meme response in the first 20 minutes was the car superimposed into the '80s arcade classic Hard Drivin'. This fit the most common sentiment: the Cybertruck looks like a vision of the future through the coked-out lens of the '80s. 'Am I the only one who kinda loves it?' one lone dissenter offered on my feed between the jokes and memes. As someone who otherwise hates trucks, I agreed. I grew up in a state where every month is Truck Month(tm), so I'll take a wild new truck-thing out of Robocop's Detroit well before I dream of crawling into another Tacoma or F-150. For a company like Tesla, that contrarian lust may prove good enough for Cybertruck's fortunes."

Some of us didn’t hate it

Not everyone was an out-and-out hater. Like me, Creative Director Aurich Lawson also saw something of the Colonial Marines in the vehicle. "It reminds me of the Aliens APC, which gives it a funny sense of unrealism. They shot a lot of the scenes for that with a remote control scale model, and while it looked great, you could tell there was something off about the mass and physics of it because of that. I get that same sense now looking at the Tesla, like my brain is telling me it's fake, and it's going to bounce along the road like it's made out of plastic. That's just my immediate take, I'm honestly not sure what I make of it on a deeper level yet. It's going to need some time to settle," he said.

 

Meanwhile, its look was unimportant to reporter Tim Lee. "My opinion on whether the Cybertruck is ugly: aesthetic standards are arbitrary. Also it doesn't matter if your car is ugly because when you're driving it you can't see the outside," he explained. Deputy Editor Nate Anderson actually reacted more to the pickup's name. "Sure, it looks like a prototype for a lunar rover, but it's the late '90s name that really gets me. Will any pickup owner non-ironically refer to this thing as a 'Cybertruck'? As in, 'Hey, Carol, just throw those 2x6s in the Vault of my Cybertruck'? Sigh. The Future—it never quite lives up to its billing," he said.

 

Finally, a couple of us weren't shy about expressing some appreciation for Cybertruck. "I think it looks badass. It looks like what 6-year-old Lee thought cars would look like in 2019! On the other hand, I don’t think I’d ever actually own one, because, I mean… look at it," Senior Editor Lee Hutchinson told me.

 

And editor Peter Opaskar had just two words: "Dude, sick."

 

 

Source: Hot takes as opinion cools on Tesla Cybertruck (Ars Technica)  

[Karlston]

Tesla has already received 146,000 pre-orders for its divisive Cybertruck

‘With no advertising & no paid endorsement,’ Elon Musk says

 

Two days after its big (and slightly botched) unveiling, the Cybertruck is already racking up a lot of interest. Tesla has received 146,000 preorders for the electric pickup truck, Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday. And with customers dropping $100 refundable deposits for each preorder, that’s a cool $14.6 million for Tesla’s bank account in just 48 hours.

 

Tesla is offering three versions of the truck: single motor rear-wheel drive with 250 miles of range for $39,900; dual motor all-wheel drive with 300 miles of range for $49,900; and tri motor all-wheel drive with 500 miles of range for $69,900. Musk said that 42 percent of preorders are dual motor, 41 percent tri motor, and 17 percent single motor.

 

 

“With no advertising & no paid endorsement,” Musk said in a follow up tweet.

 

Customers preordering the Cybertruck will have to wait a while before the boxy pickup pulls into their driveways, though. Production on the single and dual-motor versions won’t begin until late 2021, while the tri-motor truck won’t roll off the assembly line until late 2022.

 

Tesla uses preorders for its forthcoming vehicles to generate excitement and provide a short-term revenue infusion, which helps provide a cushion for the cash-strapped automaker. And Musk likes to tout preorder numbers as a way to juice even more sales. For example, the company received 276,000 preorders for the Model 3 a few days after its unveiling in 2016; two days later that number grew to 325,000.

 

To be sure, Tesla doesn’t always release its preorder numbers. The company has yet to reveal how many customers have put down deposits for the Model Y, its electric crossover that it revealed last March.

 

The Cybertruck is no Model 3 or Model Y, but the respectable number of preorders indicates that Tesla still has its fair share of early adopters. That said, the Blade Runner-inspired design of the truck has been wildly polarizing, with social media spilling over with jokes at the truck’s expense.

 

 

Source: Tesla has already received 146,000 pre-orders for its divisive Cybertruck (The Verge)