Yep. I've been on the reservation list for the B1 for what feels like forever (IIRC right around when it was first announced), figuring "this thing looks simple and minimalist enough that I'm sure Bollinger can keep the price reasonable".
Last month's MSRP announcement immediately dashed any desire to buy this vehicle new. Maybe some of these will hit the used market in a decade or so and I'll be able to swap out the aging batteries for whatever the latest-and-greatest is in 2030, but as it stands I ain't willing to take out a fucking mortgage for a pickup.
I've got my eye on the Atlis XT and the Cybertruck (in that order). Both seem to be very reasonably priced, though Altis is probably the bigger unknown. I've also got my eye on the DIY approach of converting an old pickup myself, though that'll have to wait until I've got a decent work space.
And considering it's the electric drivetrain that adds all the main features (performance, tow capacity, torque, electrical outlets, etc), they could easily close the gap with Tesla. It remains to be seen on how much people care about the styling and hardened steel body though.
Forgot range. Which depends on weight. Which is saved by the battery enclosure being a structural member of the vehicle. I think to make a decent electric truck it will take more than strapping some batteries under the box and swapping ice for electric.
Great looking - everything but the cutesy front headlights.
I'd slightly prefer a blacked out Tesla truck to that. The main problem with the front/back of the Cybertruck is the it's very flat and plain where even a licence plate or name decal would make it look better. But I have a feeling it will look better in person than online.
My thought process went something like, "Oh come on, how bad can they really be? I bet you could <clicks on link> just put... something... over... No. Nope, those are irredeemable."
There's an awful, awful lot of virtue signalling going on in all of these designs. Extra emphasis on the 'awful'.
While I did snicker at the thought of a Vantablack'ed Cybertruck, I think it'd be a dangerous vehicle to have on the roads - your visibility would be so low.
Likely a distinct lack of crossover between HN readers and the Land Rover Defender crowd that Bollinger looks like they are targeting. The main use case is for a ranch or large farm property. Probably great for the Caribbean as well. Would buy a Bollinger over a defender in a minute because it's a 30 year+ farm vehicle. Was really excited to read about them.
Could see people balking at the $125k price tag, but at that price point there is already a mass market for dated german sedans and artifacts of imagined british nostalgia supported by a hackneyed movie franchise. Something useful and durable would be a relief.
why would you buy this over a 4runner or tacoma for a large farm property? (or the new defender)
i am curious and kind of skeptical that electric vehicles will ever get the longevity of combustion engine toyotas and such, given the nascent battery technology. am i wrong? will a Model S outlast a Subaru?
Figure you will be able to swap in new battery tech in 10 years. The price point is mainly about aesthetics and ideas, so the practical argument is mainly self justification for me.
Personally, I'd imagine powering a Bollinger from a power wall and generator connected to a biogas digester that runs off the muck pile of a small horse or dairy farm.
> Personally, I'd imagine powering a Bollinger from a power wall and generator connected to a biogas digester that runs off the muck pile of a small horse or dairy farm.
If you control the timing of the supply of energy via the burning of the biodigested muck, why go through the Powerwall? The Bollinger's battery is 10x the capacity of the Powerwall. If you charge it directly from your generator, you don't have to pay the round trip charging losses of the Powerwall.
The only reason to use the Powerwall is to exploit solar power by charging the Powerwall during the day, and then drawing upon it at night to charge the truck.
Also note that according to this article [1] from Penn State University, all the reclaimable energy from dairy cow waste in Pennsylvania would only provide for 20% of energy used on Pennsylvania dairy farms. So it's not like there is going to be a surplus of electricity to charge your car. It would make more sense to use the biogas directly for the dairy operation, because you can potentially use both the electricity and heat from burning biogas to, for example, heat and power the cow sheds in winter, vs using that electricity to power a truck. The truck could get its electricity directly from solar, or from the grid.
