We all know that Cybertrucks have had a less-thank-lackluster release. Not many of these trucks could have been made yet.
Nonetheless, video-after-video of these beasts keep getting stuck in the mud snow in this case, now with snowy weather blanketing part of the north-east. Jalopnik is blaming tires, which sounds like a possibly valid issue.
But given the failures in the mud last month, I’m now wondering how much of this is perhaps a bad traction-control algorithm, or other feature of the cybertruck? Maybe its just the shear mass alone that is wrecking the traction.
In either case: the Cybertruck has no staying power in mud or snow. I can’t imagine this going well in any offroading event or other similar trucking duty. If the cybertruck loses traction in these simple snow cases, there’s no way it could be used as a plow for example.
That’s cool and all but there’s snow that needs to be plowed. Its winter season where I live.
F150 Lightning and Rivian have demonstrated all-terrain features. Cybertruck is failing because of poor traction-control software, crappy OEM tires, and absurdly overweight design.
Tesla just buys cells from China or Panasonic like everyone else. No one is doing chemical work on this in USA. Its all Korean (LG Chem), Japanese (Panasonic), or Chinese (BYD).
From a car-manufacturer perspective, the only attribute that determines kwh-per-mile is weight and aerodynamics, both of which utterly suck on the Cybertruck. Chemical advancements are being pushed by Toyota for Silicon-batteries and a few other manufacturers for Sodium batteries… and BYD / China for LiFePo4 batteries.
But Tesla’s chemical tech is non-existent. Its all overseas commodities these days. Heck, it always was non-existent, even in the early days of 2012-era Tesla it was just Panasonic (who still owns the Nevada Gigafactory battery portion of the plant: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/panasonic-boost-battery-output-teslas-nevada-gigafactory-nikkei-2023-06-05/). That NEVER was Tesla tech, never ever. And Panasonic has closer ties with Toyota or other Japanese firms in the long-run anyway.
Note: Tesla “batteries” are manufactured in the USA. But these are just assembling the cells together with PCBs and Safety Circuits. Its important yes, but its not the chemical knowledge or expertise that you’re suggesting. Tesla made investments to buy some companies to advance chemistry in theory, but none of those seem to have borne fruit yet.
Note that F150 Lightning has AWD standard even on the lowest cost $49,995 model. Its absolutely going to kick-ass compared to a Rear-wheel only drive Cybertruck, and is under half the price of the $100,000 AWD Cybertruck.
Its a complete curbstomp, its not even close to comparable. F150 Lightning has better tech, better handling, better off-road / snow performance and lower costs and came out 2 years ago.