Comment by dsfyu404ed
7 years ago
Not that it isn't fugly but I think they purposely do not want it to look like any other pickup because their target market includes a lot of people who don't like the image pickups often project.
A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles and I think this styling is to help get around that.
> A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles
Is this a fact in (I'm assuming) NorCal?
I'm in one of the parts of the country where everyone drives pickups, so it kind of boggles my mind.
Does no one tow or haul things there?
Not really.
I'm a well-compensated white collar professional in the bay area. I drive a 23yo bigass diesel pickup that I use for offroading, towing, hauling, camping, etc.
I don't get judged hard at all. Most folks thing it's quirky. I'd say I get judged more positively than not.
In NorCal outside of the bay area there are plenty of pickup trucks and the culture that goes with that.
I live in the same part of the country, and while everyone has a truck, I'd say about 1 out of 5 owners actually use them for utility purposes.
The rest are pristine showroom objects that have never even touched a gravel road, let alone dirt.
> The rest are pristine showroom objects that have never even touched a gravel road, let alone dirt.
And that haul one single person to the office and back every day at 12 MPG. Hooray.
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You don't need to own a pickup truck just because you need to haul or tow things three of five times per year. You can own a more economical car and rent a pickup if / when you need it.
fwiw I live in a place where everyone owns a pickup (I use mine to plow snow, pull a gravel dump trailer, and to collect large items from Costco) but I never hear of anyone renting a pickup. I'm sure it's possible somehow but I doubt you can just roll into Hertz and sign out an F-250..
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Norcal? The occasional toy hauler or boat. But no. For the most part they don't. Not that many trucks around tech buildings either.
Other parts of CA you'll get a lot of campers, boats, dirt bikes, mountain bikes... so yeah.
I'm a bay area pickup owner. Maybe everyone is judging me behind my back, but no one has ever said anything even slightly negative to my face.
Nah.
If anything I get asked if I'm a contractor.
I live in Norcal and had a little Toyota pickup. I had more than one lady from the city be very impressed "oooh a truck, its so manly!". Where Im from a little Tacoma truck is not really a truck. Truck culture is not really a city thing out here.
I doubt it was the size of the truck that impressed, but rather how you handled it. ;)
There are a few perks to being country in the city.
I've always refused to own a truck due to the "image" that people often have of pickup truck owners (which are everywhere here). I'd drive this.
Come now. Most of the people who drive pickups rarely if ever use them to tow or haul things. They drive pickups because driving anything else means you're gay, or communist, or smoke marijuana.
I know plenty of pot smoking gays that drive pickup trucks. Not sure of they're communist, but likely they have a socialist bent.
Judged for driving the WRONG type of pickup. Ford Raptors are quite popular with techy car folks cause they're "performance vehicles" so it indicates you aren't the wrong kind of person.
Also the older the truck, the more OK it is (ironic considering older trucks are horrible on gas mileage) because then its a quirky hipster thing.
Suppose thats kind of the point you're making though, they're building a pickup that has indicators that its OK for "classy" people to drive.
The risk with making your product mostly a fashion statement is that you may appeal to too few people or to many people but not enough for them to fork over $45K for the limited utility. Unlike the Raptor, the Cybertruck has no machismo. This truck will sell only if enough people are willing to buy into its singular sense of style way over its utility. That's a bold bet.
A more-useless-than-average truck (no bed capacity; a back seat w/ headroom for children only; difficulty refueling or getting repairs in the backcountry; very high center of gravity) will have limited appeal aside from the novelty from being the first to own one. But that will fade within year one of ownership. Then where will non-pickup owners find themselves? With an especially fashion-motivated vehicle that's no longer fashionable. Or useful. Strike three.
> A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles and I think this styling is to help get around that.
I think Tesla could've met that desire without making the truck look like a low-polygon model from a teenager who just learned to use Blender.
Tesla's design language from it's other models could have been smartly applied to a truck design and they would've had a winner.
I'd be curious to see a definition of "in some social circles". In particular, I'd like to see what parts of the country those social circles exist in.
Because I'm in Dallas, and wealthy white-collar professionals driving big pickup trucks is pretty normal here. I could point out several in my company's parking lot.
The kind of people who are worried about the image driving a truck will project upon them simply don't buy trucks. They'd rather buy a model Y or a Model X anyway.
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I think their motivations were more than that
- desire to explore a more radical design language for the company. They’ve had to be very conservative for past vehicles because Model S, Model 3, etc were programs that had to succeed or the company would fail. This is the first time they have some financial breathing room
- they likely prioritized ease of manufacturing over everything else. I think long term that’s where the company is going
- They really can use all the capacity they have planned for the next couple of years for Model Y. They just don’t have capacity to add a line at F-150 scale. I don’t even know where they will build it... not likely in Fremont. Maybe Berlin. Maybe in a new American factory? Either way, it’ll probably be one of the first programs in a new factory.
So, yes, I think they really do not want to sell a lot of these. And yes, they’d be happy with a tiny market amongst electric enthusiasts.