Why a blocky steel colossus excites 2 million people

By The streetwheelz1 Team | June 21, 2024

A love letter to the Tesla Cybertruck

In 2019, Elon Musk first unveiled the Cybertruck to the public. Now, five years later, the car is on a European tour and has visited the city of Zurich in Switzerland, among other places. Perfect for everyone who finally wanted to see the car live. The media often report negatively about this car, but streetwheelz1 sees it differently. A rebuttal to the Cybertruck bashing.

(Picture: streetwheelz1)

Picture: The size of the Cybertruck is difficult to estimate from photos. But this pick-up is pretty big. (Photo: streetwheelz1)

The different kind of car

Critical voices surrounding the Cybertruck are loud and numerous. The media, for example, criticize the years-long delivery delays. Reports of various defects also keep coming.

A Tesla video also caused a stir, in which the Cybertruck towed a Porsche 911 on a trailer in a race and overtook a Porsche 911. That’s not true, it was said, at least not with the trailer. But without it, yes. Can we therefore talk for a moment about the fact that the bulky Cybertruck overtakes a Porsche 911 and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds? A Lamborghini Huracán takes at least 3.2 seconds for that.

Picture: Cold-rolled stainless steel shapes the appearance of the Tesla vehicle, which some media refer to as the “end-time truck.” (Photo: streetwheelz1)

A unique piece

But whether you like it or not: The Tesla Cybertruck is a unique piece, and when Elon Musk first introduced his electric pickup to the media in 2019, its unusually angular shape immediately caught the eye. It looked like it had come straight out of an action comic.

Picture: The side view of the Cybertruck is innovative and iconic. (Photo: streetwheelz1)

Is this clunky appearance simply very crude or particularly clever? In any case, the Cybertruck with its idiosyncratic design is different from all other cars. And isn’t it often precisely this that characterizes significant innovations? That something new stands out from the uniformity and irritates the eye? That perhaps not everything goes smoothly at first, but the special feature has to find its way precisely because it does not follow well-trodden paths?

The first impression

Picture: This is how the Cybertruck presented itself on the first day of the exhibition: large and unapproachable. (Photo: streetwheelz1) IMG_1795.HEIC

And then it was there, truly, not just in glossy pictures, but live, physically present. At the end of May, the Cybertruck finally stood in the showroom of the Tesla representative at Pelikanstrasse 10 in Zurich.

Today, access was only for the press, it was said, so regular onlookers had to stay behind the barrier tape. Probably why only sporadic people came by. This first encounter was a bit disappointing because what makes the Cybertruck’s appearance so iconic is not its front, but its side view with these stubborn straight lines without compromise. Nevertheless, the sheer size of the vehicle impressed – even viewed from a distance. At 1.79 m high, the pickup is as tall as an average Swiss man, and with its 2.41 m width and 5.60 m length, it is somewhat smaller than a camper van but far bulkier than a Ford Ranger.

Close encounter with the Cybertruck

Picture: Interior view of the Cybertruck with a tidy look. (Photo: streetwheelz1; Screenshot from our YouTube film)

When streetwheelz1 stopped by again on another day, the showroom was full, and the queue was long. Seniors, children, women, men, and even fathers with their babies on their shoulders wanted to take a look at the pickup.

The exterior of the car is an interesting mix that can be described with the adjectives “indestructible” and “sensitive.” On the one hand, there is this massive exoskeleton made of cold-rolled, hardened stainless steel, which withstands machine gun fire and hardly deforms in crash tests. On the other hand, buyers and media complain that the surface made of rust-free, unpainted steel is indeed rusty or at least stained.

But this car is made for a zombie apocalypse and wild hailstorms. Who cares about a few stains?

Picture: The cargo area is 1.98 m long and could transport more than a ton of weight (Photo: streetwheelz1; Screenshot from our YouTube film)

In the showroom, the Cybertruck looks like a tamed beast, somehow out of place. Because where this car’s radiance can really unfold is somewhere in the midst of a desolate, rocky no man’s land, in a terrestrial desert, or on another planet.

