Tesla Cybertruck to "kick ass"

What is Elon Musk’s carefully considered goal for the Tesla Cybertruck? To kick ass.

What else? To look like it could come from a futuristic sci-fi movie, to be the truck for the apocalypse and to be “awesome” and even “super-weird”.

No, there’s no long list of earnest marketing goals and KPIs for the kingpin of the electric automotive industry when it comes to Tesla’s first pick-up.

Musk rolled out this list of ambitions for the Cybertruck during an interview on the latest Daily Drive podcast in the USA after being asked how much customer research was conducted before the concept appeared to worldwide amazement last November.

Once he stopped laughing, Musk replied:

“Customer research? We just made a car we thought was awesome and looked super-weird.

“I just wanted to make a futuristic battle-tank, something that looked like it came out of Bladerunner or Aliens or something like that,” he said, referencing two iconic sci-fi movie franchises.

Musk later added: “The body panels are bulletproof to a handgun so probably helpful in the apocalypse.

“Let me tell you the truck you want in the apocalypse is the Cybertruck.

“We wish to be the leader in apocalypse technology.”

And then: “We are fundamentally making this truck as a North American ass-kicker. Our goal is to kick the most amount of ass possible with this truck.”

But beyond the irreverence, Musk did reveal some new details about Cybertruck. Most significantly for Australia is that it isn’t aimed at Europe or achieving EU compliance.

Australian Design Rules (ADRs) are closely aligned with EU regs, so what doesn’t comply there may not comply here either.

“We made the exec decision to not make a world truck, so it does not comply with a lot of EU spec and stuff,” Musk said.

“But that’s OK. We can always build a slightly smaller truck that does comply with EU spec in the future.”

Musk has also talked about making the Cybertruck smaller previously. The production version was going to be reduced in size by three per cent, but Musk flipped on that later. It will stay at nearly six metres long, as per the wacky concept.

Other key aspects, such as its flat-sided shape, cold-rolled steel panels and exoskeleton construction will also be retained.

Musk also revealed he was prepared for the Cybertruck to be rejected by the public.

“People could have been like ‘oh wow, you’re crazy. That car doesn’t look like any other car, we are not going to buy it’. That could have been one of the outcomes.

“I wasn’t super-worried about that because if it turns out no-one wants to buy a weird-looking truck we’ll build a normal-looking truck, no problem.

“There are lots of normal trucks out there that look much the same – you can hardly tell the difference. Sure, we could do some copycat truck – that’s easy.

“But the reaction has been amazing. We’ve had several hundred thousand people place orders and we’ve made more excitement about the Cybertruck than any other vehicle we have ever unveiled.”

Tesla has received about 700,000 reservations for the Cybertruck since it was revealed last November. Production isn’t slated to commence until late 2022 in a new Gigafactory in Texas.

Tesla is touting single-, dual- and tri-motor versions of the Cybertruck, with a $US39,900 starting price (about $A56,000).

The single-motor, rear-wheel drive version is claimed to hit 60mph (97km/h) in 6.5 seconds and offer a base range of more than 250 miles (402km).

The mid-range dual-motor all-wheel drive Cybertruck’s 0-60mph acceleration is stated at just 4.5 seconds and its range at 300 miles (480km).

The triple-motor AWD model is claimed to hit 60mph in just 2.9sec and achieve a 209km/h top speed. Its range is stated at 500 miles or 800km – almost 100 miles more than the longest-range Tesla Model S sedan.

All Cybertruck models will have a payload of 1588kg and the base model is rated to tow 7500 pounds (3402kg).

“Remember it [Cybertruck] is also highly functional. It has incredible capabilities. It’s basically as fast as a Porsche 911 and has more towing power and trucking capability than a [Ford] F-150,” Musk told Daily Drive.

“So it’s a better sports car than a 911 and a better truck than an F-150.

“This is something you could use to tow a boat, horse trailer, pull tree stumps out of the ground, go off-roading and not have to worry about scratching the paint because there is no paint.

“You can be smashing boulders and be fine, be great.”

While the Cybertruck can’t be painted it could come in different colours via a process called tempering, which is extreme heating of the steel. Those colours range from faint yellow through light blue, dark blue, brown and purple.

When it does come to market the Tesla Cybertruck will face significant competition from a whole slew of electric trucks, including the Ford F-150, the GMC Hummer  and a Chevrolet.

Brand-new EV start-ups throwing their utes into the ring include Rivian, Nikola, Lordstown, Bollinger, Fisker and maybe even Australia’s H2X.