Tesla – Page 2358 – I wish I had more to offer

Tesla Cybertruck design a ‘PR stunt’, says Automobili Pininfarina CEO

It came as no surprise that the Tesla Cybertruck’s unveil event yesterday attracted attention from all over the world – who can look away when the enigmatic Elon Musk is on stage? However, the unveil of the Tesla Cybertruck attracted even more attention than you’d expect for two reasons – the ‘armoured’ glass shattering in… Continue reading Tesla Cybertruck design a ‘PR stunt’, says Automobili Pininfarina CEO

Mocked Tesla Cybertruck May Be Brilliant, Car Designer Says

When Raphael Zammit saw Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck pull onto the stage late Thursday, his initial reaction was a mix of shock and horror.

Tesla Cybertruck — Pure Logic On Wheels

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Published on November 23rd, 2019 |

by Maarten Vinkhuyzen

Tesla Cybertruck — Pure Logic On Wheels

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November 23rd, 2019 by Maarten Vinkhuyzen

“Yes, that is the way to do it. Pure logic. Form follows function. The only way to solve the aerodynamics problem of a pickup.”

Those were my thoughts when the Tesla Cybertruck rolled onto the stage.

Followed by: “Will any hillbilly or weekend road warrior or mom buy it?” It is a bit hard to see this as a grocery getter or hay carrier.

This is totally Elon Musk — going back to first principles, applying them to an electric pickup truck, getting an image straight from the movies he likes. How could he not fall in love with it.

The aerodynamics of a conventional pickup truck are extremely bad. You need probably twice the battery capacity to get highway performance at 60 mph on par with a Jaguar I-PACE. That is a big No-No for Tesla.

The first design parameter for Tesla was: no open bed. The second was: no box form. High on the list would also be: Tesla cars are beautiful, not rusty or dented. Another would be that you should be able to actually use the bed for your stuff. In urban environments, everything in it that can be carried away will be carried away when you return. Cheap and easy to produce would also be on that list.

Put this list into a stupid AI system that does not have preconceived notions what a pickup should look like, and out comes the Tesla Cybertruck.

The aerodynamics are great. The bed coffer turns that open space into a vault. The stainless steel enables a unibody design that is lighter, stronger, and cheaper to make. With a relatively small battery (~75kWh), a “low-cost” version can shock the market. With the Plaid powertrain, there is nothing on the road (except other Teslas) that can compete in pure badass driving.

Turning the list of requirements (much longer than I have mentioned) into this design is pure brilliance.

I am not a car guy, I am even less of a big car guy, and I really don’t understand the appeal of those monstrosities on wheels that are the favorite grocery-getters in most of the USA. My opinion is of zero and really no value when it comes to judging the Tesla Cybertruck’s market appeal and commercial value.

This is such a radical departure from what is thought to be a normal pickup, though, that most will be unable at first to comprehend this concept. Without suggesting it will be as successful, it is like the iPhone when shown in the time of the flip-phone and Blackberry. This will need time.

I suggest some placements in Hollywood movies. Not the cyberpunk Blade Runner type of movies, but a normal romantic comedy with a soccer mom using it around the suburbs. And the privacy of the closed bed is a far better place to be seduced than the back seat of a sedan.

While being logical, the Tesla designers created a new problem for the US automotive industry. The distinction between cars and trucks, or passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles has always been based on the construction — using a frame was a truck, using any kind of monocoque or unibody construction was a car. By the logic of the standard classification, the Tesla Cybertruck is a car.

To be more precise, it is the most badass electric shopping cart.

Photos by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica

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About the Author

Maarten Vinkhuyzen Grumpy old man. The best thing I did with my life was raising two kids. Only finished primary education, but when you don’t go to school, you have lots of time to read. I switched from accounting to software development and ended my career as system integrator and architect. My 2007 boss got two electric Lotus Elise cars to show policymakers the future direction of energy and transportation. And I have been looking to replace my diesel cars with electric vehicles ever since.

And putting my money where my mouth is, I have bought Tesla shares. Intend to keep them until I can trade them for a Tesla car.

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LOL — Elon’s Tesla Cybertruck Just Turned Manly Man-Trucks Into Princess Wagons

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Published on November 23rd, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

LOL — Elon’s Tesla Cybertruck Just Turned Manly Man-Trucks Into Princess Wagons

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November 23rd, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

There’s a lot of interesting brain food embedded in the Tesla Cybertruck. You can have a serious, intelligent, academic discussion about it all until you’re blue in the face. But there’s one basic, fundamental, gut-turning point about the Cybertruck (or Cybertrukk). The thing just turned Ford SuperDuties, “like a rock” Chevy Silverados, and rock-ramming Ram 3500s into princess wagons. Here’s what I now think of when I look at a normal pickup truck:

Disney princess wagon via Montgomery Ward

Disney princess horse and carriage via Walmart

I’ll be frank — I’m not in the market for a pickup truck or a Cybertruck. I’m not really a manly man in the first place. Remember, I sit on the couch writing and editing word salads for a living. I’d rather go play some tennis with my little girls than watch a NASCAR race. Well, actually, I’d rather do just about anything than watch a NASCAR race. I’ll stick to my Tesla Model 3, thank you very much. But even I can feel moved and enticed by the GI Joe, Terminator, or bull-like man-energy of the Cybertrukk. Other than a tank, or maybe even more than a tank, that thing is a freakin’ manly man-vehicle! It gets my blood going.

