First gigacast Cybertruck body sections have little to show for Elon Musk’s exoskeleton concept revealed when announcing its first electric pickup. ‘People familiar with the matter’ now tell why.
Tesla has almost given up on the exoskeleton concept that Elon Musk revealed to a great fanfare when announcing the Cybertruck. Back when he promised a US$39,900 Cybertruck starting price, Tesla’s CEO also waxed poetic about the steel frame that its futuristic electric pickup would be built on.
“We created an exoskeleton,” he quipped, referring to the fact that Tesla wants the to “move the mass outside” and have the walls of the Cybertruck to provide much of the supporting structure. That would create a lighter, easier to produce vehicle, considering the already daunting task that is crafting something out of steel.
That grand idea, however, may have given way to more practical considerations, at least for the first production Cybertruck units that Tesla calls Release Candidates. Recent spy shots of their structural body parts at the Gigafactory in Texas didn’t whiff of exoskeleton. In fact, they simply looked like sections produced by Tesla’s cost saving gigacast method with support structures and crumple zones that all other vehicles sold in the US are built with.
According to storied automotive industry analyst and teardown specialist Sandy Munroe, the Cybertruck “is unconventional in some areas,” referring to the edgy design and unorthodox steel body, “but for the most part it’s a conventional build.”
The perennial “sources familiar with the matter” have now revealed why. Those Wall Street Journal sources say that Tesla has apparently nearly given up on the Cybertruck’s exoskeleton concept for the prosaic reason that the pickup had to pass the government’s demanding crash tests. “The company did so, at least in part, to meet safety standards,” added one insider, creating a much more utilitarian pickup truck than initially envisioned.
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Daniel Zlatev – Tech Writer – 841 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021
Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.
Daniel Zlatev, 2023-08- 9 (Update: 2023-08- 9)
