(electronic music)
- Hey everybody, this is Sean from The Verge.
And I'm here at Tesla's Design Studio
in Los Angeles, California,
where the company just unveiled
it's first electric pickup truck,
the CyberTruck.
- Welcome to the CyberTruck Unveil.
- Now we know Tesla has been working on a pickup truck
for a long time.
But in the years running up to this event,
Elon Musk had said that this truck was gonna look
straight out of "Blade Runner".
It was gonna have a cyberpunk aesthetic.
And that he didn't really even care
if people didn't like the design.
Well, he unveiled a very cyberpunk,
very "Blade Runner" truck tonight.
The design is super polarizing.
It really does look exactly how he said it was gonna look.
It really does look like some kind of movie prop.
One thing that could help Tesla move a truck
that is as out there as the CyberTruck
is the fact that the specs and the price
actually sound pretty good.
The CyberTruck starts at $39,900.
That starting price is also lower than
the price of a lot of the most popular pickup trucks
on the market right now,
like the Ford F150 or the Dodge Ram.
That version of the truck
will get about 250 miles of range
and be able to go from zero to 60 miles an hour
in about six seconds or so.
Now above the base model,
there's a dual-motor version of this truck
that's supposed to get about 300 or more miles of range,
has a 10,000 pound towing capacity
and can go from zero to 60 miles an hour
in about four and a half seconds.
The top-tier CyberTruck costs nearly $70,000.
But Elon Musk promised it'll have
at least 500 miles of range
which is outrageous.
That's more than any other car Tesla makes right now.
And almost as much as the second generation Roadster
which is supposed to be coming in the next couple of years.
The whole event was really sort of a tease
at the big automakers
who make a lot of money from pickups.
One of the things that he focused on
was the fact that this truck
is going to be made out of cold-rolled steel.
Basically the same material
that SpaceX has been using
to build its Mars rocket prototypes.
To show off how durable he thinks this is
he had Tesla's lead designer come out on stage
with a sledgehammer,
and not only take it to the door of a typical pickup truck
but also to the side of the CyberTruck.
And it didn't seem to make any dent.
But a problem seemed to arise when
they also tried to show off the strength
of the windows on the truck
which are made out of a special metal glass.
But when they took a big metal ball bearing
to the windows, they broke.
So obviously, there's a little bit more to be done
to make sure that this lives up
to the rugged standards
that Elon Musk was promising tonight.
But he took it in stride,
and kept poking at the part of the auto industry
that he really wants to disrupt with this product.
Now all of the versions of the truck
will come with Autopilot standard,
the option to pay for the forthcoming
full self-driving feature
that Tesla's been promising for years.
They'll all have 100 cubic feet of storage
which is a massive amount of storage.
And largely thanks to the really big bed in this truck.
They have up to 16 inches of ground clearance
with four inches of travel on either end.
But Tesla didn't take much time
to talk about the crash worthiness of this truck.
Especially considering it's made out of this
supposedly super durable, super strong steel.
I'd like to see a little bit more about
what's going to happen to other cars or pedestrians
if and when this thing gets into a crash.
I actually got a chance to ride in this thing tonight.
I was in the front passenger seat,
one of six seats inside the truck.
And one of the first things that struck me
was just how big it is inside.
Musk talked on stage about how
by taking basically the structure of the car
and moving to the very outside,
not worrying about paint
or anything on the outside of the steel,
he was able to open up more space inside the truck.
And it certainly felt that way.
It's hard to get a sense of exactly
how big this thing is in person.
But on the inside,
it's clear that Tesla's making the most out of
the room that they have available.
There was a 17-inch touchscreen tablet,
similar to the Model 3s but a little bit bigger,
in the center of the dashboard
that was actually running a new version
of Tesla's in-car software,
that we only got a brief glimpse of.
I like the design of it.
I'm very excited to see more
about that new version of the software,
and hear what Tesla has planned for it in the future.
Honestly the most striking thing about it
is just how massive it feels underneath you.
We don't know the spec on the battery in this.
But the battery pack must be massive.
You could feel how heavy it was underneath you
as we were moving down the street.
It certainly feels just about as fast
as some of Tesla's other cars.
We were in the dual-motor spec
so the mid-range one
that starts at about $49,000.
And I can only imagine that the top-tier version
would feel a little bit more ludicrous
than the ride that we had tonight.
I will say that if you're wondering at home
whether this looks more or less polarizing in person,
I'd say it's about dead on the money.
It maybe even looks a little bit better in the renders.
In person it just feels very brutalist.
It was honestly cold to the touch
when I was getting in and out of the truck.
And there is really nothing else like it on the market,
which is exactly what Elon Musk says he was going for.
Elon Musk is well know for
not meeting deadlines on time
or not living up to lofty promises that he makes.
And I think a lot of people coming into tonight's event
were trying to basically call him on the bluff.
If the CyberTruck proved anything
it's that every once in a while
what Elon Musk promises is exactly what you'll get.
Hey everybody, thanks so much for watching.
If you love electric vehicles,
especially ones that are a little bit polarizing,
we just got to see Ford's Mustang Mach-E electric SUV,
a couple of days ago.
Go check it out on our YouTube channel if you haven't yet.
Thanks for watching.