Tesla Cybertruck
36 hours with the world’s most extreme car, as the new Tesla rocks California and meets its key rivals
‘Oh wow! My first Cybertruck.’
‘What car is that? Does it fly?’
‘Did you build it?’
‘Is it a concept car?’
‘Thanks for letting us see your geometry project.’
Welcome to America and to the world of the Tesla Cybertruck. In a nation historically well versed in all things automobile, this electric pick-up confounds every norm, from manufacturing to design.
It’s easy to subscribe to the view that Tesla is the poster child for how to win at cars, with a cultural significance that stretches far beyond the number of actual vehicles it builds. And yet, if our experience of 36 hours in the Cybertruck tells us anything, it’s that the car is so other-worldly, so completely different to anything that has ever been built before, that it leaves people agog and confused.
Ironically, in a world dominated by Elon Musk, his X musings and the pervasive internet, it’s his creation that proves there are black spots of coverage. It’s almost reassuring.
One thing is certain – the Cybertruck never fails to light up a conversation. With no Tesla badging and a shape Pythagoras would be proud of, it stuns onlookers. In 36 hours, we get every reaction from jaw-on-floor to cynicism to wide-eyed hysteria. It’s not a car that leaves anyone sitting on the fence. Nor is it a car likely to go on sale in Europe in any time soon – blame myriad fundamental hurdles and, given Tesla no longer even fancies building the Model S in right-hand drive, little appetite to tackle them.
We collect it in a quiet suburban street in LA. It’s a smart area of single-storey houses, tidy roads and ever-present sunshine, and the mix of metal is more diverse than you find in Britain, with saloons, hatchbacks, SUVs, pick-ups and the odd modified car so integral to the LA scene.
Within that context, the brutality of the Tesla is stark. There isn’t a soft line on it, and its face is as welcoming as RoboCop’s. It looms large whichever way you approach it – not physically, because it’s not that huge when compared to many US trucks – but with its sheer, heavyweight design presence. Aesthetically, it simply smashes everything else out of the way. Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhausen wanted to create a truck with visible strength, that looked tough and was tough, using stainless steel bodywork that redefined what’s possible in manufacturing. Slab-sided and uniform, there are, we’re told, no weak points; no chinks in its stainless armour.
As a piece of automotive theatre, I’ve never seen anything like it. Photos don’t do justice to the sheer arrogance of the design and you can’t prepare for the sh
