Cybertruck didn't need to go ugly early - Autoevolution article

[Acoustic71]

This thread sure is making my GERD score go up.

One prescription for pantoprazole, coming up!

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[TexasBob]

I’m gonna laugh at young people that drive a cybertruck and are too poor to buy a house.

There are a LOT of people who buy expensive pickup trucks and cannot afford to buy a house. I am assuming you get a lot of laughs driving around F150 and Silverado country?

 

[the long way downunder]

So you know (for a fact) these basic things?

1. Price
2. Range
3. Weight
4. Dimensions
5. Payload
6. Towing capacity
7. suspension details
8. Interior details
9. Safety test results

To my knowledge only 1 of those things is even attempted to be answered on their website and even that hasn't been confirmed. ?‍

Why is it so hard to just say you don't know yet what it will be? Try it - set yourself free.

I love a good pop quiz!

1. Price = 10-20% more than a loaded Model X Plaid, FSD mandatory option
2. Range = 30% less than spec / promised. About 300-350 promised.
3. Weight = 7000lbs +/- a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
4. Dimensions = too long and too wide for a garage or a parking spot
5. Payload = 2 x Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
6. Towing capacity = 200lbs more than any other EV pickup, about 11,500 lbs
7. suspension details = spongy on-road, sketchy off-road, no attempt at long-travel
8. Interior details = similar to current design but with dumbed down seats, wheel, dash
9. Safety test results = probably stellar offset frontal and rear, sketchy t-bone

These are not dealbreaker questions for me.
battery over 180kWh
efficiency over 2.2 mi/kWh (450 Wh/mi)
V2X (at least using Powerwall to power the house and time-shift solar/wind)

If price was over $180K I'd question the merits of the "first kid on the block" early adopter experience.
I expect the price of the CT will drop 20% in the first 18 months on the given spec and the later, cheaper specs will be less than 50% of the launch specs.

 

[the long way downunder]

It matters to almost no one that it has a 3500lb payload. I hope it doesn't. It will tow a crapton like all EV trucks.

I don't expect CT to even take half its sales from the full size pickup market. I don't believe that Tesla does either.

Tesla defines its own market segments. The majority of model 3 buyers were not looking for a mid size four door sedan. The model Y is not an SUV but a huge number of buyers are willing to play along with that fiction. Similarly, it seems a significant number of R1T buyers are not truck buyers. They are excited about the features of the vehicle and decided that the form could work for them.

A couple of Illinois corn farmers are on this forum waiting for the R1T. I also own an Illinois farm (not a farmer). The R1T is not the best tool as a typical farm pickup. But its the vehicle they want. The CT defines its own category, will be a heavy duty truck, and the vast majority of the million reservation holders don't care about precise specs.

Not all EV trucks will tow heavy like the R1. If the CT doesn't have a frame (chassis rails separate from body) and relies upon the "exoskeleton" (unitary chassis) meaning the body is the frame and chassis, then it won't tow much at all. Maybe 7700lbs. Maybe 10-11K lbs but it won't be able to run a weight-distributing hitch.
I'm assuming the CT has a structural battery pack and has frame rails in a "skateboard" that Tesla will describe as being marvelously innovative, but amounts to a ladder frame skateboard. Assuming so, it will be able to tow like the Rivian, about 11K lbs (limited by cooling and rear axle rating.)

 

[COdogman]

I love a good pop quiz!

1. Price = 10-20% more than a loaded Model X Plaid, FSD mandatory option
2. Range = 30% less than spec / promised. About 300-350 promised.
3. Weight = 7000lbs +/- a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
4. Dimensions = too long and too wide for a garage or a parking spot
5. Payload = 2 x Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
6. Towing capacity = 200lbs more than any other EV pickup, about 11,500 lbs
7. suspension details = spongy on-road, sketchy off-road, no attempt at long-travel
8. Interior details = similar to current design but with dumbed down seats, wheel, dash
9. Safety test results = probably stellar offset frontal and rear, sketchy t-bone

These are not dealbreaker questions for me.
battery over 180kWh
efficiency over 2.2 mi/kWh (450 Wh/mi)
V2X (at least using Powerwall to power the house and time-shift solar/wind)

If price was over $180K I'd question the merits of the "first kid on the block" early adopter experience.
I expect the price of the CT will drop 20% in the first 18 months on the given spec and the later, cheaper specs will be less than 50% of the launch specs.

