Electric Surf Vehicles in 2020

[TallDude]

Obviously Elon and his design team don't surf...... or actually use a truck for what a truck is used for. It's just an SUV.

Where's the rack?

[Admin]

It is gitchy and nonsensical to base a design on movie vehicles from the 70's and 80's.  Musk had said that his design cues had come from the Lotus Esprit from the Spy Who Loved Me and from Blade Runner but Total Recall and Back to the Future are pretty obvious as well. It would be one thing if he had borrowed a little flavor and improved on it but this takes that already silly starting point and worsens it. 

The specs are great as expected but there is/will be plenty of competition there from all sides. It is baffling why Musk would choose to limit the appeal so much.  The design of this thing clearly puts limits on its function and apparently for the sake of some misguided aesthetic.  I am sure it will appeal to a few but it leaves the majority of that huge segment wide open.

[krash]

With a bit of makeup and mood lighting it is almost attractive and worth a test drive.

Bob

I really like the break-prof windows...

[PonoBill]

The three-section ramp tailgate is awesome, though it looks like it's just a rendering so far. That would take quite a bit of engineering to make it work with any serious load weight. I should make a manual version of those for my F350 though it would probably need to be five sections to not be as steep as a cow's face. I'm more than a bit tired of crawling up onto the tailgate.

Looks like ground clearance can be varied from 10 to 18 inches. Six to 18 would be mo'bettah. I'd love a bed that could be stepped into without a ladder.

Elon doesn't seem to care much about racks. Too bad. The biggest problem with a Model X is no rack possible. A model X with door like a Cienna and metal roof with rack rails would be a fine vehicle.

[Dusk Patrol]

Even though its a little homely, I kind of see it as the natural evolution of my car life from the complex to the simple... from american cars I had to work on myself as a kid, to Euro cars for which I had to pay mechanics, to Toyota (but still ICE) products, to now bullet proof, no paint, electric transport with no moving parts... Now, how to reconcile my "not buy new cars' rule.

[TallDude]

Go ahead.... hit it with a sledge hammer..

For all the construction workers and surfers that wear designer leather jackets

[pdxmike]

[Admin]

Hah!  This will be the norm for all electric trucks.  Here is Ford's response https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+truck&oq=tesla&aqs=chrome.2.69i60j69i57j0l6.7208j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 .  The real test will be the upcoming 4 motor Rivian (4 in all models) or Electric F-150. Both are expected before the Cybertruck. 

I am all for futuristic but I don't relate to a dystopian or post apocalyptic future where we have somehow lost the capability to curve metal into an appealing form.  Green, 9mm, Mad Max.  Weird blend.

[Bean]

"Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn't bounce off," Musk tweeted

While that makes perfect sense, it also demonstrates that it didn't really pass the sledge test either. 

So the take-away is, don't bring a knife to a gun fight, what you really want is your sledgehammer.

[Tom]

It is quite amazing the how the world is shocked that when someone throws a steel ball at a car window, it actually breaks. Yet they're pretty ho-hum about a truck beating a Porsche 911 in a drag race.

[Bean]

There is always someone faster...love this clip

https://youtu.be/S7m3xyW5hbE?t=591

[PonoBill]

So here's the thing that may escape casual looks at this truck. It's cheap to build. No frame, no paint, no stamping. It really is Origami. The stamping equipment that makes the pretty curves of normal cars and trucks is eye-wateringly expensive and wears out relatively quickly, requiring rework or replacement to keep making parts that fit. If you tried to stamp stainless of any thickness it would get ridiculously expensive. DeLoreans used thin stainless and minimal stamping and still had huge fit and finish issues from metal hysteresis and die wear. This design is as repeatable as folds in paper. It's made with a score and bend tech from flat panels. If they did it right (and why not) it's a minimum number of parts and a lot fewer fasteners--probably a welded unibody. Unibody construction with regular steel and paint is justifiably despised in the truck world. Bang things around and you knock the protective coatings off and the rust monster attacks. This is 301 stainless. Salt water spray does nothing. fewer fasteners means less potential for galvanic corrosion. If you manage to scratch up the finish you can sand or scotchbrite it back to pretty. My kind of truck.

You also can't make curved windows with armor glass (like the glass on your cellphone). It doesn't bend well because of the high internal stress and if you heat it up enough to bend you relieve some of the stress and weaken the glass. So flat windows. Which are a lot cheaper to make and easier to fit. The design palette suits the function and the materials. It has to look the way it does to be built this way.

The wing sides that make people gag are structural. They dramatically increase the overall rigidity without adding weight. And since the integrated tonneau runs along the top of the wing, will increase the height of what can be carried, covered, and secured.

I got a real kick out of people saying there are no tiedowns. See those stylish lines in the truck bed and sides? They're keyhole slots. The entire bed is one huge tiedown. And yes, you could use them to mount a rack.

My aluminum bodied F350 had less than 500 miles on it when I nudged a plastic trash bin out of my way and put a long dent in the soft aluminum door skin. I could nudge a dumpster out of the way with this thing.

Unibody means lots of room inside--both side to side and headroom. This thing seats six big guys with lots of head clearance and easy access to even the rear middle seat. The front middle seat converts to a huge console. People who got test rides said the interior size seemed like some kind of magic trick.

A few people seem to have figured out that this could be pretty cool. More than 200,000 preorders as of the 24th. Sure, it's only a hundred bucks instead of a thousand, but 200,000 people have said they want one. 200K times 50K is $10 Billion. That's ten percent of the total pickup truck market share. Two days after finally showing a prototype that is universally reviled on social media.

I'd wager if Tesla did a full court press and got this thing out before I turn 75 that even Bubba would buy it once he figured out that it will blow the doors off a Porsche and crawl over logs twice as high as his F150 will. And he'll never, ever have to go to a gas station again--not even to put air in the tires. the onboard compressor will do that.

[PonoBill]

There is always someone faster...love this clip

https://youtu.be/S7m3xyW5hbE?t=591

That was fun.

[Dusk Patrol]

... or maybe I'll just feed my soul with a '69 Chevelle...

[eastbound]

compelling

a big culture shock for me is that the thing is a damned big truck, yet itll blow doors off vettes and porsches

that's a lotta vehicle going 60mph in 3 seconds!

i am sure it will have amazing monster brakes--suspension/steering for that matter too

and yes, thou shalt not buy any combustion-powered devices again---if there isnt a superior electric-powered version of whatever you want, wait---there will be shortly

lawn tractors---atv's---dirt bikes---chain saws---cars---trucks--snow blowers

i am down to 2 2019 subaru foresters, so i am good car-wise for a while---and i yearn for more of a van format---but next transport vehicle will certainly be electric

i want to say i dont need something so big--but the problem i have with big is mostly alleviated by the superior efficiency of electric---so "big" is a concept that will adjust

still no facilities for nyc residents, tho im sure there will be chargers in the most expensive garages--for an add'l charge--those garage spaces already price up to >$1000 per month---for the oligarchs!! proles like me cant get no juice