Let's get this out of the way first: by now, if you haven't seen WhistlinDiesel's YouTube "Durability Test" of the new Tesla Cybertruck, you... certainly can, if you want to. It's certainly not for everyone, and it's so over the top in its brutal treatment of both the Cybertruck and a quad-cab Ford F-150 XLT that it's tough to gain any deeper, more practical understanding of the concept of "build quality" here.
I mean, the guys strap a pound of C4 onto the tailgates of both trucks. And that's just not likely to happen to you when you're at the grocery store or whatever.
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Tesla's Cybertruck
As controversial as it is radical, the Tesla Cybertruck represents a bold reinvention of the pickup truck: built with stainless steel and constructed less like a "conventional" truck like the F-150 here. But its novel construction and somewhat questionable build quality on early models has led people to ask how tough it really is.
But at its best, the WhistlinDiesel test apes Jackass in its most hilarious moments (another thing that's not for everyone.) And I'm going out on a limb here to say that the Cybertruck actually acquits itself better than you might think; it takes an absolutely tremendous beating here with high-speed runs up and down a stack of logs, enduring various states of disassembly, taking sledgehammers, launching over a hill Dukes of Hazzard-style, getting its air suspension trashed, having its charging port get blasted with a water pressure machine, and much, much more.
Moreover, the F-150 handles some of these tests better than others, but certainly not all. And while it gets the "win" here, it still needed a driveline replacement right at the outset and ends up absolutely annihilated at the end. It's such an absurd, over-the-top test that it goes beyond anything empirical or scientific, so just keep that in mind as you sit back and enjoy it.
But to me, the biggest concerns with the Cybertruck are the quality basics—the stuff that Tesla has always struggled with on its newer models, and things that just do not happen with other automakers.
Let's talk about the big one: the frame. It snaps apart during a truck pull against the F-150 early on. "Our whole frame just snapped," host Cody Detwiler screams about six minutes in. "The hitch is hooked up to... what? It just came off."
He adds, "What good does the hitch do if it's barely on aluminum? Your trailer would've just fallen off." Detwiler notes that almost "any other truck" wouldn't behave that way because the hitch and bumper would've been sealed and attached better. This is all because the Cybertruck has a much more unique, almost unibody-like construction, unlike the more proven body-on-frame setup of the F-150—although the few other unibody trucks like the Honda Ridgeline seldom have trouble towing and hauling tough loads.
So while most Cybertruck owners won't actually deal with gunfire and explosions on a daily basis, they are buying a truck that's rated to tow up to 11,000 pounds; and while we know it can't really hold a candle to a huge diesel truck for towing, it shouldn't suffer that sort of damage.
But that's not all. In looking for the Cybertruck's apparently dead 12-volt battery, they discover "two stacked washers on top of a piece of duct tape with a missing bolt." Later, they find pieces held on by what appears to be velcro. The mirrors pop off after being kicked a few times. Detwiler describes some of what he finds as "house parts."
Finally, there's yet another "frunk test" here, and at this point, I'll just beg people to stop doing this. We all know how it ends: poorly.
All of this is, as the guy up top at Tesla might say, "extremely concerning." And if you don't believe me, check out the take from our friend David Tracy over at The Autopian; he's an actual automotive engineer, and he's as baffled by some of this stuff as I am.
I'd say it's disappointing that some 20 years into its existence, Tesla still struggles with these kinds of quality issues on new model launches—and with new model launches in general, really. And all of that detracts from a truck that otherwise, handles itself pretty well in this insane test. The Cybertruck takes a ton of punishment here and largely keeps driving right until the end! It takes the C4 explosion way better than the F-150 does; that truck gets a hole punched in its aluminum tailgate by the blast. I'm no great fan of the Cybertruck's design, but honestly, I just felt bad for the damn thing by the end.
And that's where Detwiler and crew drop off the Cybertruck at a Tesla repair center, saying it "needs a windshield and some other stuff," which is the understatement of the century. They bemoan not being able to do more testing to the truck before it got "bricked," saying "it's not their fault" they can't. I would argue that it literally was their fault for torturing it so much, but I'm not aware of any vehicles that would survive all they did here. Sure, the F-150 survives, but it's totaled as well.
So what do we learn from all of this? To me, it's that yes, the Cybertruck can take a beating in a lot of ways. But the casting issues with the bumper, the washers and the velcro stuff make me think that as it did with the Model 3 and others, Tesla has some under-the-skin quality issues I hope it irons out soon.
And just in case it needs to be said: do not try this at home.
Update: As a few people have pointed out, some are saying on social media that the Cybertruck's frame may have broken when it slammed into the concrete cylinder, and not when it was pulling the F-150. We've reached out to WhistlinDiesel and will update as we hear more.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
