Back in 2019, Tesla unveiled an extreme truck concept vehicle called the Cybertruck. After 4 long years of design and engineering, last week, it finally unveiled that the first deliveries of this utilitarian steel vehicle will officially begin at the end of next month.
In the meantime, Tesla continues to test various aspects of the vehicle and over the weekend a Cybertruck was spotted with what appeared to be bullet marks along the side of the truck as part of some sort of bulletproof testing.
The vehicle was spotted and shared by several Tesla fans on X including a photo from Tesla Owners of Easy Bay group.Ā
In the picture shared, itās easy to see one side of the truck with multiple indentations in a random pattern. These exist on both the front and rear doors on that side of the truck.
Seems the @Tesla engineering team took @cybertruck thru the streets of East Oakland today? š pic.twitter.com/XaSPWEkSI4
— Tesla East Bay Fremont (@TeslaOwnersEBay) October 20, 2023
The testing was confirmed by Teslaās CEO, Elon Musk, who on X commented on the kind of testing Teslaās engineering team undertook.Ā
We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the driver door Al Capone style. No bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2023
This type of testing is quite unconventional and isnāt seen on vehicles too often. Other vehicle manufacturers also sell vehicles that offer a higher level of passenger protection, including BMW with its āBMW Protection Vehiclesā ICE products.Ā
From a materials engineering perspective, at this stage, itās unclear what the exact steel thickness of Cybertruckās body would be.
These details are likely to be confirmed in the coming months when customer deliveries begin and third-party vehicle engineering evaluation companies like Munro Associates get a hold of a unit to perform a tear-down analysis to determine the finer specifications.
Previously, Tesla has been seen doing extreme testing with the Cybertruck in New Zealand when the vehicle was put through itās winter-testing regime.Ā
More recently, the company has also attempted to show how this four-wheel-steering equipped truck performs while off-roading including on tracks like the Baja.
Off-Road Cybertruck in Baja š https://t.co/uICsaGGE1o
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 9, 2023
Real-world off-roading and durability testing isnāt conventional but it does showcase the durability of vehicles capable of going off-road. More details on the engineering, specs and some of this testing are likely to be revealed later this year.
RizĀ 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.