Just as in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the monoliths with their shiny, angular surfaces rose before a group of early humans, so now this steel car stands before us earthlings. And it is hardly a coincidence that the Cybertruck’s country tour is named “Odyssey.”

Who buys the Cybertruck?

Picture: With its maximum ground clearance of 44.2 cm, the Cybertruck offers ample space for larger tires, enhancing its off-road capabilities.(Photo: streetwheelz1)

Who is right: the critics who call the car ugly and/or faulty or the enthusiasts who want to own a pickup that stands out from the crowd?

Officially, there were 2 million pre-orders worldwide for the Cybertruck, whose cheapest variant costs at least 61,000 USD and in the luxury version “Cyberbeast” 100,000 USD.

Even 200,000 Europeans have pre-ordered the car, although it is unclear whether and when the Cybertruck will ever drive on public roads on our continent. This was also a question that onlookers repeatedly asked Tesla employees: Whether the Cybertruck will ever be approved in Switzerland. Maybe, you never know, was the mysterious answer each time.

The Cybertruck may not be a comfortable car. But neither is a Ferrari, Pagani, or McLaren comfortable or practical. You don’t just drive these to the supermarket. Such cars are rarely comfortable, yet Zurich’s streets are full of them. And why do people drive them? Maybe a bit to show off, but also because they are beautiful and embody an idea.

What makes the Cybertruck so special?

Picture: The Cybertruck looks special from every angle. (Photo: streetwheelz1; Screenshot from our YouTube film)

Why does this silver car from Tesla attract the masses despite all the critics? Perhaps it is because of what Elon Musk stands for. With Tesla, he makes cars, and with his space company SpaceX, he caters to human dreams: He wants to send people to Mars, while NASA has so far not even managed to send people back to the moon.

You can like Elon Musk or not, but he shapes this world with his innovative ideas. In 2008, he introduced the Tesla Roadster, the first electric car to be mass-produced, which allowed longer highway trips thanks to its range of over 300 km. And with the Cybertruck, he is once again setting new standards.

Conclusion: There is certainly room for improvement, and safety comes first, of course. Moreover, those looking for an uncomplicated car might be well advised to buy another Tesla model. But those who want to buy an idea might be exactly right with this car. In Musk’s words: “And finally the future will look like the future.”

If one had to summarize the essence of the Cybertruck in a single sentence, then probably simply with the slogan that is on the Tesla website for the Cybertruck: “Built for every planet.”

Get a Close-Up Look at the Cybertruck: Watch Now!

Facts Sheet:

Weight: 3,104 kg
Cargo volume: 3,423.5 liters
Wheels: 20-inch
Seats: 5 adults
Displays: 18.5-inch touchscreen in the center, 9.4-inch touchscreen in the rear
Ground clearance: 406 mm in off-road mode
Overall width: mirrors folded: 2,200.7 mm, mirrors unfolded: 2,413.3 mm
Overall height: 1,790.8 mm

Sources:

https://www.tesla.com/de_de/cybertruck
https://www.kfz-betrieb.vogel.de/tesla-cybertruck-hat-probleme-mit-dem-gaspedal-a-7184ee571f3457aa8192c7bf163f381a/
https://www.porschebank.at/news/die-geschichte-der-e-mobilitaet/
https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/autokatalog/marken-modelle/tesla/?sort=SORTING_DESC
https://www.autobild.de/artikel/tesla-cybertruck-2021-form-material-meinung-16116551.html
https://www.autobild.de/artikel/tesla-cybertruck-version-fuer-den-deutschen-markt-meldung-26215693.html
https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000208205/cybertrucks-rosten-nicht-sie-sind-nur-schmutzig-sagt-ein-tesla-ingenieur
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0goMCnLeegI
https://www.stern.de/auto/e-mobilitaet/tesla-cybertruck-verliert-bei-anhaenger-test-jedes-rennen-gegen-porsche-34724600.html
https://www.autobild.de/artikel/tesla-cybertruck-serienversion-16104393.html

Disclaimer: streetwheelz1 is not affiliated with Tesla. This article is a subjective and authentic expression of opinion.

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