⚡️🔋Current Events 1/13/22: A Low-Rez Coincidence and the New Mission
An up close and personal look at the Tesla Cybertruck Prototype. Updated with new Photo leak.
Deep into Friday evening’s drive from Chicago, a message from a friend came through, confirming what earlier seemed to be mere rumors: the Tesla Cybertruck, a polygonal monster borne from the wildest fever-dreams of a late 90s gamer kid, was making an appearance in NYC, my birthplace. Mother’s Day was my only reason to come to New York that weekend – now, there was something more.
It’s painfully cliche to describe anything as possessing “groundbreaking design,” and American culture has a tendency to abuse the term.
Nonetheless, as we rounded the corner on Washington to park that overcast Saturday morning, I got a feeling for how exceedingly literal that description is when applied to this truck (with the emphasis being on the word breaking). It stood there, behind the high glass walls of Tesla’s NYC flagship store – an imposing, gigantic truck, taking a sledgehammer to nearly all accepted design and manufacturing axioms of the auto industry. OEMs are rarely allowed to play without rules, and whether Tesla earned that right is up to the individual. But, one thing’s for certain - the design that evokes love and hatred in equal measure is the kind of star stuff reserved only for the memorable. There is no question Tesla has achieved at least that. By the time my wife and I were let in, the line to enter had wrapped around the block.
It couldn’t be more serendipitous a day. I didn’t plan it in any way but here I was, getting to meet the low resolution, utilitarian wonder itself. Let’s get started.
We begin with the exterior. The vast majority of its entire body is 300-series, stainless steel with a few hardened plastic panels. There is no paint. Your only choice is a titanic, four-wheeled mirror for the half-dreaming mind. The windows, panoramic roof, and windshield are all made of transparent aluminum that I cannot tell apart from regular automotive glass from behind the velvet ropes. The charge port and door handles are cleverly flush against the body and barely stand out.
Those who enjoy flogging Tesla for the panel-chasm reputation the company earned during the Model 3 and Model Y ramps will find little schadenfreude here. Of course, the vehicle I’m describing is only a prototype and not the final design. It remains to be seen if Tesla can reproduce this quality at scale. It will certainly be a challenge, given that they have developed its innovative manufacturing process from the ground up.
Who else has a deep desire to see the crash test footage?
The Cybertruck’s exoskeleton design consists of body components that are either cast or folded. To simplify the visual, imagine doing origami with sheets of cold-rolled steel. The result is an unbelievably affordable tank. For the financially-minded out there, Tesla’s response to razor-thin margins is to take a stainless steel battle-axe to the entire paint shop and split the savings between better batteries and the customer. Form doesn’t just follow Function here – Function commands and Form fanatically obeys.
While I didn’t get to drive (or even sit inside) this prototype, there was a lot to take in from the visible moving components. The wheels sported custom Goodyear tires – without any model name or number – of a clearly off-road capable spec that I’ve yet to identify (bonus points to any reader that can do so). Reports indicated these were 35-inch tires, and that seems spot on from where I stood. Regarding the rims, without measuring them, I’ll just have to say they were somewhere between 22 inches and really effin’ big for now.
Speaking further on the aerodynamics, this vehicle has both a major advantage and a major flaw. The bed and tonneau design in the rear keep the air from getting caught and creating a parachute effect, making the rear end extremely slippery for a pickup truck. However, the front end of the truck is so flat that accelerating is like using a frying pan as a sword (Samwise Gamgee was obviously ahead of his time). It’s quite the paradox, from front to back. While undeniably the aerodynamic king among pickups, given its wild departure from Tesla’s normal design the Cybertruck likely has double the amount of drag of its least slippery Tesla brethren. How then, you may ask, are they achieving a higher range than any other currently deliverable Tesla vehicle? I believe the answer lies in the final design changes that will make the vehicle lighter and in what was gleaned from the company’s Battery Day presentation.
Moving now to the business end in the rear of the truck. From six feet away, the top of the tailgate seemed level with my nose. Without reaching my arm up to achieve a vantage point with my camera and snap some photos, I wouldn’t have been able to see the bed at all. The bed is six and a half feet long and has cool-looking triangular incisions at the front and back, forming anchor points where carabiners can lock in for strapping down loads.
