Tesla Cybertruck: Criticizing The Look (Barely) Misses The Real Problem
I know I’m not going to be popular among Tesla fans for this, but it needs to be said: there are some serious issues with Cybertruck that need addressed.
I know I’m not going to be popular among Tesla fans for this, but it needs to be said: there are some serious issues with Cybertruck that need addressed.
Did Tesla unveil something else on the night of the Cybertruck unveiling? I’m not talking about the ATV, but something more on par with an Easter egg. Although, you don’t need to own a Tesla to access this one.
Tesla’s stock went down some after the Cybertruck reveal, and to be honest, I kind of expected that to happen. I believe in Tesla and am a shareholder, but when it comes to new things, humans are predictable. I have been accused of “investing in a dream” by some Tesla short sellers, and it’s true. However, if you don’t invest in dreams in some type of way, they will remain dreams and not come to fruition.
Following the Cybertruck reveal, I went to bed not being sure exactly what I had just seen, and woke up still thinking about it. My oldest son took one look and said it was the “sickest” car he had ever seen (this is a good thing), and my wife thought it was far more interesting than I expected.
Last week, I wrote an article that claimed that the Tesla Cybertruck announcement (even without delivering a single truck) would put the Detroit Big 3 in a pickle in 3 markets if it met their basic needs and offered them something worth waiting for. This article will go over those 3 markets and rate the desirability of the Cybertruck to each market.
I broke down in an earlier article why I have a hunch that the Tesla Cybertruck is going to include a battery pack that is costing Tesla around $108.26/kWh at the pack level (or better!), but I decided to keep running the math to calculate what it would mean for other Tesla products.
Why is the Tesla Cybertruck a giant triangle? The list of potential answers below is randomly ordered, not in order of importance. Some of the reasons are more speculative than others and may be incorrect or coincidental/unintended:
I really didn’t know what to think of the Cybertruck when it was revealed, and you can even follow that in my writing. At the conclusion of the reveal liveblog, I said, “It won’t win over a huge segment of the pickup truck drivers, but I can definitely see this selling well for the company,” referring to the fact that it ticked the boxes I wanted it to tick for a contractor truck. However, an hour or so later when I published the Cybertruck press photos and specs, I was already hedging my bets…
There’s a lot of interesting brain food embedded in the Tesla Cybertruck. You can have a serious, intelligent, academic discussion about it all until you’re blue in the face. But there’s one basic, fundamental, gut-turning point about the Tesla Cybertruck (or Cybertrukk). The thing just turned Ford SuperDuties, “like a rock” Chevy Silverados, and ramming Ram 3500s into princess wagons. Here’s what I now think of when I look at a normal pickup truck:
“Yes, that is the way to do it. Pure logic. Form follows function. The only way to solve the aerodynamics problem of a pickup.” Those were my thoughts when the Tesla Cybertruck rolled onto the stage.