At the Cybertruck delivery ceremony held on November 30, Elon Musk went all out to promote the advantages of this electric pickup truck. But is this long-delayed new Tesla car really as good as Elon Musk says? Some ordinary people may not think so.
Elon Musk didn’t hold back on his praise for the Cybertruck. Elon Musk said at the delivery ceremony, “This is our best product” and “the future finally looks like the future.” He also demonstrated the Cybertruck’s bulletproof capabilities, calling it “practical.” If we sum it up in Elon Musk’s words, the Cybertruck is better than a truck and cooler than a sports car.
So, what does Cybertruck look like in the eyes of mass consumers? Currently, Cybertruck has landed in the Tesla showroom, and ordinary people can take a close look at this strange-looking pickup truck. Foreign media technology editor Alistair Barr recently went to the Tesla showroom to find out what was going on and interviewed some visitors to hear what they said?
“If you buy it, you’ll get a divorce.”
Barr, a car enthusiast, went to the Tesla showroom in San Jose, Calif., on Dec. 9 to see the Cybertruck in action.
When the Cybertruck was released, Barr reserved one and put down a $100 deposit. But his beloved wife of more than 20 years has warned that if he does buy one, they will divorce. Clearly, the two have serious disagreements about the Cybertruck, and not just because of Elon Musk’s controversial comments. People who like the Cybertruck find it angular, and those who hate it find it big and bulky.
Too big
The Tesla showroom where Barr brought his 17-year-old daughter with him. But his daughter’s first impression of the Cybertruck wasn’t a good one. “It’s just too big,” his daughter said. In her opinion, the Cybertruck is too big to park. A Tesla showroom employee confirmed that the Cybertruck is bigger than a Ford F-150, growing several inches.
At the show floor, a young man in a brown jacket walked up to the Cybertruck. The Cybertruck looks cool, he said. However, his wife next to him said it was “too big”. Barr interjected that his wife was threatening to divorce him if he bought the truck. “Your wife is smart and right,” the man’s wife said. Another woman in the showroom said: “It’s too big. It’s just too big.”
Tesla employees don’t buy it
A young man from Italy stood looking at the Cybertruck. He is an employee of Tesla Germany and works in the supply chain. This time he came to inspect the Cybertruck for work. He said that after seeing it in person, the Cybertruck felt bigger in person, but not bad. However, he said he would not buy it because it was too expensive.
Workmanship details are not in place
Figure 5: Rear door panel not fully aligned with rear corner panel
A couple from Pleasanton, California, also came to the Tesla showroom to look at cars. The husband said he didn’t like the way the Cybertruck opened the door and pointed out fingerprints on one side of the door. He also said that one of the rear door panels was not perfectly aligned with the rear corner panel and was a little off. While he’s not a huge fan of Tesla, he predicts that Silicon Valley will soon be filled with such pickup trucks and that such radical designs will become more common. “This is where you want to drive a Cybertruck. It’s a very Big place”. His wife says she likes the look of the Cybertruck and is happy to drive it around, although she says she prefers the Model Y.
Disappointing price increase
A woman in her 50s sat on the side of the showroom looking at the Cybertruck. The design will make people “stop and look,” which is a good thing, she said. “You want people to notice you as you drive by. It’s cool. It’s very Silicon Valley. It’s very Elon.” But she said she was disappointed with the increase in price, given the Cybertruck’s range. The relatively low range of the cheapest Cybertruck models, which cost about $60,000, is a problem, she said.
The real car is better and more compact
The real car is more compact than the prototype
However, not everyone thinks the Cybertruck is bad. One customer in his 50s said he reserved one four years ago. He recently received an offer to buy a car and paid an additional $250. He chose the high-end Cyberbeast model. He came to see the Cybertruck for the first time and honestly the car looked better. “They’ve reduced the size of it a little bit compared to the prototype, making it more compact,” he said. His wife, standing next to him, said she liked the look, though not as much as her husband.
Mixed Blessings
One Tesla salesperson said the response to the Cybertruck’s design has been “mixed.” “50 percent hate it, 50 percent love it. There’s no ambiguity,” he said. The salesperson offered free on-site test drives of other Tesla vehicles to people who reserved a Cybertruck. Those who agree will be moved up in the Cybertruck reservation queue as an in-store benefit, he said.
