Ford’s trucks were “boring,” Walter Isaacson said.
Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images, Scott Olson/Getty Images, and Reuters/Dado Ruvic
- Elon Musk decided to green light the Cybertruck because Ford trucks were “boring,” Walter Isaacson said.
- The biographer said Musk came up with the idea six years ago and was inspired by science fiction.
- Musk tweeted on Monday that Ford’s new EV truck was a “good vehicle, just somewhat expensive.”
Elon Musk apparently isn’t a fan of Ford’s traditional pickup trucks and his distaste for the vehicles spawned the Cybertruck, according to the billionaire’s biographer, Walter Isaacson.
The author, who has been shadowing Musk for about three years, said during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box that the Tesla CEO came up with the idea for the futuristic electric pickup truck about six years ago.
“He’s sitting there with his design chief Franz von Holzhausen and looking at a Ford truck and he said, ‘No, these things are boring,'” Isaacson said regarding the exchange, which he said will be fully detailed in his upcoming book.
“He doesn’t like to be bored and he puts up things from movies, from sci-fi, from video games and says, ‘I want it like that,'” Isaacson added. “And everybody’s pushing back on him at this meeting. He finally says, ‘Yeah, stop it. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna make it edgy.'”
On Twitter, Isaacson later shared a photo of Musk and the Tesla design chief in front of a series of pictures of what appear to be early design ideas for the Cybertruck. The biographer shared a quote from his book in the tweet, saying that Musk issued an edict in 2017 that the pickup truck would be entirely stainless steel.
“The use of stainless steel opened up new possibilities for the look of the truck,” Isaacson writes. “Instead of using stamping machines that would sculpt carbon fiber into body panels with subtle curves and shapes, stainless steel would favor straight planes and sharp angles. That allowed— and in some ways forced— the design team to explore ideas that were more futuristic, edgier, even jarring.”
Last week, Tesla shared that the company had made its first production Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory. Musk first unveiled the concept for the electric pickup truck about four years ago and the project has faced a series of delays over the past two years.
The Tesla CEO also commented on Ford’s competing product — the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck — on Monday after the company lowered its prices for the vehicle.
“The Ford Lightning is a good vehicle, just somewhat expensive, especially given the high interest rates these days for any kind of loan,” Musk tweeted.
Musk isn’t the only one to comment on the impending rivalry between the two vehicles. Last month, Ford CEO Jim Farley appeared to take a dig at the Cybertruck, dubbing it a vehicle “for Silicon Valley people” during an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“The reality is, America loves an underdog — and we are the market leader for EV trucks and vans, and we know those customers better than anyone,” Farley said.
The Cybertruck will be Tesla’s first electric pickup truck. Up until recently, Ford has been one of few automakers to produce an EV pickup truck. Last year, Ford said it delivered over 13,000 electric F-150 trucks as the company worked to ramp up production and fulfill about 200,000 reservations. The EV pickup truck startup Rivian also has a jump on the market. Rivian has delivered just over 29,000 electric vehicles since 2021 and last year the company said it had a waitlist of over 114,000 pre-orders. Tesla has the majority of the overall EV market in the US, but the market for pickup trucks is one of the most lucrative in the country.
Musk has said the carmaker plans to start delivering the Cybertruck within the year, but the company has yet to release pricing for the vehicle.
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