Excellent paper. Given how much muck a 5-10 horse barn generates (which self heats with animal body heat) and the daily periodic loading of the digester would enable continuous low level of electricity generation, which makes the problem electricity storage, not generation.
(assuming passive solar and geothermal + modern wood stove heated house, with option for propane backup)
It's a question of what we're optimizing for. To me the priorities would be, animal waste/muck reuse, power outage risk, then with normal conditions handled by a grid hookup, which is mandatory for code in many jurisdictions anyway.
I figured a powerwall would operate as an electricity storage scheme to use for either household or Bollinger truck use. The cutover from powering one to the other is nothing an Arduino and some relays and other cots equipment couldn't handle. Fun to solution this. If you have the liquid capital to build a new passive solar and geothermal house on land, $125k for a vehicle is about par for the course anyway.
Electric motors are robust and can last decades. The battery will fade but can be replaced.
The real issue is the software and electronics which all modern cars are suffering from. It's becoming increasingly difficult to own them out of warranty when they're all digital and need complex and proprietary software to keep running.
Sounds like a use case for multiple distribution venues, like an added hard media option.
That is: the vehicle interface needn’t change but for a software upgrade that allows complete firmware upgrades through that interface from an “injection”, so to speak when the vehicle becomes... “outdated” or “obsolete”.
I understand the first problem with this is all kinds of ugly hacks (breaking existing traffic regulations) a malicious attack vector... but it seems like if you had the option to fix a problem by buying an existing patch for a used vehicle that never had it applied before you bought it [and after the vehicle had been discontinued] then you’d have something of a continuance model at least.
I’m sure there are other holes in that thought, but I think it should be workable technologically—my concern would be the business end that decides it’s detrimental to profit margins and whatever exponential growth may have been promised. (Ie: “they should just buy a new car”)
Your comment is the first time I’ve ever heard this very real problem. I’m sure it’s been promoted before and I’m curious to know how you came to it, and how it differs from other modern vehicles that also use systems-critical software.
It's not unique to Tesla. All modern cars have connectors which over-the-air updates just ride on top of. The issue is manufacturers not creating updates and limiting access with proprietary equipment for delivering those updates. This is all done to force consumers to buy new or only go to the manufacturer for repairs (for as long as they're offered). They won't even sell parts, tools or schematics for you to even attempt it on your own and are starting to cut out independent shops too.
This issue is widespread in other industries from farm equipment to consumer electronics. Mechanical components are easily reverse engineered and have tons of aftermarket and independent shops, but this is magnitudes harder with digital devices and software, especially without access to any of the original equipment and diagrams. It's like trying to rebuild a computer chip by looking at nothing but the motherboard it's placed on. Practically impossible.
Consumers want a "right to repair" (which is the name for a lot of the legal bills pushing for access) but it's unfortunately not getting much political support due to lobbying. For more info, check out Rich Rebuilds [1] who repairs salvaged Tesla's and is starting his own independent shop. There's also Louis Rossman [2] who repairs Apple devices and has updates on the recent legislation for personal devices.
Looking on dashboard, this thing looks like it doesn't need tons of software besides motor control. We now have open-source controllers with over 100kW power, in 15 years probably someone will make bigger version for this truck and fix it if it's broken.
Am I the only one who notices that you can't throw a board in the bed without strapping it because all of the modern trucks have 6 ft beds instead of 8 ft?
The Bollinger has a pass-through opening through the cab (between the seats) and into the front cargo area under the hood. Obviously you can't fit a whole skid of 2x4s in there, but you can fit some really long stuff that pickup trucks otherwise can't really handle.
Edit: the linked page says it can fit 40 2x4s through the pass-through, and 72 sheets of half-inch plywood when the rear seats are removed. Also, with the tailgate down, it can carry 19' material fully supported.
