When you talk about successful entrepreneurs Elon Musk certainly comes to your mind. Tesla’s (and Space X) CEO Elon Musk revealed the long-awaited electric pickup truck at its Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, just outside Los Angeles. Finally, Tesla’s all new electric pickup truck has arrived and it looks nothing like any pickup truck you have ever seen. This new truck might fulfill Musk’s ambition to shift the world away from fossil-fuel transportation.
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Many in the crowd couldn’t believe their eyes when the truck drove into the stage. Is this what we have come to see? That’s how surprised the audience were. The Cybertruck looks like a large metal trapezoid on wheels, more like an art piece than a truck and this is what amazed people.
Features
Now let’s talk about the cool features of the Cybertruck. The passenger pickup can seat six people. The automaker says the truck has an almost impenetrable body made from “ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel” and “armor glass.” Isn’t that amazing? During the presentation of the Cybertruck, the prowess of the truck was demonstrated by hitting the truck’s door with a sledgehammer. And guess what there was not even a scratch. Of course, you do not face this situation in a day-to-day activity but it’s very handy if you’re showing off the prowess of your latest all-electric model for the first time at a glitzy event in Los Angeles, as Tesla (and SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk did Thursday night.
The exterior is made from a newly developed stainless steel alloy, the same metal that’s used for SpaceX rockets, Musk said. That alloy enables the car to be “literally bulletproof” against at least smaller firearms, including 9-millimeter handguns, Musk said. But a demonstration of the truck’s supposedly unbreakable metal glass windows backfired when a metal ball thrown at the windows did, in fact, break them. “But it didn’t go through, ” Musk sheepishly pointed out. Click here to watch the video.
Talking about other features, The Cybertruck will come in three configurations: a single-motor rear-wheel-drive version, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive version, and a tri-motor all-wheel-drive version. The single-motor version has a range of 250 miles, the dual-motor one can achieve 300 miles, and the most expensive tri-motor version can go 500 miles, Tesla said. According to Tesla, the tri-motor variant will be able to hit 60 mph in about 2.9 seconds as well as tow more than 14,000 pounds and carry a payload of up to 3,500 pounds.
Similarly, Tesla says that the rear cargo area is lockable and that the truck has a total of 100 cubic feet of enclosed exterior storage. It also comes with a “magic tonneau cover” tough enough to withstand the weight of a person standing on it, according to the automaker. The truck also has onboard power for plugging in tools and other appliances as well as “adaptive air suspension” that raises and lowers the Cybertruck’s suspension by four inches for easier access. There is also a “self-levelling” feature, Tesla said.
Like most Tesla cars these days, the cybertruck has an autopilot but it is not known that it is fully autonomous or not. However, in a long run it is certainly the goal of Tesla and other companies like Ford to make a fully autonomous vehicle. Musk has made striking claims about the truck’s capabilities. Among them, he has said the Cybertruck would be more capable, in terms of towing and hauling, than a Ford F-150 and perform as a better sports car than a Porsche 911.
Price
Let’s shift our focus to the price. The base version of the truck will start at $39,900. That’s only about $10,000 more than the price of a base model Ford F-150, which starts at about $30,000. But it would compete well with the cost of a nicely equipped F-150. An F-150 Lariat Super Cab, for instance, starts at about $44,000.
Prices for the top end Tri Motor AWD version of the Cybertruck start at $69,900. Buyers will also be able to choose Tesla’s “self-driving” option for $7,000. (The truck should be able to drive itself once the software for that becomes available.) Thus, you are getting an incredible power at an incredible price. Who wouldn’t prefer this truck?
Challenges
The new Cybertruck is undoubtably a technological marvel and it might revolutionalize the vehicle industry. However there are few challenges. Making one or two product is easy but manufacturing them at a larger scale is pretty hard especially when a product is something like the Cybertruck. This is the biggest challenge for Tesla as they are no stranger to manufacturing slip-ups and missed deadlines. What’s more, they are struggling to deliver its new affordable Model 3 Sedan already and there’s no indication of where it will build either the truck or Sport Cars.
Conclusion
Facing challenges like these have made Musk into a successful entrepreneur as he is today. So, he is all ready to face this one. In a nutshell, if Tesla can pull it off it is certain to haul all of us into the future dominated by electric and autonomous vehicles. Isn’t that great?