Two Tesla Cybertruck bodies-in-white have been spotted at the company’s Gigafactory in Texas by an anonymous social media user who later deleted the photo, but not before a user of the Cybertruck Owners Club forum got his hands on it and published it on the online board.
The two empty shells have no extra body panels attached to them, as a previously leaked photo showed, revealing the complete inner structure of the upcoming electric truck, which was famously described by CEO Elon Musk as having a so-called “exoskeleton.”
As some forum posters have pointed out, Tesla’s first-ever electric pickup is made using several stamped pieces that are then put together to form the chassis. As we previously reported, there’s a big front casting and several big pieces that make up the rear of the vehicle, including the wheel wells.
With this being said, it’s unclear what method the Austin-based EV brand uses to put everything together – be it industrial-grade adhesives, welding, bolts, or a combination of all of these.
By the looks of it, the Cybertruck will certainly be different from all the other pickup trucks out there: it doesn’t have a traditional ladder-frame chassis like the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T and instead seems to combine a unibody construction for the passenger area with several casted pieces at the front and rear. Body panels will probably be fitted on this base, and when everything is bolted together, the result should be a pretty rigid structure.
However, repairing the Cybertruck after an accident could prove more difficult than on vehicles that don’t use big casted pieces, but it remains to be seen how Tesla will handle these problems when they arise.
With a massive frunk, all-wheel drive, adaptive air suspension, and the company’s latest Hardware 4 computer, the all-electric pickup is expected to debut in production guise later this year, possibly in September, as Musk hinted in the past.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.