This was actually one of the reasons I ended up going with a (hybrid) RAV4 instead of a smaller pickup. I don't need a pickup for durability reasons (98% of the time I'm on paved surface), but I do need a way to move board as I do a fair bit of carpentry. In the RAV4 I can put the seats down and fit plenty of 8+ ft anything as long as it's not wider than the front passenger seat + center console. Most pickups in the price range I could afford had only 3.5 to 4.5 foot beds, since crew cabs have eaten all of our small trucks, while a few others had "almost" 6 ft.
Major downside of the RAV is I can't fit 4x8 sheets of anything and I don't have a tailgate to drop to make it work. In those cases I just find a friend with a larger vehicle who is available instead, or if I don't need the sheets to be whole I have them ripped at the lumberyard where I bought them.
The moveable wall and full passthrough in this B2 truck looks like a really good deal.
well, for really long stuff, pickup people with 6ft beds get ladder racks. with 8-10ft boards I just leave the tailgate up and put the boards in there at an angle. If I need to get on the highway, a single ratchet strap ensures they don't move around. personally, I had an 8 ft pickup, and I don't really think the day to day is that much different.
With longer stuff - 14-16ft trim, or 20ft sticks of steel, you're basically stuck with ladder racks anyway, so no big deal.
A ladder rack on a small truck vs having a real, functional rack on an SUV might be good either way.
Interesting how dated it looks after the Tesla announcement, ugly as the Cybertruck is. Wheels, door panels, steering wheel, everything looks a bit too traditional. Maybe that was one of their goals, but will be a shame if it ends up driving healthy competitors out of business.
It's too bad we won't see a new electric light pickup (i.e. Ranger, Dakota) with a 7 foot bed anytime soon. Hopefully the conversion market will catch up.
I'm no MechE or machinist, but I do bang out parts on a mill / lathe on a regular basis, and I've noticed a huge disconnect between the shop attitude towards Steel / Aluminum / Titanium and the public attitude.
==== In the Shop ====
Aluminum is the "newbie" metal: cheap, light, soft, weak, easy (to machine, to protect from corrosion).
Steel is the "adult" metal: strong and resilient, but heavy and requires more care to machine, heat treat, and protect from corrosion.
Titanium is the "pro" metal: as strong as steel and as light as aluminum. Expensive and difficult to machine, though.
DISCLAIMER: These are all gigantic simplifications. Alloy, heat treatment, mass/volume denominators, coatings, geometry, and economic considerations can absolutely upset this ordering.
I thought the public view of titanium was similar to adamantium or unobtanium. It's not an option because it's too expensive to use in a "normal" car. It's something that gets used in 100k+ supercars and formula 1 cars.
I suspect anyone into cars, bikes, or aircraft is aware of titanium's status as a paragon material, but the general public is less informed than that. I regularly see people miss the implication of an Al -> Ti or Ti -> Al material substitution and I semi-regularly see Al and Ti confused outright. It seems almost sacrilegious to someone in-the-know, but most people just don't seem to know or care. As far as they are concerned, aluminum is titanium is aluminum is titanium. Shrug.
The Tesla Cybertruck and this are built by people who don't drive pickups and don't know why people really drive pickups. $125k and can only tow half of what a $30k F-150 can? For real?
Half tons by the 2021 model year will be pushing 15,000 lbs. towing capacity. The last 5 years have seen almost a 50% increase. The market has responded really well. People want a half ton (ride characteristics and price) that can tow like a 3/4 ton.
No one who doesn't tow, actually gives a shit about towing capacity. With gas engines, towing = torque = power = horsepower = acceleration in the ads.
The casual F-150 driver who throws some bikes or a grass pallet in the back doesn't need 15,000 lbs of towing. They like that the truck moves quickly and can haul their 3,500 lb boat.
I think the price/performance of the Tesla kicks the shit out of this vehicle, but there are markets for most things.
* a bed to carry bikes and coolers and bulky shit
* the acceleration of a sports car
* the ability to go over a curb without messing up the vehicle
It is just a bit too expensive for me (I spent $25k on a car six years ago and I plan to hold on to it for another 4) but if I were in the market for a $40-50k truck, I would look at this and the Ram offroad similarly.
