Pickup Reveal . . . 8PM (ish) pacific - Musk time.

I'll find out tomorrow in one of those news feeds that I do not remember signing up for

Is this a brilliant pickup line or what?

 

Already have a pickup.

 

I'll be up.

 

UPDATE LIVE NOW: Tesla Pickup Truck: How To Watch Cybertruck Livestream Reveal

 

Anyone watching this? I almost spit my Pepsi all over the keyboard with the armor glass demo.

 

What a disaster of a presentation. Glass aside, which was bad enough, it had a complete lack of flow. Maybe rehearse it once. Interesting vehicle - definitely different.

 

Musk being Musk. He looked a bit rattled after the glass demo.

 

Not a single comment on how that thing looks? The only people that will buy that are those who want it then it'll be done. Think Aztek.

 

View attachment 182244 View attachment 182244

What can I say ... the silhouette on the doors is great, but it would look better with hex wheels.

 

Alfred Hitchcock?

 

I'm honestly stunned, both by how badly the demo went and how... underdeveloped the product appears to be.

Mrs. McCoalroller even commented, "It looks like a three year old drew it"

 

The highlight was at 7:35.

 

It's like they took a list of features you'd find on any truck and ran down the list one by one saying "Nope, boss wants nifty idea x, y, z in its place"

Now they have a pile of nifty ideas on four wheels. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if they were hoping to sell trucks to truck buyers then they officially have a product shortage on their hands.

 

Its ugly as sin, but that doesn't matter if they price it right.

Oh dear. That's like F-450 pricing: https://www.cars.com/research/truck/

They need to get it closer to the F-150 price of ~28k/29k, especially since I don't believe Tesla's qualify for the federal tax credit anymore.

 

I was a little stunned

Ok not quite as bad as that car, but ...

I could actually be rather cool demographic if it performs right. Its not going to get many of the f150 buyers. It could get a bunch of people that want to throw their smelly gear in the open, tow boats, need massive electric power, but still very drivable in the city. My guess is unlike most show cars the real one will look better.

 

Nah.
Aztek was a common vehicle, designed to be sold relatively cheaply and to the masses.
Tesla's truck is going to be expensive. And yes, a very niche buying audience.

Plus as much as Aztek get's maligned for being "ugly". It's appearance in "Breaking Bad" gave it a cult like following. They're actually now pretty popular and their value has increased.
I personally think the Aztek is cool.
I think it would be fun to own one.

No I won't be owning either a Tesla Truck or Aztek any time soon.
But at the cost of the Tesla Truck?
It's always going to be people buying it that want it.
That's not a product that you accidentally buy on a whim. Or a choice like between a Corolla or Civic.

I would surmise (guess) that one slight advantage Tesla has as opposed to huge automakers like Toyota, is that Tesla can more precisely build to smaller demand.
My bet...is they sell every single one they build.
Don't ask me how many they will end up building. That's the tougher question.

 

My guess is that Musk wanted to surprise the faithful with something that no-one had expected. You see, appearance-wise the S was a classy, and/but fairly conventional proposition. The X was the S with a higher roofline, funky rear doors and two extra seats in the trunk, the 3 was the shrunk and less classy S, and the Y was the 3 with a higher roofline and a hatch.

What ever for, I don't know. Perhaps the things with Model Y and the semi haven't been going too well. Maybe Musk wants pass the reins and the office napping couch a timcook, and move on to work on Mars rockets.

 

I think that's what surprises me the most. It's glaringly obvious that this design requires them to develop a new market almost from scratch. My expectation had been that they were designing a product to compete in an established and lucrative market.

 

In Tesla HR dept. news: Immediate opening for head designer. Attention to detail a must. Those with a lust for improv need not apply.