Dubai police will use the CyberTruck as a new patrol car

UPDATE 11/29/2019: The poor figure during the presentation doesn't seem to have stopped Tesla's CyberTruck. Two days ago, the number of pre-orders for the vehicle reached a quarter of a million. Among the buyers there is also the Dubai Police who will include it in its endowment from 2020 and announced it on its official Twitter channel. Dubai police are used to using luxury patrol cars: previous models included the Porsche 918, Lamborghini Aventador and Bugatti Veyron. In an interview with the newspaper Arabian Business, Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri revealed that the Cybertruck will be used in more touristy areas such as the Burj Khalifa, La Mer, Jumeirah Beach Residence, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard.   

During the presentation, Musk announced that production of the car would begin in 2021. It’s unclear, therefore, why the date announced by the Twitter post is 2020. It could be assumed that the Emirati government has entered into an agreement with the billionaire for early production. But there's no definite news yet.

On the evening of Thursday, November 21, Elon Musk unveiled Tesla's latest car: the Tesla Cybertruck. It's a futuristic-looking pickup, the sixth model of the American automaker, powered by electricity and fully armored. During the demonstrations of the first model, the door was hammered without causing damage and a video was projected in which Tesla scientists tested its resistance by firing on the car's blades with a 9mm pistol. The Tesla Cybertruck will hit the market in 2021.
 

After showing its appearance and demonstrating its durability, Musk revealed that three versions will be produced for three different price ranges. The basic version, called Single Motor, will cost 39,900$; The Dual Motor AWD version will cost 49,900$ and the Tri Motor AWD Long Range 69,900$, but it will not go into production until 2022. The latter three-engine version is the flagship product of the range, it will be able to go from 0 to 96 km/h in just under three seconds, with a top speed of 210 km/h, a towing capacity of more than six tons and a range of 800 km. The range of the first basic model presented is instead 400 km, halved is also the towing capacity while the maximum speed will be 177 km/h. The Dual Motor AWD version was slightly higher.

 

During the presentation, Musk did not show the interior to the public. But in one of the images released by Tesla, you can see a marbled dashboard and a six-seater interior configuration. In addition to the resealable trunk, there is a large additional storage compartment under the rear seats. The trunk also has an electric ramp to accommodate the Tesla Cyberquad, an electric quad model that has been shown but not yet released to the public. There is also an air suspension system to lower and raise the car during loading and unloading operations, other additional compartments in the trunk and front of the car and, inside, two electrical outlets and an air compressor. With its maximum height of 40 cm above the ground, its crystals in Tesla Armor Glass and its steel exoskeleton, the Tesla Cybertruck is designed to tackle all kinds of terrain and will have an autopilot that will allow it to park itself.

However, the presentation was not without problems. In addition to Musk's aforementioned refusal to show the interior of the car, an embarrassing moment occurred when designer Franz Von Holzausen was asked to throw metal balls at the windows that, while not breaking through, broke into two points. An incident that Musk didn't take very well, saying:

“Oh, my f*****g God. Well, maybe that was a little too hard. We threw wrenches, we threw everything even literally the kitchen sink at the glass and it didn’t break. For some weird reason, it broke now. I don’t know why. We will fix it in post”.

Another problem with analysts is the lack of suitable infrastructure to support its performance. With his Cybertruck, Musk wants to enter the pickup market, thriving in America with a million sales a year. Tesla's model was born with the stated goal of being a high-performance and sustainable alternative for those who work with a pickup every day. But the Central United States, where pickup is most popular, and specifically North and South Dakota, are almost entirely devoid of electric car charging stations. For example, there are 500 charging stations in San Francisco alone, but fewer than 150 across North and South Dakota. There are only eight Tesla stations in the entire state of South Dakota and none in the North. To give a sense of scale, the combined area of the two states, with 383,177 square km, is higher than that of Italy.

Musk's project is ambitious, but the presentation of the Tesla Cybertruck, which some people have judged to be very hasty with its half-hour duration, has left questions to be clarified: Why did the unbreakable glass break? Why weren't the interiors shown? How will the infrastructure problem be solved? Why were the production details so vague? Tesla and Musk will have to answer to all those questions. At the moment, the Tesla Cybertruck is available in pre-order with the deposit of only 100 euros. For all the other issues that remain open, we will have to wait two years.