> I'm trying to figure out who exactly the cybertruck is for
It's for the same people who buy most pickups and SUVs now - i.e. not tradespeople or people on farms. Instead most of these will spend their time sitting in gridlocked traffic on the way to and from the office or shopping mall in places like Dallas, Silicon Valley, New Jersey. Pickup trucks are very versatile vehicles, and we live in a society where people like to carry lots of stuff with them, whether or not they truly need to.
A few weekends a year, the cargo space will be filled with gear to go glamping or skiing (hence the glamping scene on the cybertruck website), or other upper middle class pursuit, but more frequently visiting a winery or other rural tourist attraction. A few other weekends, it will carry bags of mulch from the garden center, or the kids' bikes.
I'm not mocking those use cases. Minus the gridlock traffic to work (I'm lucky - I take a train), that pretty much describes what my family uses our small SUV for now.
If you tow that much with a half ton it's not ideal (or even smart), because even though it can tow that much it's not particularly good at it. I own a vehicle that can tow 11,000lbs in a half ton format and it's nothing when compared to towing with a similar model 3/4 ton variant. 1/2 ton trucks are designed for the occasional tow of recreational vehicles and light duty trailers. I would never tow anything over 10k lbs even though my vehicle was rated at it. A half ton towing 6-7k lbs is a heavy load and it's getting a bit ridiculous that auto manufacturers are putting ideas in people's heads that 1/2 ton trucks are direct replacements for a 3/4 or full ton vehicle. Suspension, transmission and drivetrain in a half ton are designed first and foremost for comfort these days. They are not full time tow vehicles and they don't tow like 3/4 ton trucks. At some point the NHTSA is going to need to step in and put limits on what 1/2 tons are limited to towing because it's becoming dangerous. For those who don't know the rating is mostly the GVWR of the truck. In simple terms that means the GVWR of a 3/4 ton truck is 1.5x that of a 1/2 ton truck. That is a huge difference and for those who have done a lot of towing in their lives it's night and day in terms of tow performance all around. Acceleration, braking, sway control, visibility, handling under load, etc.
The Cyber Truck is 1000-1500lbs heavier than an F150 (depending on models/options). Weight is a huge factor in towing as you need a heavier tow vehicle as your tow weight increases, otherwise you lose handling characteristics when said trailer starts to push and pull on the tow vehicle through normal (and abnormal) driving circumstances.
The added weight of the Cyber Truck will actually help it in terms of stability during towing and, in many cases, it will likely tow better than most half ton trucks currently on the market. I'm curious to see how it plays out in reality. And your points help as well - since trucks are naturally higher CG vehicles the batteries are also going to be a competitive advantage in making it more nimble all around. I'd happily trade my current tow vehicle for something that can do 500 miles towing 6k lbs. That would cover 95% of my use cases I have a tow vehicle for in the first place.
That's a good point about the extra weight of the Cyber Truck which I wasn't aware of and yes, I can see how that all translates into better towing characteristics all around.
Right, so I assume that an F-150 that's rated for 14,000 lbs towing a 6,000 lb camper is safe. I do this for about 15,000 miles a year. I've had no problems, but I wouldn't want to tow much heavier of a load.
Which makes me wonder how much is that Tesla (that at the lowest end is rated for 7,000 lbs) actually safe to tow? I'm going to guess it's a lot less than 7,000 lbs.
And the higher-end models just have more pulling power, and I guess they weigh a bit more due to the battery.
> The Tesla Cybertruck and this are built by people who don't drive pickups and don't know why people really drive pickups. $125k and can only tow half of what a $30k F-150 can? For real?
Why do you think towing is so critical? The point of a pickup is that the load carrying is integral - that's what the bed in the back is for. If you're towing you don't need a pickup.
Because I have watched the big 3 wage a towing capacity war over the last five years and buyers have really responded. Market shares have grown and shrunk in lockstep with towing capacity.
