During Tesla’s most-recent shareholders meeting, Elon Musk said the company’s pickup should be arriving this fall — adding that we would probably see it near the end of the summer if everything goes according to plan. Apparently disinterested in waiting another two months, robotics enthusiast and self-professed EV fan Simone Giertz decided to fabricate her own using a Tesla Model 3 as a starting point.
Giertz, who runs a YouTube channel focused on quirky building projects, claimed the home-brewed pickup’s relation to the sedan was one of necessity. She only chose the Model 3 because it possessed a steel chassis and was cheaper to risk ruining than a Model S would have been.
Enlisting a gaggle of friends to help convert the electric vehicle, Giertz documented the process for her channel. But not before releasing a fake advertisement showcasing the finished product while cleverly satirizing car commercials as a whole.
The build entailed removing the back half of the Model 3 and gutting the rear interior to make room for an old bed floor ripped from an tenth-gen Ford F-Series. A hacked-apart GMC Canyon served as the missing portion of the vehicle’s cabin, providing the necessary glass and sheet metal to isolate the driver from the load. As Giertz said she had hoped to make the vehicle as functional as possible, a roof rack providing additional structural support was also incorporated.
As DIY builds go, the affectionately named “Truckla” looks pretty polished. But it probably would have been more cost effective for Giertz and company to have simply installed a tow hitch. Of course, the resulting video wouldn’t have accumulated nearly as many views as cobbling together an electric ute.
As a proponent for electric vehicles, Simone said she’s enamored with the makeshift pickup and intends on using it as her daily driver. It is not, however, finished. Giertz admitted that she still needs to do some waterproofing, completely seal off the cabin, spruce up the interior, add a bed liner, and fix some bodywork that was damaged during the build process.
[Images: Simone Giertz via YouTube]
Almost there! Now all it needs is an ICE for true dependability.
She wanted electric.
LOL @ unibody “pickup”
1961-63 Ford F-100 “Unibody” Pickups
I wonder if the doors will pinch shut when it’s loaded like those old Ford’s did?
“Ford originally referred to them as the “integrated pickup,” but calling them “unibodies” is a bit of a misnomer. The nickname derives from the fact that the cab and box are one continuous piece, with no gap between them. The same stamping forming the back of the cab was also the leading edge of the bed, and the single-wall bed sides were spot-welded directly to the door sills. The one-piece body was then set atop a traditional frame-style chassis, making the unibody pickup more similar to a body-on-frame car than a true unitized assembly, like the contemporary Falcon-based Ranchero.”
No more unibody than a Crown Vic in other words.
They weren’t successful, either. Which is why they were only made for only three years. Not a true unibody (Ford called it an “integrated pickup”), they combined the cab and box, but still rode atop a frame. Sure, they’re cool today, but they weren’t practical then. Doors could jam shut with a load in the box, doors could pop open when going over railroad crossings, etc. Too flexible, so Ford ended up rushing a separate cab/box model into production mid-’62. By the end of the ’63 model year, the separate cab/box pickups were outselling the “unibodies” 2 to 1, and the experiment ended.
The ’62 Falcon Ranchero would be a more relevant comparison, you know.
@hummer : Won’t be the first. Won’t be the last. Live with it. That’s all a lot of people really need.
A car with a trailer makes more sense and has more utility. Live with it.
What’s so bad about a light-duty truck or a “coupe utility” sort of thing? If no one is being dishonest about the capabilities I don’t see what the big deal is.
A utility trailer might arguably have more “utility” but having the bed attached certainly wins on convenience.
Two words
Honda Ridgeline
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Youtube OP succeeded, my click was baited.
Pro: like any form of experimenting w/cars.
Con: I guess to some people “roughing it” = having 1 bar of reception and the only lettuce you see at the local restaurant is iceberg.
I’m guessing this is all a stunt and that car won’t be used, but nevertheless don’t get into an accident. just saying.
In fact, the car was built specifically to film a fake commercial for it. It’s a well-executed youtube viral attention-grab.
Oh, and let’s not forget the T-shirt sales…
She plans to use it for light wood/lumber hauling. She’s building a roof rack for sheet plywood.
Drop in about 2,000 pounds of gravel or dirt and see how well that 1/2 assed pickup works out!
That’s not the design intent.
@aja8888: I’m sure it can handle about 750 pounds worth just fine… and that’s all she wants or needs. Get it?
Pishhh…Drop 400 tons of aggregate on your 3500 super duty and it’ll fold like superman on laundry day. That’s why the only practical vehicle worth owning is a Caterpillar 797. Also my daily commute is 8000 miles over the arctic circle so gas is useless as a fuel source since there is only like one gas station in the Yukon. In closing, please return the goal posts to their original location when the electric vehicle bashing is complete.
Part of me wants to build a Lotus 7 like vehicle with the drive train out of a model 3.
Do it, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
It will be great in the winter with the ballast of that 1200 lb battery pack.
A shame to destroy a beautiful car. For what…..you toob hits?
It’s a sedan. No loss.
I could call the Model 3 many things, most of them even complimentary, but “beautiful” is nowhere close to that list.
Ok, how about “nice”?
I’ll settle for inoffensive. I find the Model 3 about as bland as bland can be.
How about some names; Ranch-Electricero.
Electro-Camino.
She calls it Truckla.
Apparently, her other electric COMUTA is jealous. She named it Cheese Louise (because of the yellow wedge shape). Incidently, she converted it into a giant computer mouse.
Her other choice was “Teslickup”.
Bravo Simone. Looks like major jimmie rustlage achieved, so you’ve succeeded. Don’t listen to the naysayers. They’re like antique Harleys – they’re F-heads.
PS Great team effort.
:-)
Since the much ballyhooed Y model is a slightly tweaked 3 sedan, I wonder if the much ballyhooed pickup is really this?
Much truth.
;-)
Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should do it. Welding around a live battery pack? Take care!
She’s the self-proclaimed “Queen of Shitty Robots” (self-fabricated trouble-prone Rube-Goldberg contraptions to automate things that don’t need to be automated, like eating popcorn). Ill-advised silly mechanical experiments are her specialty.
“Here, hold my Merlot”
(grabs a Sawzall)
Wonder if the panel gaps are BETTER after the mods than that of the facotry based car?
I checked out a Model 3 not too long ago, and I didn’t see any issues at all with panel fits.
Now just drop a diesel-powered generator in the back.
LOL at the people questioning the quality or utility of this project. That is *literally* not the point. (As in, this was not an attempt to create a serious vehicle… butchering it into a crappy pickup truck is obviously not a cost-effective use for a Tesla 3.)
She’s the self-proclaimed “Queen of $hitty Robots” and creating improvised and impractical technology projects is what she does. (And she makes a decent living at it; nothing wrong with entertaining people for money.)
Lighten up, folks; she is well-aware this is a silly thing to do.
Silly, perhaps. Expensive? Yes. Still, I’d rather have that style of truck than what I have–an 18 foot monster that gets only 20% of the MPGe of that Model 3 trickster.