Tesla's electric pickup truck Cybertruck finally started production last year after experiencing multiple delays. Initially, it seemed that only Tesla employees and a few lucky buyers were getting the car. But now, a non-employee user has owned a Cybertruck and shared his personal experience online.
From what it shared, we can know that the quality issues with this car are quite obvious, especially for a car that sells for $100,000. According to previous media reports, Cybertruck looks a bit disappointing on paper. It didn't live up to the range originally claimed, was available in very limited configurations, and was priced much higher than first promised. Still, digging into its technical details reveals a very interesting electric pickup truck. That’s the perspective of this real-life, non-Tesla employee user.
On the CybertruckOwnersClub forum, user Susu2142 wrote: "Overall build quality: A-grade for a Tesla, if you look closely you can see some misaligned body panels and the turn signal control on the right side is a bit faulty." Turns out, both of these issues deserved further attention. First, the most obvious problem is the seam between the rear end of the cabin and the roof cover.
The owner said that there was an obvious gap in the vehicle starting from the cab and extending to the rear. However, the angle of the first photo above seems to exaggerate the problem. Photos taken from other angles don't show as much misalignment as the first photo. Still, a photo taken with a ruler shows that the gap between the two parts is about an eighth of an inch.
This is something you'd expect to find during a pre-delivery inspection, and it raises concerns about the Cybertruck's overall build quality. It's unclear if this car is the only one with this problem, or if there are other cars with the same issue. Since robots played an important role in the Cybertruck's production, this may not be an isolated situation.
Having said that, the owner said the more serious problem was actually the turn signal switch. He said, "30% of the time it doesn't work." Susu2142 said he would communicate with Tesla about the turn signal issue, but he did not say whether he would raise the body panel issue. Of course, not all vehicles are bad. He said he was "blown away" by the car's steering, the acceleration was "more than adequate" and the Cybertruck also brought him a lot of attention.
Since the Cybertruck is currently only produced in the U.S. factory, and Tesla's U.S. factory has been criticized for its vehicle workmanship, some netizens joked that the owner's Cybertruck must be genuine.