It's perhaps not rational. Only 25% of pickup owners tow more than once a year. But, people buy sports cars based on 0-60 times they'll never hit more than once or twice when they first get the car. People don't buy a Porsche because they drive at 250 mph all the time, they buy it because it can even though they never do, and I think towing capacity is similar for pickups.
I think if I was spending this much on a truck, I'd rather they provided 110/220V AC rather than a USB-C socket. Much wider capability and compatibility.
Because USB standards progress so rapidly and standard AC sockets don't. There's also the durability issue. A standard AC socket is easy to wire/replace, a USB socket isn't.
USB-A has been around well over 20 years and C will likely to stay more. Sure the car will last way longer, but there are tons of much more gimmicky stuff being added (most obvious one is infotainment that will be obsolete in 3 years).
I like that it has a very "DIY" aesthetic, almost like a custom vehicle, and there's nothing about the design that screams "I'm an EV!" unlike some of the other EVs out there. The square design would blend in with other vehicles from the 70s.
The simple dashboard (like a lot of custom cars, e.g. http://www.fastlanerodshop.com/George34ford/George34ford_das... ) with an actual analogue speedometer is nice too. I wonder if it's mechanically driven and thus wouldn't even need the truck to be "on" to work. Hopefully the whole vehicle is as serviceable as it looks --- the lack of any huge touchscreen is a good sign that there's probably not a DRM-encrusted computer controlling everything, although I doubt it has "true old-school" analog motor electronics either.
71 comments
[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 165 ms ] threadLast month's MSRP announcement immediately dashed any desire to buy this vehicle new. Maybe some of these will hit the used market in a decade or so and I'll be able to swap out the aging batteries for whatever the latest-and-greatest is in 2030, but as it stands I ain't willing to take out a fucking mortgage for a pickup.
I've got my eye on the Atlis XT and the Cybertruck (in that order). Both seem to be very reasonably priced, though Altis is probably the bigger unknown. I've also got my eye on the DIY approach of converting an old pickup myself, though that'll have to wait until I've got a decent work space.
And considering it's the electric drivetrain that adds all the main features (performance, tow capacity, torque, electrical outlets, etc), they could easily close the gap with Tesla. It remains to be seen on how much people care about the styling and hardened steel body though.
https://rivian.com/
I'd slightly prefer a blacked out Tesla truck to that. The main problem with the front/back of the Cybertruck is the it's very flat and plain where even a licence plate or name decal would make it look better. But I have a feeling it will look better in person than online.
I think I agree. I feel like it'd like it better if the headlights were inset as vertical stripes rather than rounded.
There's an awful, awful lot of virtue signalling going on in all of these designs. Extra emphasis on the 'awful'.
But to be fair, it is a farm truck not for running kids to school. It has quite a bit more payload capacity (3500 vs 5000 lbs)
Could see people balking at the $125k price tag, but at that price point there is already a mass market for dated german sedans and artifacts of imagined british nostalgia supported by a hackneyed movie franchise. Something useful and durable would be a relief.
i am curious and kind of skeptical that electric vehicles will ever get the longevity of combustion engine toyotas and such, given the nascent battery technology. am i wrong? will a Model S outlast a Subaru?
Personally, I'd imagine powering a Bollinger from a power wall and generator connected to a biogas digester that runs off the muck pile of a small horse or dairy farm.
If you control the timing of the supply of energy via the burning of the biodigested muck, why go through the Powerwall? The Bollinger's battery is 10x the capacity of the Powerwall. If you charge it directly from your generator, you don't have to pay the round trip charging losses of the Powerwall.
The only reason to use the Powerwall is to exploit solar power by charging the Powerwall during the day, and then drawing upon it at night to charge the truck.
Also note that according to this article [1] from Penn State University, all the reclaimable energy from dairy cow waste in Pennsylvania would only provide for 20% of energy used on Pennsylvania dairy farms. So it's not like there is going to be a surplus of electricity to charge your car. It would make more sense to use the biogas directly for the dairy operation, because you can potentially use both the electricity and heat from burning biogas to, for example, heat and power the cow sheds in winter, vs using that electricity to power a truck. The truck could get its electricity directly from solar, or from the grid.
