> the Cybertruck, which I believe is going to be a huge failure (but we'll see).
I'd probably take that bet, although of course it depends how we define success vs. failure.
I suspect short-to-medium term, it will be a big success, as there's a lot of pent-up desire for one: hardcore Tesla fans, Tesla fans who want a pickup, people that like to be first-movers, people that like how it looks, people that want a pickup and appreciate the benefits that Tesla still brings (efficiency, supercharger network, etc.), and so on. The billion-dollar question, of course, is how it will fare in the market once that initial demand has been satisfied.
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Aside from this, the interesting thing about the Cybertruck is that originally, the odd looks and build style (i.e. the flat sheets of stainless steel) were meant to be engineering-driven: the concept discussed on stage when it was first announced was that it was an exoskeleton, or a stressed-skin design, meaning that in theory it wouldn't need a traditional chassis, and would have weight-savings over a traditional pickup (or car) design. IIRC there was talk of a Model 2 (i.e. a smaller hatchback than the M3) being built using the same approach.
Then, somewhere along the line, this was lost (too difficult? or always just a pipedream?) and it was ultimately built using a very similar approach to Tesla's other cars, without the benefits originally discussed. I'm interested whether we'll learn what happened with this, one day.
I'd probably take that bet, although of course it depends how we define success vs. failure.
I suspect short-to-medium term, it will be a big success, as there's a lot of pent-up desire for one: hardcore Tesla fans, Tesla fans who want a pickup, people that like to be first-movers, people that like how it looks, people that want a pickup and appreciate the benefits that Tesla still brings (efficiency, supercharger network, etc.), and so on. The billion-dollar question, of course, is how it will fare in the market once that initial demand has been satisfied.
--
Aside from this, the interesting thing about the Cybertruck is that originally, the odd looks and build style (i.e. the flat sheets of stainless steel) were meant to be engineering-driven: the concept discussed on stage when it was first announced was that it was an exoskeleton, or a stressed-skin design, meaning that in theory it wouldn't need a traditional chassis, and would have weight-savings over a traditional pickup (or car) design. IIRC there was talk of a Model 2 (i.e. a smaller hatchback than the M3) being built using the same approach.
Then, somewhere along the line, this was lost (too difficult? or always just a pipedream?) and it was ultimately built using a very similar approach to Tesla's other cars, without the benefits originally discussed. I'm interested whether we'll learn what happened with this, one day.
(This is a reasonable precis: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-went-fro...)