Think I’m going overboard? Reflect for a minute on what every freakin’ pickup truck commercial is about. Why is every single one of them basically trying to tell you that you’ll be the manliest man around if you buy the pickup truck model the marketing team behind that pickup is hawking? Why is there practically no other message conveyed to potential truck buyers? Because, simple as it is, vehicle purchases — and, thus, vehicle marketing efforts — are primarily about your identity, and for whatever reason, one of the most fundamental matters of our identity and what compels us to buy certain products is our connection to our gender.

In other words, count the ground clearance, measure the truck bed, consider the torque and towing capacity all you want, what a pickup truck is really supposed to be is the ultimate man-vehicle. What Elon Musk did is exactly what I wrote a few days ago he’d do — he created the manliest man-truck on the market, and not by a little bit. He crushed the competition in this regard. Rather than create some modified version of the prevailing pickup truck design, he created a bulletproof, tank-like, ugly as a m**** f***** Cybertrukk.

At the moment, you’ve got tons and tons of guys saying they’re buying the Cybertruck even though they never had an interest in trucks before. In my humble opinion, they probably didn’t identify with normal pickup trucks for cultural reasons. The Cybertruck, though, 1) provides them with a tough-as-nails man-truck that they can identify with because of various movies (mostly Sci-Fi stuff) that they enjoyed and it could have come straight out of, 2) it looks like it would crush the coal-rolling, Supercharger-blocking, EV-harassing pickup trucks of a different clan. Call it a “fight” rather than “flight” attraction. As much as “tech guys” may seem like they wouldn’t be sucked into primal testosterone appeals, think for a moment about how popular superhero movies are.

To be straight-up about it, I’m not being condescending here. We are humans. We have these kind of features. We have this stuff hardwired or softwired into our brains and blood.

I’m just saying that, the #1 thing this Cybertruck does is it puts a hardcore smackdown on man-trucks without even touching them. It just gives them the Arnold look and everyone knows who shouldn’t be messed with. The Cybertruck may be a massive hit for its practical application as a camping tool, for its utilitarian truck bed and power tool hookups, or because of some other features, but if it’s going to be a hit, that’s because it makes all those truck commercials you see during football games look like advertisements for Barbie Power Wheels.

Woohoo! Pink Barbie Power Wheels. Let’s go splash in rivers! Via Fisher Price

Getting to some money matters, in terms of sales or consumer demand, I think the two biggest questions are 1) how many normal truck buyers are open-minded enough or attracted enough to the Cybertruck to switch over, and 2) how many non-truck people are motivated to by a Cybertruck for reasons they can’t explain, and then truly go through with purchasing one.

We’ll see. In the meantime, tell me you don’t see this the next time you see a Chevy/Ram/Ford truck commercial:

Barbie Power Wheels via Fisher Price

By the way, if you’d like to buy a Tesla and get some free Supercharging miles, feel free to use my special, magical, unicorn-blessed referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404. You can also get a $100 discount on Tesla solar with that code.
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About the Author

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the CEO of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.

Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he offers no investment advice and does not recommend investing in Tesla or any other company.

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Elon Musk Wants to Add “Fold Out Solar Wings” to Cybertruck

Cyber Goes Solar During a Thursday evening event near SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calf., Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally showed off the company’s long-awaited “Cybertruck.” And while we’re all still trying to digest its extremely polarizing design, Musk’s mind is already racing far ahead — imagining a bright, renewable energy-fueled future with his much-beloved truck… Continue reading Elon Musk Wants to Add “Fold Out Solar Wings” to Cybertruck

A Physics Analysis of Tesla’s Shattered Cybertruck Windows

I don’t know what to think about Elon Musk anymore. I mean the SpaceX stuff is awesome, and the Tesla car has been pretty cool. But now we have the Tesla pickup truck, unveiled on Thursday. (Simone Giertz did it first!) The Tesla Cybertruck looks odd—one person likened it to a futuristic doorstop—but that’s fine… Continue reading A Physics Analysis of Tesla’s Shattered Cybertruck Windows

Why Tesla’s Plan To Build Gigafactory 4 In Germany Makes Sense

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Published on November 22nd, 2019 |

by Johnna Crider

Why Tesla’s Plan To Build Gigafactory 4 In Germany Makes Sense

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November 22nd, 2019 by Johnna Crider

By Johnna Crider and Zach Shahan

Tesla’s plan to build Gigafactory 4 (GF4) in Germany makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of Tesla’s mission.

