The Tesla Cybertruck is quite controversial, and it has seen both sides of human nature-love and hate. It has been loved extremely by people who get it’s craziness, and has received an incredible amount of hate by a lot of people. It is, whatever you think of it, an engineering marvel. And here’s why.
The Cybertruck uses a 48-volt system to run the car’s electricals. Conventional cars run on 12-volt systems, or a combination of 12-volt and 48-volt, in case of hybrids. This is a big engineering achievement, if you think it’s not significant. Car companies have been trying to make a completely 48-volt car for more than 50 years! You read that right. And Tesla did it, just like that. But what does a 48-volt system give you over a 12-volt? What are the benefits? Let me explain. When you increase the voltage, you also increase the amount of electrical current flowing through the system, that’s what Ohm’s law in Physics tells you. If you have more current, then you can use significantly lesser wiring in a car, so you can make wiring more reliable, less complex, make more space, and reduce weight, and reduce manufacturing costs. Conventional cars can only use 12-volt systems, and hybrids use a 48-volt along with it. That significantly increases wiring and complexity of the system. Tesla reduced the amount of wiring needed by a whopping 70 percent, just by using a 48-volt system. Also, Tesla Cybertruck is the first to have a steer-by-wire steering, where there is no physical connection between the steering wheel and the tires! And that steering works very well. The truck handles like a go-kart, is rock-solid stable at high speed, and gives quite good steering feel. Doing without a steering column opens up a lot of packaging possibilities. The truck is also extremely fast, makes around 800 horsepower in three-motor top trim, has proper off-road capability with mind-bending ground clearance, approach and departure angle numbers, and with the steer-by-wire, despite it’s huge size, is pretty easy to maneuver around tight parking spots and three-point turns. And, despite lack of traction, it performs a consistent 0-100 km/h acceleration time of around 2.6 seconds in top trim, and 3.9 seconds otherwise, and it can keep on accelerating that hard all day long. It is clearly designed to take a lot of abuse, and it’s pretty well-built and strong, designed to survive an apocalypse. It can handle a towing capacity of a whopping 7500-11000 pounds (3400-4980 kg)! Speaking of surviving apocalypses, it is probably one of the safest trucks out there. Not just because of Tesla’s technology and driver aids, but because it performed so well in the crash test, that it did better than what’s expected from a 5-star car. The testers were left baffled at how well the car performed. It’s because the truck was made of extremely hard steel, which is bulletproof (or so they say) and the exoskeleton (outer structure) is made of it. It is so strong, that you don’t need anything else. Also, it’s extremely aerodynamic, and not just in looks, but it’s actually aerodynamic, which helps you with a 400-550 km range, which is good for a big, heavy pick-up truck. Hats off to the engineers, who pulled this off. It’s sad that they will have to deal with a barrage of hate.
Let’s be honest, I don’t like the Cybertruck, and I don’t want it, because I don’t like it’s looks. I prefer something more conventional, like a Rivian R1T, Dodge Ram, or a Ford F-150 Raptor or F-250 Super Duty. But, the Cybertruck deserves credit for reinventing the automotive industry as a whole and taking us to the future.
