What the Tesla Cybertruck would have to be to have me as a buyer.
Electric propulsion is a clear opportunity for trucks. The instantaneous torque from an electric vehicle is ideal for getting a large mass moving; this is something Ford proved with when their all-electric F-150 towed a freight train that weighed over a million pounds.
I know there is a great opportunity in fleet vehicles and work trucks to be electric, where they can be rotated from working to charging in a yard. Tesla’s autopilot could revolutionize logistics.
So there is a need for a Tesla truck. We are all ready for one.
But the launch of the Tesla Cybertruck left me feeling… dissonant.
There is no doubt the truck is remarkable in every way. Unfortunately, it is also remarkably out of touch with the truck market. I am all for innovation, but there are some things about the existing market that you have to respect and appreciate before you take a sledgehammer to it. There are many things about the modern truck that are there for very good reasons.
To be more than a critic, I brought my skills to bear and drew the Tesla Cybertruck that I wished I had seen.
Redesigned Tesla Cybertruck
What I Kept:
- Stainless steel construction (mostly)
- Stance
- Wheels
- Angles on the sides
- Angles on the front
- Headlight bar
- Above windshield light bar.
What I Changed:
- Silhouette: I made it have the silhouette of a more traditional pickup truck.
- Gave access to the bed from the side of the truck. (An important reason trucks have the silhouette’s they do, in my opinion.)
- I moved the above windshield light bar onto a utility roof rack.
- A utility hood, powder-coated dark grey.
- A winch
- A redesigned bumper with a notch to give make the truck look like it has a more “monster truck” like stance.
- Step up bars on the front and rear.
- Bar style running boards.
- A utility bed, powder-coated dark grey.
Yes, I did cheat. The hood, the cab, and the bed-liner would need to be made using a more traditional stamped-steel manufacturing method rather than the bent stainless steel method that Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s head of design, is trying to employ. And those pieces would be powder-coated, not raw.
What do you think? Should I go further, and model it in 3D?
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