{"id":24432,"date":"2019-11-27T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=24432"},"modified":"2019-11-27T17:04:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:04:35","slug":"what-ford-f-150-owners-think-of-the-tesla-cybertruck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/what-ford-f-150-owners-think-of-the-tesla-cybertruck","title":{"rendered":"What Ford F-150 owners think of the Tesla Cybertruck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ford<\/p>\n<\/div>

Ford F-150 owners were impressed by the Tesla Cybertruck’s claimed performance. But they worry about battery range and reliability.\u00a0(Photo: Tesla)<\/span><\/p>\n

And now for something completely different.<\/p>\n

A Los Angeles Auto show that started with a Ford Mustang Mach-E electric crossover taking on the Tesla Model Y, ended with Tesla in its familiar position: introducing a vehicle unlike any seen before.<\/p>\n

The Tesla Cybertruck pickup caught the automotive world by surprise with its daring\u00a0sci-fi design, segment-busting performance figures\u00a0and competitive\u00a0$39,000\u00a0starting price. Conversations with Metro Detroit\u00a0Ford F-150 enthusiasts indicate the Tesla has their attention. But when it comes to purchase, these users all got hung up on familiar concerns about electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

More than perhaps any other vehicle, owners of pickups raise concerns about battery range and reliability\u00a0compared to gas-powered mainstays.<\/p>\n

Detroit auto companies these days are noticeably insecure when it comes to Silicon Valley EVs and autonomous vehicles. They, too, want to be the cool kids on the block. So Ford cheekily launched its first electric SUV, the Ford Mustang Mach-E, at LA\u2019s Hawthorne Airport right under the nose of Tesla\u2019s design studio. The\u00a0glitzy launch event featured movie star Idris Elba interviewing Ford CEO Bill Ford. Consumers applauded.<\/p>\n

Then Tesla reminded everyone how it was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mach E was a familiar auto industry reveal,\u201d said Tim Stevens, an auto reviewer with C-NET\u2019s “Roadshow” who used to cover Silicon Valley electronics. \u201cTesla is probably 95 percent Tesla faithful in the room, emotions are very high. Musk presents the truck and all of a sudden they are hitting it with a sledgehammer. It’s a very different sort of event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tesla show was populated with lightning-shooting Tesla coils and screaming Tesla employees dressed in sci-fi costumes. When Musk strode on stage, says TFLTruck expert Roman Mica, he was greeted with screams of \u201cI want to have your baby!\u201d and \u201cI want to marry you!\u201d That doesn\u2019t happen to other industry executives.<\/p>\n

Then things really got crazy. Musk introduced a stainless-steel triangular pickup that looked like it had come off a Hollywood sci-fi movie\u00a0set. After demolishing a Ford F150 door, Tesla designer Franz Von\u00a0Holzhausen\u00a0turned his sledgehammer on the Cybertruck\u2019s doors and then chucked steel balls at its windows to prove its toughness.<\/p>\n

Musk infamously failed in proving the shatterproof quality of the Cybertruck’s \u201carmored glass\u201d \u2013 two windows yielded to steel balls \u2013 but such glass is not unknown to the industry. Ford itself was the first to use shatterproof Gorilla Glass on its Ford GT supercar.<\/p>\n

The rollout was crazy, yes. But it was also an acknowledgment by Tesla that its space-age truck has to address conventional concerns valued by Detroit Three pickup owners: toughness, performance and versatility.<\/p>\n

Ford, Chevrolet and Ram brands have ridden these attributes to dominate the biggest vehicle segment in the United States. Musk is desperate to penetrate the truck truck market\u00a0to show the mass sales-potential of EVs. On the toughness front, F-150 owners I talked with were impressed by Musk\u2019s demonstration \u2013 unconventional as it was.<\/p>\n

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