Tesla Cybertruck Went From Exoskeleton Marvel to Unibody Honda Ridgeline Competitor

When he introduced the Cybertruck, Elon Musk disclosed it would have a stressed-skin design with an exoskeleton that would be a revolution in vehicle manufacturing. This was the reason for the electric pickup truck to have ultra-hard stainless steel exterior panels in the first place. The Tesla CEO even invited Franz von Holzhausen on stage to hit the Cybertruck with a dead blow hammer – Musk said it was a sledgehammer, but that was not true. In the Tesla CEO's words, "the body and the bed don't do anything useful" in a body-on-frame construction: "They are carried like cargo, like a sack of potatoes."

An exoskeleton pickup truck would have "the stress moved to the outside skin." Several people believed that promise – myself included. I interviewed stressed-skin structure specialists and engineers. Everybody was excited by the perspective of a truck that saved weight and still delivered everything a body-on-frame competitor did.

Electric vehicles face a literally massive issue with weight due to their battery packs. If Tesla managed to reduce mass with a stressed-skin structure, the Cybertruck would have a fantastic headstart against its competitors: it could present the same capabilities with a more extended range and better performance. After all, lighter vehicles also accelerate faster.

That was just the most significant promise the Cybertruck made. It would also have a groundbreaking new cell with a structural battery pack that we still knew little about at the time. Its wiring harness system would be simpler and much lighter than in the current vehicles. Finally, Tesla had patented two new windshield wiper systems: one using lasers and one powered by an electromagnetic moving block that would make the wiper move only horizontally.

In 2019, the Cybertruck still had the possibility of being the first electric pickup truck to reach the market, but the BEV maker failed to develop it at the pace it predicted it would. The first competitor to reach its customers was the Rivian R1T, followed by the GMC Hummer EV and the Ford F-150 Lightning. All of them are body-on-frame vehicles. The Cybertruck was definitely not the first, but it could at least be the best.

That hope only lasted long because Tesla took more years than expected to develop the Cybertruck. It promised its first customers would receive it in 2021. At least they are not in the same boat as second-generation Roadster buyers, announced in 2017. Some of them already paid $250,000 for a vehicle that should have arrived in 2020.

The promises started to shatter – just like the Cybertruck window – when Tesla disclosed the 4680 cells. The first analysis revealed it was nothing more than a bigger and ordinary NMC 811 cell. The structural battery pack is not repairable, which means that you just throw it on a shredder to recycle the elements should anything fail. The Model Y uses a smaller version of the structural battery pack the Cybertruck was supposed to introduce. A while later, a Cybertruck prototype showed a humongous and conventional windshield wiper moving as they all do.

In its Q1 2023 Update report, Tesla disclosed images of the Tesla Cybertruck pilot production line. They were enough for Cory Steuben, from Munro Live, to clarify that the Cybertruck does not have an exoskeleton. The engineer candidly shared in an interview that we are in front of a unibody structure. In other words, it "will be more like a Honda Ridgeline" or "a big old Model Y." Towing and transporting stuff in the bed will face massive challenges due to the way the truck will be built.

In February 2021, I interviewed Sandy Munro about the use of massive castings in the Cybetruck. The engineer told me the vehicle would have a unique structure, possibly similar to the one the i3 presented. While the BMW had an aluminum frame and a carbon-fiber body installed over it, Tesla's electric pickup truck would have an aluminum frame with a stressed-skin body on top. The images Tesla disclosed deny that.

The body structure is complete. The only difference Steuben could point out was a "fastening strategy just below the windshield" – check the "tiny little circles" in the image. The bent stainless steel panels will just be attached to the body structure. In other words, the Cybetruck will just carry them "like a sack of potatoes." Steuben sums it up like this:

"This is an evolution of the design philosophy of Tesla applied to a truck. It'd be like if you took the Model Y from Texas and said: 'Let's make this thing a truck.'"

For a vehicle that would be a manufacturing revolution, being a larger Model Y and a competitor to the Ford Maverick, Honda Ridgeline, and other unibody pickup trucks is nothing short of frustrating. Cybertruck buyers may start praying that it at least has a decent range and reasonable towing and cargo capacities.