Tesla showcases e-pickup

Tesla has presented its foray into pickup truck territory with the armored Cybertruck.

The Associated Press reported the news:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking on the workhorse heavy pickup truck market with his latest electric vehicle.

The “cybertruck,” an electric pickup truck, will be in production in 2021, Musk said at the Los Angeles Auto Show Thursday.

The pickup, which Musk said will cost $39,900 and up, will have an estimated battery range of between 250 miles (402.3 kilometers) to more than 500 miles.

With the launch, Tesla is edging into the most profitable corner of the U.S. auto market, where buyers tend to have fierce brand loyalty.

Many pickup truck buyers stick with the same brand for life, choosing a truck based on what their mom or dad drove or what they decided was the toughest model, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

“They’re very much creatures of habit,” Gordon said. Getting a loyal Ford F-150 buyer to consider switching to another brand such as a Chevy Silverado, “it’s like asking him to leave his family,” he said.

Musk unveiled in the truck in a punk-show styled reveal event, showing off the truck’s stainless steel body and super-strong “armor glass” windows. A sledgehammer did not make a dent in the car’s doors.

Reuters’ Naomi Tajitsu and Peter Nederson noted:

With a starting price of $39,900, the Cyber truck is less expensive than initially flagged but its polarising design could limit sales in a segment symbolic of a rugged, practical American lifestyle.

At a launch event in Los Angeles, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said other versions will be priced at $49,900 and $69,900 with the most expensive offering a range of more than 500 miles (800 km). Production is expected to begin around late 2021.

“We need sustainable energy now. If we don’t have a pickup truck, we can’t solve it. The top three selling vehicles in America are pickup trucks. To solve sustainable energy, we have to have a pickup truck,” he said.

The truck’s hulking sharp geometric body was made from stainless steel, set atop massive tires and had windows made from armored glass.

“It will be a niche product at best and poses no threat in the pickup market as we know it today,” wrote Matt DeLorenzo, senior executive editor at automotive research company Kelley Blue Book.

CNN’s Peter Valdes-Dapena wrote:

When the truck initially drove onto the stage, many in the crowd clearly couldn’t believe that this was actually the vehicle they’d come to see. The Cybertruck looks like a large metal trapezoid on wheels, more like an art piece than a truck.

Instead of a distinctly separate cab and bed, the body appears to be a single form. The exterior is made from a newly developed stainless steel alloy, Musk said, the same metal that’s used for SpaceX rockets. That alloy enables the car to be “literally bulletproof” against, at least, smaller firearms, including a 9 millimeter handgun, Musk said.

A man with a sledgehammer hit the sides of the truck without damaging it. 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.

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.

The most expensive version of the truck, the Tri Motor All-Wheel-Drive, will be able to carry 3,500 pounds, tow up to 14,000 pounds and go from zero to 60 in 2.9 seconds. It will also be able to drive up to 500 miles on a full charge. Base models will have a range of 250 miles.