1. https://extension.psu.edu/biogas-from-manure
(assuming passive solar and geothermal + modern wood stove heated house, with option for propane backup)
It's a question of what we're optimizing for. To me the priorities would be, animal waste/muck reuse, power outage risk, then with normal conditions handled by a grid hookup, which is mandatory for code in many jurisdictions anyway.
I figured a powerwall would operate as an electricity storage scheme to use for either household or Bollinger truck use. The cutover from powering one to the other is nothing an Arduino and some relays and other cots equipment couldn't handle. Fun to solution this. If you have the liquid capital to build a new passive solar and geothermal house on land, $125k for a vehicle is about par for the course anyway.
In that case, compressing the biogas I to tanks might be a cheaper and higher capacity energy storage solution than a Powerwall.
The real issue is the software and electronics which all modern cars are suffering from. It's becoming increasingly difficult to own them out of warranty when they're all digital and need complex and proprietary software to keep running.
That is: the vehicle interface needn’t change but for a software upgrade that allows complete firmware upgrades through that interface from an “injection”, so to speak when the vehicle becomes... “outdated” or “obsolete”.
I understand the first problem with this is all kinds of ugly hacks (breaking existing traffic regulations) a malicious attack vector... but it seems like if you had the option to fix a problem by buying an existing patch for a used vehicle that never had it applied before you bought it [and after the vehicle had been discontinued] then you’d have something of a continuance model at least.
I’m sure there are other holes in that thought, but I think it should be workable technologically—my concern would be the business end that decides it’s detrimental to profit margins and whatever exponential growth may have been promised. (Ie: “they should just buy a new car”)
Your comment is the first time I’ve ever heard this very real problem. I’m sure it’s been promoted before and I’m curious to know how you came to it, and how it differs from other modern vehicles that also use systems-critical software.
This issue is widespread in other industries from farm equipment to consumer electronics. Mechanical components are easily reverse engineered and have tons of aftermarket and independent shops, but this is magnitudes harder with digital devices and software, especially without access to any of the original equipment and diagrams. It's like trying to rebuild a computer chip by looking at nothing but the motherboard it's placed on. Practically impossible.
Consumers want a "right to repair" (which is the name for a lot of the legal bills pushing for access) but it's unfortunately not getting much political support due to lobbying. For more info, check out Rich Rebuilds [1] who repairs salvaged Tesla's and is starting his own independent shop. There's also Louis Rossman [2] who repairs Apple devices and has updates on the recent legislation for personal devices.
1. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfV0_wbjG8KJADuZT2ct4SA
2. https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup
Edit: the linked page says it can fit 40 2x4s through the pass-through, and 72 sheets of half-inch plywood when the rear seats are removed. Also, with the tailgate down, it can carry 19' material fully supported.
Major downside of the RAV is I can't fit 4x8 sheets of anything and I don't have a tailgate to drop to make it work. In those cases I just find a friend with a larger vehicle who is available instead, or if I don't need the sheets to be whole I have them ripped at the lumberyard where I bought them.
The moveable wall and full passthrough in this B2 truck looks like a really good deal.
With longer stuff - 14-16ft trim, or 20ft sticks of steel, you're basically stuck with ladder racks anyway, so no big deal.
A ladder rack on a small truck vs having a real, functional rack on an SUV might be good either way.
But all aluminium body in that squary shape? That seems like asking to be dented. I wonder what aluminium alloy they use (and how thick it is).
Can any real mechanical engineer comment on that?
==== In the Shop ====
Aluminum is the "newbie" metal: cheap, light, soft, weak, easy (to machine, to protect from corrosion).
Steel is the "adult" metal: strong and resilient, but heavy and requires more care to machine, heat treat, and protect from corrosion.
