The Tesla Cybertruck’s styling has divided opinion since it was revealed in concept form in 2019, and it turns out some of the company’s own engineers “hated” the design.
As reported by Business Insider, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen told Walter Isaacson, whose biography on Elon Musk is set to come out this week, there was an alternate version that was covertly designed by company engineers.
This alternate version was created after engineers saw a mock-up of the Cybertruck concept on display at SpaceX’s showroom in Los Angeles during 2019, according to Mr Isaacson who shadowed Mr Musk for three years.
“A majority of the people in this studio hated it,” said Mr von Holzhausen on the Cybertruck’s design, according to the book.
Cybertruck concept
“They were like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was just too weird.”
It’s unclear what happed to the alternate version of the Cybertruck. Mr Musk recently showed off a “production candidate” version of its Cybertruck, which looked largely similar to the wedgy concept from 2019.
“Von Holzhausen, who is as gentle as Musk is brusque, spent time listening carefully to their concerns. ‘If you don’t have buy-in from the people around, it’s hard to get things done,’ he says,” wrote Mr Isaacson.
Mr Musk was reportedly “less patent”, according to Mr Isaacson, and didn’t want to hear concerns related to the Cybertruck. He also reportedly told Mr von Holzhausen he wanted a driveable version he could demo at the Tesla event in November 2019.
“Production candidate” Cybertruck
This “forced the team to come together, work twenty-four-seven,” wrote Mr Isaacson.
Although the original Tesla Cybertruck concept was revealed in 2019, the first production example didn’t roll off the line at the company’s Texas plant until July this year.
Tesla has previously said it plans to commence customer deliveries in the third quarter of this year before ramping up to full-scale production in 2024.
Electrek reports the first examples are expected to go to employees.
The outlet reports it expects Tesla to reveal pricing and full specifications at its official first delivery handover event.
US customers have been able to pre-order the electric pickup for quite some time.
Tesla claims the electric ute will boast up to 804km of range and be able to achieve a 0-60mph (0-96km/h) time of 2.9 seconds.
According to the carmaker’s US website, the Cybertruck will feature a 1587kg payload, towing capacity of over 6300kg, and 2831 litres of storage space spread out through the ute’s tub, interior and frunk.
The latter appears to offer customers less space than the Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV, and Rivian R1T.
It’s unclear what the frunk space for the ute will be, however the Cybertruck’s tub is expected to measure around 2.0 metres long.
Due to repeated delays, the Cybertruck is now going on sale after rivals like the R1T and F-150 Lightning.
