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The Street
The Street
James Ochoa

Here are all the issues with Elon Musk's Cybertruck

Elon Musk's fabeled Cybertruck finally arrived during Tesla's live-streamed delivery event on Nov. 30. 

Although the event signals that production has finally begun, many concerns about Tesla's stainless steel white whale were raised by variety of different people who paint images of doubt. 

Related: Tesla CEO Elon Musk pits his brand new Cybertruck against a Porsche 911

A YouTube tech personality exposed some notable flaws

YouTube tech authority Marques Brownlee released a video early on Dec. 1, where he concluded that Tesla "really got themselves something solid here," when it comes to Cybertruck. However, he revealed some unwavering flaws with the vehicle.

His biggest grievance involves the construction of the body, which is notably made up of solid, stainless-steel panels. Brownlee explained in his video that Tesla engineers told him about the difficulty of constructing body panels with this material.

"They have these huge presses that are stamping the stainless steel, but steel has this sort of a 'spring back effect,' so you have to use a lot of force to stamp it in place, but then it springs back very quickly," Brownlee explained. "So you have to stamp further than you need to go to get it to 'unspring' back to the part you want it to be at." 

A Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla store in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023

Bloomberg/Getty Images

According to Brownlee, the natural characteristics of stainless steel is the reason why Cybertrucks have notably large panel gaps – the small spaces in between body panels – and its size can vary greatly from Cybertruck to Cybertruck.

"I've seen a bunch of Cybertrucks [...] and they all have different levels of panel gaps, build quality in general," said Brownlee. "I'm not going to say it is micron levels of precision."

Additionally, he noticed a quality of the stainless-steel construction that can turn into a nightmare because of a seemingly clever design choice.

A Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla store in San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 28.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

While demonstrating the Cybertruck's door handle-less design, Brownlee explained how the cool feature can cause an issue for owners down the line. 

"I think a lot of people are going to open it down here on the stainless steel," Brownlee said while gripping the side of the door. "You can see the fingerprints, [...] because there's no door handles, there's not really a good way of telling someone how to get in. There's going to be a lot of Cybertrucks floating around with lots of fingerprints around the place that people's hands go to open the doors."

Analysts have concerns

In an appearance on CNBC's Last Call, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives and Deepwater's Gene Munster talked about the Cybertruck's effect on Tesla's bottom line, where they collectively agreed that it has big potential, but will not move the needle for the company unless they ramp up production to fulfill their reservations and lower the price. 

Ives said that the vehicle represented a "halo effect," where the Cybertruck existing and creating a distinct category in a time where Detroit's big three are taking a step back from electric vehicles.  

Munster, however, said that at its current production level, Tesla (TSLA) -) will probably lose $40,000 on each Cybertruck before they intensely scale up production. 

Tesla's missed promises

Elon Musk stands in front of the newly unveiled all-electric battery-powered Tesla's Cybertruck at Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, Calif., on Nov. 21, 2019.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images

The concerns raised by the analysts are associated with some general disappointment particularly with some broken promises on key specifications made by Elon Musk and Tesla from the Cybertruck's first introduction approximately four years ago. 

More Business of EVs:

Musk had previously said the Cybertruck would have a range of over 500 miles and a price tag nearing $70,000, two things that the actual vehicle doesn't deliver on.

Additionally, Brownlee said in a tweet that while he does understand that achieving 500 miles of range would mean "thousands of pounds of extra battery" affecting driving dynamics, he is not confident in seeing Tesla follow through on the promises of another key anticipated model.

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