I honestly think you got about as close as humanly possible with those answers!?

 

[zipzag]

Not all EV trucks will tow heavy like the R1. If the CT doesn't have a frame (chassis rails separate from body) and relies upon the "exoskeleton" (unitary chassis) meaning the body is the frame and chassis, then it won't tow much at all. Maybe 7700lbs. Maybe 10-11K lbs but it won't be able to run a weight-distributing hitch.
I'm assuming the CT has a structural battery pack and has frame rails in a "skateboard" that Tesla will describe as being marvelously innovative, but amounts to a ladder frame skateboard. Assuming so, it will be able to tow like the Rivian, about 11K lbs (limited by cooling and rear axle rating.)

The over 14000 pound towing spec is on the reservation page

 

[WSea]

I love a good pop quiz!

1. Price = 10-20% more than a loaded Model X Plaid, FSD mandatory option
2. Range = 30% less than spec / promised. About 300-350 promised.
3. Weight = 7000lbs +/- a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
4. Dimensions = too long and too wide for a garage or a parking spot
5. Payload = 2 x Harley-Davidson Electra Glide
6. Towing capacity = 200lbs more than any other EV pickup, about 11,500 lbs
7. suspension details = spongy on-road, sketchy off-road, no attempt at long-travel
8. Interior details = similar to current design but with dumbed down seats, wheel, dash
9. Safety test results = probably stellar offset frontal and rear, sketchy t-bone

These are not dealbreaker questions for me.
battery over 180kWh
efficiency over 2.2 mi/kWh (450 Wh/mi)
V2X (at least using Powerwall to power the house and time-shift solar/wind)

If price was over $180K I'd question the merits of the "first kid on the block" early adopter experience.
I expect the price of the CT will drop 20% in the first 18 months on the given spec and the later, cheaper specs will be less than 50% of the launch specs.

2.2mi/kWh? I think that is wishful. The cod is .39. R1T is .30

 

[Dark-Fx]

Personally, I love those monthly checks electronically deposited on the 3rd Wednesday of every month.

You're welcome

 

[iansriv]

If Elon Musk has taught us anything over the last year. If you are rich enough, you can do whatever the heck you want. He "runs" 3 companies, had kids with 2 separate women within months of each other, raises prices, lowers prices, raises and lowers them again within weeks for entry level Teslas.... Even if he lost 99% of his net worth from all of his shenanigans, he'd still be richer than 99.99% of Americans. If he wants to design an ugly-ass truck, people will buy it. It may not sell well, but he'll still be rich AF and can still continue to do whatever he wants.

And that's exactly what he was thinking when he bought Twitter.

 

[Acoustic71]

You're welcome

As I sit contently in my owned home, two blocks from the beach, with my R1T charging in the garage.

 

[Dark-Fx]

As I sit contently in my owned home, two blocks from the beach, with my R1T charging in the garage.

Is your home on stilts? Leave the ladder down please.

 

[Acoustic71]

Is your home on stilts? Leave the ladder down please.

Nah, we are just smidge out of the Tsunami Zone, so we are good. Unless of course we get the End of Days variety.

 

[shumdit]

The over 14000 pound towing spec is on the reservation page

So was $39900 and production in 2022. ?
(it used to say 2021 but I don’t have that screenshot handy)

 

[the long way downunder]

The over 14000 pound towing spec is on the reservation page

The point of the discussion is the expected disparity between the "concept" and the actual.
I've never towed 14,000 pounds. I've towed 12,000 pounds with an F250 spec'd to tow more like 15,000lbs. It's not something I want to do often. I've towed 11,000 lbs with the R1T (not because I needed to, just to see if I would tow that rig 100 miles to the track) and it was not okay. It was not that I decided to quit and go home, but it was definitely a case of "nope" whereas the F250 has towed that same rig (triple axle race trailer with a vehicle, spares, tools, scissor hoist, wheel sets, AC, air compressor, generator, batteries, tire sets) and the worst of it was the 9 mpg on diesel (and presumably accelerated wear and tear on the engine, transmission, tires, brakes.)
Tesla might certify the CT at 14K lbs, but it won't tow 14K in any practical sense.

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