When Tesla unveiled its vision for an electric truck in November 2019, it shocked the world. The Cybertruck, that includes an unconventional design and clad in a customized chrome steel alloy, was equally fascinating and divisive. Originally slated for a 2021 launch, the corporate has struggled to get the truck to market, with Musk repeatedly emphasizing how tough constructing it has been. Nearly 4 years later, it is lastly right here, with the first deliveries taking place at the end of November.
Now Tesla should cope with scaling manufacturing, one thing that has traditionally confirmed tough for the electrical carmaker. And the Cybertruck’s distinctive design introduces a plethora of recent challenges. Chief amongst them is its use of chrome steel.
“Stainless metal is powerful to software for. It’s powerful to work with. And this is in some methods a very big experiment” says John Voelcker, Contributing Editor for Car and Driver Magazine.
Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, revealed in an interview with Top Gear that Telsa had to invent a producing course of referred to as “air bending” which shapes the metal with excessive air stress with out really touching the floor. The thickness of the metal and the flat, angular design additionally contribute to the challenges, particularly with regard to mass manufacturing.
“Stainless metal…if you minimize it, all of the errors principally present up, when you’ve gotten a flat airplane like that, it is actually hard to conceal errors,” says Mike Ramsey, VP Team Manager for Automotive and Transportation at Gartner.
In late August, Elon Musk sent an email to Tesla employees stating, “due to the character of Cybertruck, which is manufactured from shiny metallic with largely straight edges, any dimensional variation exhibits up like a sore thumb” and emphasised that every one components of for the car “want to be designed and constructed to sub 10 micron accuracy.”
During the corporate’s third quarter earnings name, Musk tempered expectations for the new vehicle. “I do need to emphasize there will probably be huge challenges in reaching quantity with the Cybertruck,” and mentioned it can take a 12 months or longer earlier than it is a “important optimistic money stream contributor.”
Watch the video to study why the Cybertruck is so hard to manufacture and what Tesla is up towards as it really works to scale manufacturing.