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Are you really going with the "they made it ugly on purpose to avoid selling too many of them" defense? Come on just because this is tesla doesn't mean you need
by nolok 7y ago
Are you really going with the "they made it ugly on purpose to avoid selling too many of them" defense? Come on just because this is tesla doesn't mean you need to be realistic. It's a multiplia, someone had a brain fart and we end up with a fugly. It happens.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- m3kw9 7y agoIs ugly because it’s a popular opinion and everybody needs to call it the “ugliest vehicle ever” to make a social splash
- erikpukinskis 7y agoThis is probably the most accurate statement in this whole thread.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoNot that it isn't fugly but I think they purposely do not want it to look like any other pickup because their target market includes a lot of people who don't like the image pickups often project. A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles and I think this styling is to help get around that.
- ethbro 7y ago> A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles Is this a fact in (I'm assuming) NorCal? I'm in one of the parts of the country where everyone drives pickups, so it kind of boggles my mind. Does no one tow or haul things there?
- jclardy 7y agoI live in the same part of the country, and while everyone has a truck, I'd say about 1 out of 5 owners actually use them for utility purposes. The rest are pristine showroom objects that have never even touched a gravel road, let alone dirt.
- coldpie 7y ago> The rest are pristine showroom objects that have never even touched a gravel road, let alone dirt. And that haul one single person to the office and back every day at 12 MPG. Hooray.
- generatorguy 7y agoMy 2016 f150 gets 12.7 l/100km highway, closer to 27 mpg. edit: woops 12.7 l/100km is actually 18.5 mpg. All these years I thought 10l/100km was 30 mpg! must have done the conversion wrong once and been basing my whole life off it ever since. It's great to find out something you thought was true is not sometimes.
- randcraw 7y agoThat's OK. My 2019 Ridgeline gets 30 MPG highway, about 20 MPG city. That's an advantage of living in the US -- our gas mileage formula is more intuitive.
- UnFleshedOne 7y ago
- tomatotomato37 7y agoSo by your logic Tesla intentionally you cut off a market big enough to make the F150 the world best selling car of 2017 just so some hipster too pretentious to dare at even hinting at being associated with conservativism will consider buying a utility vehicle
- erikpukinskis 7y agoI think their motivations were more than that - desire to explore a more radical design language for the company. They’ve had to be very conservative for past vehicles because Model S, Model 3, etc were programs that had to succeed or the company would fail. This is the first time they have some financial breathing room - they likely prioritized ease of manufacturing over everything else. I think long term that’s where the company is going - They really can use all the capacity they have planned for the next couple of years for Model Y. They just don’t have capacity to add a line at F-150 scale. I don’t even know where they will build it... not likely in Fremont. Maybe Berlin. Maybe in a new American factory? Either way, it’ll probably be one of the first programs in a new factory. So, yes, I think they really do not want to sell a lot of these. And yes, they’d be happy with a tiny market amongst electric enthusiasts.
- GVIrish 7y ago> A well compensated white collar professional will get judged hard for driving a pickup in some social circles and I think this styling is to help get around that. I think Tesla could've met that desire without making the truck look like a low-polygon model from a teenager who just learned to use Blender. Tesla's design language from it's other models could have been smartly applied to a truck design and they would've had a winner.
- pr0zac 7y agoJudged for driving the WRONG type of pickup. Ford Raptors are quite popular with techy car folks cause they're "performance vehicles" so it indicates you aren't the wrong kind of person. Also the older the truck, the more OK it is (ironic considering older trucks are horrible on gas mileage) because then its a quirky hipster thing. Suppose thats kind of the point you're making though, they're building a pickup that has indicators that its OK for "classy" people to drive.
- randcraw 7y agoThe risk with making your product mostly a fashion statement is that you may appeal to too few people or to many people but not enough for them to fork over $45K for the limited utility. Unlike the Raptor, the Cybertruck has no machismo. This truck will sell only if enough people are willing to buy into its singular sense of style way over its utility. That's a bold bet. A more-useless-than-average truck (no bed capacity; a back seat w/ headroom for children only; difficulty refueling or getting repairs in the backcountry; very high center of gravity) will have limited appeal aside from the novelty from being the first to own one. But that will fade within year one of ownership. Then where will non-pickup owners find themselves? With an especially fashion-motivated vehicle that's no longer fashionable. Or useful. Strike three.
- isantop 7y agoThe kind of people who are worried about the image driving a truck will project upon them simply don't buy trucks. They'd rather buy a model Y or a Model X anyway.
- amyjess 7y agoI'd be curious to see a definition of "in some social circles". In particular, I'd like to see what parts of the country those social circles exist in. Because I'm in Dallas, and wealthy white-collar professionals driving big pickup trucks is pretty normal here. I could point out several in my company's parking lot.
- galangalalgol 7y agoWhat? Its like a delorien and an el camino had a baby. Its glorious! I think makes me wan reread all my favorite cyberpunk.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoCyberpunk was supposed to be a fictional dystopia.
- galangalalgol 7y agoBut such a stylish dystopia! Its kind of like how preppers talk excitedly about the breakdown of civilization. Some part of them wants that to happen because they envision it as a world they are more suited to survive in, an in some cases that might even be true for people whose primary skills are combat and wilderness survival. A world where the benefits of social intelligence or physical strength are dwarfed by those of technical prowess makes the worlds of snowcrash or neuromancer alluring to people that have or think they have that technical prowess.
- Gene_Parmesan 7y agoI'm not sure we read the same Snowcrash. Yeah, Hiro had to be a good hacker, but he was also fucking killer with a blade. There was a lot of very physical activity in that book (and the world in general).
- vraivroo 7y agoEconomics 101. Any producer would rather sell a tenth of the units at ten times the cost. This is one way to do that.
- oarsinsync 7y agoI'd rather sell 100% at 10x the cost than 10% at 10x the cost. What's the benefit of deliberately reducing demand? Why not sell 10% at 100x instead of 10% at 10x by producing something that actually appeals to more, and is desirable by more?
- jonwachob91 7y ago>>> Any producer would rather sell a tenth of the units at ten times the cost * 10 times the PRICE. 10 times the cost means taking on 10 times the risk if units don't sell, while keeping the same reward (profit). :)
- erikpukinskis 7y agoElon literally said as much during a previous earnings call. They were going to make it polarizing and then walk it back to a more conservative design if sales were too low.
- randcraw 7y agoInteresting. Honda did the same thing with their late entry into the pickup market, the Ridgeline. The first generation (2006-2014) was a polarizing design. (But I liked it.) The second gen (2017-present) looks more mainstream and is a bit more functional but lacks the disruptive panache of gen 1. I like it less, but actually bought one. So who knows what will happen with Tesla. Maybe its weirdness will soften into something more sustainable given time.
- saberience 7y agoYou realize for every person who thinks it’s ugly another things it’s fucking awesome? Yes, I think it looks fucking awesome and can’t wait to buy one. Also my friends at work felt similarly. Weird how some people have different opinions on subjective matters right??
- nec4b 7y agoJudging by responses here, it is more like 1 person who finds it awesome for every 9 people who find it ugly. Otherwise you are right.