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Comment by ZuLuuuuuu | Hacker News Reader

Tesla could have owned the entire EV truck market currently, if they didn't choose to make a truck that required a big amount of R&D and is hard to build. Why Tesla chose such a path completely baffles me.

Tesla's mission was "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy" which they were doing by making solid and affordable EVs and electric storage solutions.

One of the biggest reasons of the success of Model S was because it had a modern but conventional design unlike the other toy-like EV cars on the market at the time. Model S proved that it is possible to build a modern conventional EV car that people can buy.

It feels like Cybertruck is coming from a completely different mission statement. Actually most of the decisions they have been taking for the last 2-3 years feel like it.

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I don't think your first sentence can hold true as soon as the designs were released. The way to capture EV truck market is to make something that looks like a truck. Cybertruck is ugly as all get out.

I saw a Ford F-150 Lightning the other day, looks practically the same as an ICE F-150.

> Tesla's mission was "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy" which they were doing by making solid and affordable EVs and electric storage solutions.

Since far before Tesla, selling cars at high profit margins has ultimately been about selling power/attention/sex-appeal, not to advance an objective like "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. That's a nice side effect, but it's not ultimately what sells them. Otherwise, all of the original fan base of Tesla would have bought Nissan Leafs (which preceded Tesla).

Trendsetting companies need hero products that capture (or even set) the zeitgeist.

Teslas older models once played that role, but no longer, since they are so common at this point in their primary target markets.

To recapture customer imagination, the Cybertruck is promoting the "faux survivalism" hero narrative. It's the same narrative that is selling Rivians and F150, but taken to the aesthetic extreme.

Tesla building the Cybertruck is their attempt to get people to buy something specifically because it is "cool", and not because it is "an EV".

If the customer buys it, they switch to an EV platform, thereby accelerating Tesla's mission of "transition[ing] to sustainable energy".

Leading with "it's an EV" is the primary reason why "legacy auto" has been scaling back their EV manufacturing, because people generally don't care about "EV". They do care about something "cool" though.

They should've gotten some second opinions on what makes something "cool" because the Cybertruck is not it.

Reports from YouTubers who own the Cybertruck is that (at this stage) owning one makes you feel like a celebrity. People come to you constantly to take ask questions and take pictures with the CT. So, people seem to disagree with you.

If that's not enough, there's a long list of celebrities that now own cybertrucks, including Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Jay Z, Steve Aoki, Pharrell, and more. Might not fit your definition of "cool", but clearly, it does for a lot of people.

Affirming that I have even less in common with the likes of Kim Kardashian and Steve Aoki than previously understood is perhaps the nicest compliment you could have given me. Thank you!

I would encourage you to watch any recent YouTube video produced by any Cybertruck owner. Middle America, who is generally anti-EV, disagrees with you. That is why Tesla is doing this.

Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y are also cool cars, and they have the advantages of being EV. And this formula was working with these models, increasing EV adoption massively. Why change a winning formula?

Cybertruck tried to be over the top cool, and sacrificed some basics like time-to-market, easy production, range, safety... And it was a totally unnecessary change of strategy. Cybertruck really didn't need to be stainless steel or low-poly in order to sell. Model Y being one of the best selling cars in the world proves this.

It was working for people who were willing to buy an EV. Those people generally fall into two groups: 1) They specifically want an EV due to $reasons or 2) They are looking for a new car, and are willing to consider an EV. Both of these groups are fine with the current S3XY lineup because they resemble "normal" cars. That's why the Model S originally had so much success - it was a normal car, but electric. Even then, it was still a hard sell in 2013 to early adopters.

I'm going to stereotype a bit here, but Tesla YouTubers/Tweeters/Fanatics and the two groups above aside, everyone else is generally "against" EVs. If you own one, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Cybertruck is Tesla's attempt to change that. Don't convince them on the green-ness or potential cost-savings of home charging, convince them because it's cool. It's something that no other manufacturer can compete against. (for now)

> Tesla could have owned the entire EV truck market currently, if they didn't choose to make a truck that required a big amount of R&D and is hard to build. Why Tesla chose such a path completely baffles me.

I often think this, but then I think about how it would have actually happened. Right now, Tesla doesn't have enough domestically produced 2170s to supply both 3 and Y production. The 4680 ramp has been so slow that it is barely ahead of CT production anyway.

I think some of their failures on the battery supply chain side are bleeding over into product failures at this point.

I've seen rumours here and there (albeit nothing particularly reliable) that the Cybertruck might be a platform used to learn about this design/manufacturing approach. It's hard because it's hard, but the Cybertruck is how they learn how to make it easier.

The thinking being, of course, that if/when they get it nailed, they've potentially got an advantage to leverage over other manufacturers for future cars such as the Model 2.

Only time will tell whether this is the case, and whether it worked.

This is nonsensical, the Cybertruck is a terrible platform that had serious Chassis design issues that any other automaker would have killed the design over, but because Musk's ego is too big, there was never an option to say "we need to go back to the drawing board".

> the Cybertruck is a terrible platform that had serious Chassis design issues

Thanks; I'd be interested in learning more about this, if you have links to share?

There was never a snowball's chance in hell that once Ford and GMC got involved in the EV truck market that Tesla would be anything but an afterthought.

I don’t see Elon as a business genius and thus the idiotic decision to go thru with production for this truck is not at all a surprise to me

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