The dust is starting to settle as everyone has had time to process what exactly Tesla head Elon Musk has unleashed on the world with the new Tesla Cybertruck. Tesla's newest all electric is aiming for the king of the hill in terms of car sales. Pickups have dominated the top three slots in terms of sales for years, with each entry good for around half a million units each.

At the soft end of that spectrum is electric car sales. With all the hype around the various announcements of electric cars entering the market and being announced, electric automobiles still account for only 2% of the market. Prior to Tesla and the introduction of their long range electric sedans and Model X SUV, electric cars were functionally non-existent in the market. The closest consumers could get were economy boxes fitted with both electric motors and gasoline engines providing the main source of power.

The question remains, can the Tesla magic continue? More obituaries have been written for Tesla than there have been for Rock & Roll. Every year sees another collection of opinion pieces predicting the impending collapse of the Silicon Valley automaker.

Tesla lineup of vehicles
via electrek.co

The arguments sound convincing. Tesla has very few quarters where they take in more than they spend as they have gone from product launch to product launch. The Roadster led to the Model S which was followed by the falcon doored Model X and the 'affordable' Model 3. The Cybertruck follows other big play announcements including the Tesla Class 8 'Semi' truck and the CUV Model Y. With that many irons in the fire Tesla has finally said it will cool it with new vehicle releases while it sees if the gambles pay out.

The Cybertruck is certainly a gamble. If there was one mission founder Musk had that everyone can agree was achieved, it's that the Cybertruck looks like nothing else out there. The wild and retro science fiction design is as divisive as the brand itself, already one that people love to love or love to hate.

It also comes with the now expected elements of Tesla rethinking everything about cars. Sometimes it's something like the large tablet display that centers all of the car controls that has become standard on everyone else's electric offerings. Sometimes it's head scratchers like the 'falcon doors' on the back of the Model X.

via motor1.com

The Tesla truck is also tough. In fact, it might be too tough. The truck is made with a bullet resistant stainless unibody reminiscent of the DeLorean. At the reveal Musk demonstrated the truck's ability to take a sledgehammer to the side. Which is impressive. But it might miss the point of modern car design.

The first problem is that modern crash safety requires a car to give, what we know as 'crumple zones.' In essence, the car has to give way to absorb kinetic energy. Obviously Musk isn't unaware of this requirement, but we haven't seen crash safety reports that give us an idea how it works on the truck. European standards also include pedestrian collision standards that changed the hood shape of the Mini Cooper and the front end of the Cybertruck looks particularly unfriendly to jaywalkers.

The other problem is that the body fundamentally ignores how pickups are used and modified to the individual's needs. The traditional truck is 'body on frame', with the two being interchangeable. In fact it's one of the driving factors in the F-series and others dominance as a seller.  Beds can be removed and reshaped to fit the needs of whatever the owner needs to get up to, from storage boxes to dump beds. With the Tesla's body also being the source of its rigidity, the Tesla is already less configurable than its competition.

Sure, there are variants coming from the factory in the future and special orders, but the more the customer cuts in to the basic structure of the truck the more their spending and suddenly all that gas saving starts to get eaten away in other costs.

Cybertruck camper back option
via newatlas.com

The subject of electric and range anxiety gets a new chapter with the Cybertruck as well. The top range offers a staggering 500 miles, more than many cars can handle on a full tank of gas. What we haven't seen, however, is how an electric car performs under load. The top line Cybertruck boasts a 14,000lbs capacity, but there's no indication what that will do to the ultimate range of the electric truck.

If hauling weight cuts down in the useful work time the Cybertruck has then that's another important area the Cybertruck fails to meet the needs of pickup owners. That would mean that the Cybertruck's only demographic left is the casual owner, the person who doesn't need a pickup so much as they like to have it. That might not be enough to sustain the Cybertruck in the long term.

But then, a lot of obituaries get written about Tesla every year.