Add One More Flaw to the Tesla Cybertruck's Long List: Rear Doors That Can't Close

The youtuber defines himself on Elon Musk's social media as "interested in all things space(-)related, SpaceX, Tesla, Firefly, Rocketlab, Relativity, Flying & more!" His YouTube channel posts updates on Giga Austin, where the Cybertruck will be built. One of the purposes of his latest video is to show the "Rainmaker," a cabin that helps Tesla perform leakage tests in its finished vehicles. According to Tegtmeyer, it was installed around a year ago. The surprising bit – or perhaps predictable, considering we are talking about Tesla – is that the structure is in a parking lot. If you start watching the video without knowing the location, you'll believe you are looking at the Fremont factory and its tents.

The "test track" screams "temporary," with plastic bumps and rumble strips on the way to the Rainmaker. If you pay attention to the electric pickup truck's body movement, you'll have the impression that the suspension is very, very stiff. Tegtmeyer praises how tight the turning radius of the Cybertruck is while it maneuvers to enter the leakage cabin. It does not take long for it to stop right at the access ramp.

The driver steps down, and you can see the video was cut, probably to speed things up even more than the video footage already is accelerated. Soon after that, the driver appears slamming the left rear door. It does not close. He then uses his body weight to try to shut it. It does not work. A colleague with a vest and a cap approaches while the driver enters the Cybertruck again to move the vehicle over the ramp. It is as if he tried to put the electric pickup truck in a more even terrain so that the door would close. That makes us wonder about body rigidity and geometry issues, something that Tesla is not very good at. Several spontaneous window-shattering episodes may have been caused by torsional stress.

After the driver gets the Cybertruck in the position he wants, his colleague tries to close the rear left door. He fails and uselessly insists on forcing the door to shut. The man with the cap then moves away from the electric pickup truck, seems to complain about the issue by opening his arms, and gets back to give it another try. As the result is the same, the man with the cap leaves the vehicle, and the driver opens the door wide, probably to try to understand what is happening that does not allow it to close.

Tegtmeyer suggests these guys were doing "preliminary work" to put the Cybertruck inside the Rainmaker, but that's not the correct explanation. All the vehicles in this "test track" are production-ready and preparing for delivery. If the electric pickup truck were put to the test with a rear door that does not close, its interior would be flooded. The youtuber acknowledges that he did not see the Cybertruck enter the leakage-test cabin. The video shows he moved away when he realized the pickup truck would not move so soon.

It is worth checking the video to see everything I described above with your own eyes. The part that really matters starts after five minutes, so feel free to fast-forward it to that point. As much as anyone may try to interpret that in a more positive light, it will be inevitable to recognize that all that movement has a simple explanation: something does not allow the rear left door in this Cybertruck unit to close.

It could be something limited to a single unit or a more widespread problem, which we will only fully grasp when the deliveries of the electric pickup truck kick off. However, there are several signs that the second hypothesis is the most likely.

In June, the Tesla Files revealed that the electric pickup truck had "suspension, body sealing, noise levels, handling, and braking" problems to solve. The new footage shows some of the issues with the alpha prototypes may still be lurking around. If the Cybertruck on the "test track" was a production unit – as everything suggests it was – the first owners are in for a wild ride. Too bad that Tesla only decided to hire new dimensional engineers last September.

In August, Elon Musk sent a message to Tesla's employees stating that he wanted the Cybertruck to have sub-10-micron accuracy. For a vehicle that would eventually see its first deliveries in November, that was on a more-than-short notice. As someone who said in April 2022 that he knew "more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive on Earth," he should know better – in other words, that the automotive industry demands much more time than three months to achieve what he asked. Not even the Trabant workers in the video embedded below could solve that.

Joking aside, It will not take long for us to confirm if other Cybertrucks also have issues, such as the one this unit visiting the Rainmaker presented. They may also have the problems Handelsblatt disclosed in June if they were not ironed out. Considering the extensive list of flaws this vehicle already has, adding doors that fail to close properly would not surprise anyone.