Tesla’s Cybertruck is one of the most anticipated electric vehicles to go into production in 2023. With recent timeline indications from Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, it’s only a few months away.
Now there have been new images that have surfaced of a Cybertruck prototype with steel wheels and testing equipment.
The test Cybertruck was spotted by rickster902 on the Cyber Truck Owners Club forum at Tesla’s Fremont factory. This vehicle had steel wheels on it that have not been previously seen in recent prototypes.
After closer analysis by rickster902 and others on the owners club forum, the wiring around the perimeter of the sharp bodyline as well as the sensors on the wheels indicate that the Tesla team were measuring various parameters on the truck.
The sensors on the steel wheels happen to be wheel force transducers that record forces and moments on the wheels.
According to a force sensor manufacturer Kistler, the wheel force transducers are used in vehicle development to measure the forces on the tyres.
“Wheel force transducers are designed for use in the development and testing of complete chassis and chassis components of different vehicles such as passenger cars, SUV, commercial vehicles, race cars and industrial vehicles.
“During measurement, a wheel force transducer replaces a standard wheel and measures the forces and moments acting on the tire contact patch.”
This may indicate that there are several wheel options available while the steel wheels spotted on this prototype might just be emulating the forces on those available wheel options.
More and more sightings of the Cybertruck testing is occurring at Fremont which means that the final version of the production-ready electric truck is not too far away.
Meanwhile in Texas at Tesla’s GigaTexas factory, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, had taken a walk for several hours around the production line earlier this month and stated that the start of Cybertruck’s production nearing felt like the future.
Feels like the future
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
This latest sighting of the Cybertruck also shows the new triangular mirrors which could help the Cybertruck be more efficient compared to other electric trucks in the works.
With everything from vehicle testing to factory production line preparation, it sounds like the first production run is only months away.
As hundreds of thousands of order holders patiently wait to see the first one roll off the line, the production could not start quickly enough.
Given Tesla’s past unveilings of the specs and pricing, there would be an event to mark this milestone.
We look forward to seeing more on the development and start of production as this would be a vehicle that many thought would never come off the production line.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.