Titanium is the "pro" metal: as strong as steel and as light as aluminum. Expensive and difficult to machine, though.
DISCLAIMER: These are all gigantic simplifications. Alloy, heat treatment, mass/volume denominators, coatings, geometry, and economic considerations can absolutely upset this ordering.
==== In Public ====
Aluminum is the space age advanced metal.
Steel is obsolete.
Titanium is Aluminum.
I thought the public view of titanium was similar to adamantium or unobtanium. It's not an option because it's too expensive to use in a "normal" car. It's something that gets used in 100k+ supercars and formula 1 cars.
Half tons by the 2021 model year will be pushing 15,000 lbs. towing capacity. The last 5 years have seen almost a 50% increase. The market has responded really well. People want a half ton (ride characteristics and price) that can tow like a 3/4 ton.
The casual F-150 driver who throws some bikes or a grass pallet in the back doesn't need 15,000 lbs of towing. They like that the truck moves quickly and can haul their 3,500 lb boat.
I think the price/performance of the Tesla kicks the shit out of this vehicle, but there are markets for most things.
I'm trying to figure out who exactly the cybertruck is for - it reminds me of the Pontiac Aztek.
* a bed to carry bikes and coolers and bulky shit * the acceleration of a sports car * the ability to go over a curb without messing up the vehicle
It is just a bit too expensive for me (I spent $25k on a car six years ago and I plan to hold on to it for another 4) but if I were in the market for a $40-50k truck, I would look at this and the Ram offroad similarly.
It's for the same people who buy most pickups and SUVs now - i.e. not tradespeople or people on farms. Instead most of these will spend their time sitting in gridlocked traffic on the way to and from the office or shopping mall in places like Dallas, Silicon Valley, New Jersey. Pickup trucks are very versatile vehicles, and we live in a society where people like to carry lots of stuff with them, whether or not they truly need to.
A few weekends a year, the cargo space will be filled with gear to go glamping or skiing (hence the glamping scene on the cybertruck website), or other upper middle class pursuit, but more frequently visiting a winery or other rural tourist attraction. A few other weekends, it will carry bags of mulch from the garden center, or the kids' bikes.
I'm not mocking those use cases. Minus the gridlock traffic to work (I'm lucky - I take a train), that pretty much describes what my family uses our small SUV for now.
The added weight of the Cyber Truck will actually help it in terms of stability during towing and, in many cases, it will likely tow better than most half ton trucks currently on the market. I'm curious to see how it plays out in reality. And your points help as well - since trucks are naturally higher CG vehicles the batteries are also going to be a competitive advantage in making it more nimble all around. I'd happily trade my current tow vehicle for something that can do 500 miles towing 6k lbs. That would cover 95% of my use cases I have a tow vehicle for in the first place.
Which makes me wonder how much is that Tesla (that at the lowest end is rated for 7,000 lbs) actually safe to tow? I'm going to guess it's a lot less than 7,000 lbs.
And the higher-end models just have more pulling power, and I guess they weigh a bit more due to the battery.
Why do you think towing is so critical? The point of a pickup is that the load carrying is integral - that's what the bed in the back is for. If you're towing you don't need a pickup.
It's perhaps not rational. Only 25% of pickup owners tow more than once a year. But, people buy sports cars based on 0-60 times they'll never hit more than once or twice when they first get the car. People don't buy a Porsche because they drive at 250 mph all the time, they buy it because it can even though they never do, and I think towing capacity is similar for pickups.
The simple dashboard (like a lot of custom cars, e.g. http://www.fastlanerodshop.com/George34ford/George34ford_das... ) with an actual analogue speedometer is nice too. I wonder if it's mechanically driven and thus wouldn't even need the truck to be "on" to work. Hopefully the whole vehicle is as serviceable as it looks --- the lack of any huge touchscreen is a good sign that there's probably not a DRM-encrusted computer controlling everything, although I doubt it has "true old-school" analog motor electronics either.