Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck <\/h3>\n
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The decision would have far-ranging implications for the truck\u2019s design, engineering and even repairs. But it happened because Musk insisted on something \u201cbold,\u201d something that would \u201csurprise people,\u201d the book says; something that would look like \u201cthe future.\u201d He refused to \u201cplay it safe,\u201d as Tesla did with the Model Y (to great financial success, it must be said.) This is a thread woven throughout Tesla\u2019s history: Musk\u2019s personal stamp on the design and engineering process. And more than any Falcon Doors or vent-free air-conditioning systems, the Cybertruck is the ultimate manifestation of that. As was the ultimatum to the team: \u201cDon\u2019t resist me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fast forward almost seven years later, and the radical truck Musk wanted is finally here. But is it what the world needs right now? Is it what Tesla needs right now? I have a very hard time believing that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Few things this year have defined the news cycle as much as the iron will of the world\u2019s richest man. It has changed the trajectory of Tesla and the ways we consume information online, and even touched the war in Ukraine. Musk has gone from successful EV and space travel entrepreneur to becoming a nation-state unto himself, securing government contracts, conducting international relations and generally skirting any sort of accountability thanks to the copious shareholder value that he generates. The tone and timing of the Cybertruck event felt odd in that it happened one day after Musk\u2019s profanity-laced rant at the New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Dealbook Summit, where he lashed out at advertisers leaving the social media platform formerly called Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s ownership of what is now called X represents another example of that iron will. Whether you believe he purchased the platform to save free speech or just promote his own business interests, it\u2019s been an objective, financial disaster that has exacerbated some of his worst qualities and put them on display for the world to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or maybe the two events aren’t so incongruent. If you choose to be pessimistic about the Cybertruck, it\u2019s hard not to see parallels between that vehicle and what happened with X. Or at least, it’s hard not to see the behaviors of one man contributing to both situations. These days, when Musk wants something to happen, it happens, all consequences be damned. He\u2019s more powerful than ever and can do whatever he wants, more than ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is not to say that the Cybertruck won\u2019t be a sales success\u2014or at least very popular. As usual, Tesla\u2019s delivery event in Austin drew a crowd and wider media coverage (including at this publication) that no other automaker can match. It is the ultimate hype machine, perhaps more than the Model 3 ever was. Tesla will undoubtedly sell every Cybertruck it can build, regardless of the price, and every truck will turn every head that sees it on the road until the end of time. There are fun and innovative things about the truck, too, from its over-the-top specs to the fact that it\u2019s going to help people stay excited about electric vehicles at a time when many have doubts about them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Financial success for Tesla is another story. Sure, Musk did succeed in bringing a truck to market that met his wild expectations. But just over a month before today\u2019s event, he warned Tesla investors and fans alike that they should \u201ctemper their expectations\u201d around the vehicle, citing countless production challenges that could equal years before production is stable and profitable. \u201cDon\u2019t resist me\u201d has transformed into \u201cWe dug our own grave,\u201d which, again, says a lot about how Musk is operating lately.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bigger issue for me is that at the end of the day, as novel and surprising as it is, the Cybertruck is another big, expensive, resource-intensive EV\u2014and that\u2019s not something the world needs right now. We\u2019ve seen take after take questioning the electric future as demand proves to be uneven, and while that doomerism is greatly exaggerated, there are real market forces at work there. Many buyers are turned off by the huge, expensive electric trucks and SUVs that now dominate the EV world. Price, and the dearth of public charging, are the two biggest reasons EV demand is in a waning period in America. The Cybertruck may be exciting to the hardcore Tesla fanbase, but it isn\u2019t going to change that situation.<\/p>\n And given Tesla\u2019s penchant for delays, it feels likely that the base $60,990 Cybertruck slated for 2025 will take longer than that to arrive, leaving most buyers with the nearly $90,000-plus examples. Do we really need more of those? Does Tesla need more vehicles like that?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that Tesla shouldn\u2019t be tasked with delivering a public good; it may have an altruistic mission on the door, but capitalism is still capitalism. Yet I think a much bigger financial and social coup d\u2019etat would\u2019ve been Tesla\u2019s long-awaited $25,000-ish EV. That\u2019s the car I wish we could\u2019ve seen on Thursday. It\u2019s the car that would\u2019ve blown all those anti-EV concerns out of the water (including charging access, since it\u2019d be a Tesla, after all.) It would\u2019ve done more to \u201caccelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy\u201d than any Cybertruck ever did. The world could certainly use more affordable, small EVs to replace gas-burning cars, and maybe convince people they don\u2019t actually need a 600-mile car where the battery alone weighs more than a Mazda Miata. That\u2019s as close to a social good as any car company can deliver right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n And let\u2019s face it: love it or loathe it, Tesla is just about the only automaker right now that could pull that off at scale. (Outside of China, anyway.) Had the design and production resources gone to that car instead of the Cybertruck, we\u2019d be having a very different conversation today about the future of electric cars. At some point within Tesla, that must have happened, and I wonder how much Musk\u2019s insistence on the Cybertruck being the Cybertruck played a role in that. Now we have to wonder how long Tesla is going to take a bath, financially speaking, on getting this truck up and running.\u00a0<\/p>\n A rendering of the affordable Tesla EV with “Cybertruck” design cues, as referenced in Isaacson’s book.<\/p>\n You can blame what Isaacson calls Musk\u2019s \u201creality-distorting willfulness\u201d on some of this. According to the book, the company had been teasing the $25,000 EV idea publicly since at least 2020. They’ve long known it would be an engine for growth. Executives told Musk that \u201cin order for Tesla to grow at 50%\u00a0a year, it needed to have an inexpensive small car,\u201d something that could have twice as much demand and sales as the Model 3 and Model Y. But Musk has insisted that the next step needed to be a fully autonomous robotaxi instead; anything less than that, he said, would be boring and not transformative enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, his team placated him by convincing him to build this cheap EV and the robotaxi on the same platform, probably in Mexico, but its success depends on Tesla\u2019s ability to deliver full autonomy\u2014something it isn\u2019t anywhere close to yet. Instead, we wait for that, and probably several more years for the Cybertruck to get to that promised $60,000 price tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s what reality-distorting willfulness gets you. But we\u2019ve seen a lot of that lately, haven\u2019t we?<\/p>\n Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck Delivery Event (2023) <\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck <\/h3>\n
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