Last week, after winning The Golden Steering wheel, Elon Musk made the announcement that Tesla would build its next gigafactory — #4 (even though one of those factories is a solar factory) — in Germany. Not only did the news come as a complete shock to some, but it seemed senseless to others who just don’t understand the mind of Elon Musk, or pretend to not understand it.

The German auto industry has been stagnant with its dependence on gasoline and diesel vehicles. As the world, and especially Europe, has demanded more efficient vehicles that pollute less, the German auto industry has had a hard time transitioning, which is part of the reason there was so much diesel cheating and criminal behavior. However, if one looks at the European auto industry as if it were a plant — an actual plant such as a rose bush — one can see that this market is still alive and breathing. Just because it seems to slow down or stagnate doesn’t mean it’s completely dead. No, it’s sending a message that it needs water. Tesla could very well be the water to bring this market back to life.

Tesla’s presence in Germany is a push to Germany’s large automakers — the country’s largest industry — that it is really, definitely, finally time to electrify. Volkswagen is apparently moving in that direction somewhat aggressively (or still not aggressively enough, depending on who you ask), but many see the transition as too slow. Some have even tried to write wake-up calls for the German auto industry, because of a concern about what will happen to German industry, jobs, and the economy if Germany’s “Big 3” are too slow to electrify. If you are a German and feel this way, Tesla’s decision to build a gigafactory in Germany is a great way to push the industry to try harder and clean up its act faster.

But this story isn’t about what Germans want. It’s about what Tesla wants.

What Is Musk’s Motive?
We have to factor in Tesla’s mission here. As you’ll recall, it’s to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy as quickly as possible. Tesla cannot do that alone, so it must consider how it can most effectively stimulate change in others. Going to their homeland, going to the center of the industry, going to where the sauce is made is the best way to influence the industry.

Furthermore, Tesla does need to keep growing as quickly as possible itself and improving in the process. With the German auto industry’s established high reputation, there must be much to learn there. Tesla didn’t need to set up shop in one of the cities with German automakers were located, but being in the country allows Tesla to tap tremendous labor resources.

So, even as Tesla may be there to push the auto industry to work harder, it’s probably also there to take advantage of the embedded auto expertise of the country.

Why Building GF4 in Germany Makes Sense
I think Tesla building in Germany makes perfect sense. Germany is seen as the heart of the luxury automotive industry, and Tesla is trying to electrify this market as quickly as possible while continuing to go “downstream” and electrify all transport. If you want to solve a problem, go to the heart of the matter.

Lastly, Berlin is one of the most influential political capitals in Europe, and perhaps the world. It is deeply tied to democratic progress and remains the home of one of the strongest democratic centers in the world. Policy can also speed up the transition to EVs, so being near the big players can help to influence them to take bolder actions promoting electric vehicles, clean energy, and more.

Elon may not be very political, but he knows who wields power and is pragmatic about having positive, progressive associations with political leaders to get done what needs to get done.

Plus, it seems that Elon likes Berlin.

Images by CleanTechnica and Tesla Shuttle

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About the Author

Johnna Crider Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, and Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to “Believe in Good.”

Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter

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Tesla Cybertruck Image Overload: See The Pickup Inside And Out

Check out our mega gallery of images of the newly revealed Tesla Cybertruck. Following last night’s reveal of the Tesla Cybertruck, we’ve gathered well over 100 images of the polarizing electric pickup truck and we present them here for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure). Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck Pickup Truck Debut 128 Photos Aside from the… Continue reading Tesla Cybertruck Image Overload: See The Pickup Inside And Out

Anheuser-Busch Completes First Ever Zero-Emission Beer Delivery

An all-electric BYD truck and a hydrogen fuel cell Nikola H2 truck delivered cargo for Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch, one of the pioneers of using zero emission vehicles, this week has completed its first ever “Zero-Emission Beer Delivery” in the company’s hometown of St. Louis in partnership with BYD and Nikola. For the Nikola H2 hydrogen fuel… Continue reading Anheuser-Busch Completes First Ever Zero-Emission Beer Delivery

Chinese electric car maker WM Motor targets $1 billion funding round – CNBC

Chinese electric carmaker WM Motor is seeking up to $1 billion in funding within the next six months as it targets one new model a year. The aspiring Tesla rival completed its series-C funding round in the first quarter of 2019, and is now looking to secure its series-D financing “hopefully in the next six… Continue reading Chinese electric car maker WM Motor targets $1 billion funding round – CNBC