The small details are fascinating. Check out the rim of the bed.
There were numerous plastic caps all over the rear hiding features like the towing hitch underneath and even slots where a bike rack could be installed, but I wasn’t able to find any outputs for tools. My unconfirmed theory is that one of the panels on the side of the vehicle or inside of the bed is press-to-release, similarly to the charge ports, and holds a breaker panel as well as high-power NEMA outputs.
To my disappointment, the feature I was most excited to see strapped to the bed – Tesla’s first ATV, which can only be ordered as an accessory of the truck – didn’t make the trip.
Passthrough view from the rear
To quickly extrapolate about cabin visibility, the top of the touch screen and the central rear-view mirror are easily visible from the back window. It leads me to believe that the Cybertruck might have dramatically better rear visibility than Tesla’s own Model X, despite not even having any side mirrors (say it with me now, “PROTOTYPE!”). This is especially interesting, given how much larger and more affordable this vehicle is comparatively for the average family. Cannibalization incoming? Zen master says, “We’ll see.”
I wanted to save my favorite part for last, which is the lighting. Undeniable is the word that comes to mind. For the safety conscious, this is quite the boon. Given the mirroring effect of the body, the lighting acts as a focal point for the eye from almost any angle, especially in the dark. The resulting aesthetics are breathtaking. A single beam of what in motion could only be described as redshift streaks solidly across the top line of the tailgate. At the front, a solar beam of white wraps itself around two obtuse angles forming a trapezoidal boundary of photons where steel meets wind. It is an odd thing to measure light in length but there’s about fifteen feet of combined light strip around this vehicle with powerful luminosity. I hope the lights make it to the final design in all their power. The benefits it would provide early morning commute drivers in poorly lit areas are hard to understate. For other motorists, the lights will make it obvious that they are following or being followed by a Cybertruck, as that pattern is impossible to confuse with anything else.
A potent stare.
Alas, the interior is where the experience devolves to educated speculation. No guests were allowed inside and could only peer in from behind the velvet ropes. From where I stood, I would wager that the material on the prototype’s seats is the same as in the Model 3 and Model Y. The screen’s user interface was not turned on while we were observing the vehicle but it looked dramatically larger than my Model 3’s. The interior design featured tons of black leather hexagons, and both front seats had large, broad shoulders with enormous headrests adorning the top. The seats looked to have a satin white backing, which is an odd choice for a utility truck, but, admittedly, I couldn’t tell if that color continued down the seat-back to the bottom, where boots tend to kick. Unfortunately, given the lighting and the black interior, the back seats were not that visible from any angle. After roughly 15 minutes of observing the truck and reminiscing with some former colleagues, we left the showroom satisfied.
There is much that remains a mystery with this truck, but I couldn't be happier that this super coincidental experience gets to be the opening salvo of this blog. The world has begun to shift, and this Cybertruck, while clearly not for everyone, is very much a harbinger of that shift. I created Ronin to help both smooth and accelerate the process.
Ronin EV’s mission is to ensure that any mobility customer, be they individuals or businesses, of all backgrounds and generations have access to incredible services and experiences that bring them into the future of electric transport. No matter which incredible electric vehicle customers choose or what experience they start with, Ronin Pilots are trained to bring wondrous electric joy to the world. Electric vehicles are safer, more efficient, higher performing, cheaper to maintain, and produce no direct carbon emissions. The big issue today is getting access to try an electric vehicle of any kind or access to anyone that has the expertise to really demonstrate their benefits during the experience. With so much information inequity, affordability becomes an even greater issue for prospective buyers. We are going to change that any way we can. The best is yet to come. Please check out our services, try one out, and let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments section of the blog. Thanks for dropping by and stay tuned for more dispatches from us here at Ronin EV.
Many thanks,
Renato
Bonus: Here are the rest of the leaked photos of the newest preproduction version from today with some Tesla employees for scale on January 24, 2022.
Renato A. Amboss is the Founder and First Pilot of Ronin EV. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are his own. None of the views expressed are intended as investment advice of any kind and should not be taken as such. Cars are not investments, but we would love to show you what electric ones can do! Have a lovely day!