Since Tesla CEO Elon Musk first uttered the word, we’ve avoided mentioning what seemed to be a nerd-fantasy placeholder name for the automaker’s upcoming electric pickup. Unfortunately, trademark applications reveal Tesla might actually make use of the word that dare not speak its name: “Cybertruck,” or, even worse, “Cybrtrk,” because vowels aren’t cool in Silicon Valley.
Speaking personally, it’s an unfortunate turn of events.
The trademark filings, first noticed by Motor1, carry a November 6th application date. This timing jibes with Musk’s first use of the name. There’s three trademarks in total — one each for Cybertruck and Cybrtrk, both relegated for use on a motor vehicle, as well as a stylized logo spelling out the word CYBRTRK.
That badging comes complete with an alien letter structure resembling something stamped on a silvery piece of alloy recovered from a New Mexico crash site. See below:
Tesla plans to reveal its upcoming model in Los Angeles on Thursday, not far removed from that city’s auto show. It’s an uncharacteristic move for Musk, who traditionally shuns the trade show circuit. Unlike new offerings from other manufacturers, we’ve only had a couple of glimpses of the vehicle, and even these were provided by Tesla itself. Chalk that up to the fact that in Teslaland, buzz comes first, while actual vehicles trundle along much later.
Little is known about the so-called Cybertruck, minus past promises from Musk that it will boast seating for up to six occupants and a driving range of 400 to 500 miles, which outclasses other Teslas built to date. Being a larger vehicle than the company’s sedans and SUV, battery size will also outclass the truck’s stablemates.
Design, Musk promises, will be of the futuristic variety, which is only fitting for a truck with the anticipated name “Cybrtrk.” The reveal date, as Musk painfully teased, has everything to do with the setting of 1982’s Blade Runner.
Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner wrote in a note Monday that investors will have their eye on design, knowing that too-futuristic styling could turn off truck buyers who are in the market for a propulsion switch. The jury’s out on just how small the overlap between “traditional truck buyer” and “Tesla truck buyer” actually is.
As for production and an availability date, that’s something that also brings up the rear at Tesla. The Model Y crossover revealed earlier this year won’t reach customers until late 2020 at the earliest, and few expect to see a Tesla-badged pickup enter driveways before the end of 2021. By that time, plenty of competition will be on hand from the likes of Rivian, Ford, and perhaps even GM.
[Image: Tesla]
Stupid
What a frknawfl name.
Do I pay my “cyber-trick” with Bitcoins?
He isn’t showing a truck, he’s propping up his stock to keep the cash flowing.
Bet the Tesla mechanics will still arrive in Ford pick-up trucks.
Of course. Otherwise they’d have to spend a couple work hours per day at the Teslacharger watching pron on their big screen…
Do the TeslaRangers prefer the 5.0 or the Ecoboost?
Brilliant as Tesla predicts the future of its product:
C’est bricked!
N’est pas?
X wasn’t the kiss of death. I can’t see how the Y is different from the S. Either semi or brodozer should finish them off though.
Or I am wrong. A friend of mine said that people will
buy anything if you make it. A good name cannot help a bad product but a
bad name can hurt.
Even total failures make it with enough promotion (smokeless Premier cigarets from 45 yrs. ago lost between .3B and 1B, now we have vaping; Kotex and Kleenex were abject failures at first)
All it would take to make all of these questionable battery projects, including airplanes, work beautifully would be MAJOR development in battery technology. that has not been shown to be easy for a hundred years.
@ mor2bz
“A good name cannot help a bad product but a bad name can hurt.”
I dunno, a lot of people buy Land Rovers and Minis and Jeep CUVs, and I can’t imagine it’s the stellar reputation of the product itself.
Rumored: new factory in Wales. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/14-welsh-place-names-no-6263550
Revealing yet another vapor vehicle doesn’t generate as much buzz when you haven’t provided a timeline for the production of the old vapor vehicles previously introduced and almost forgotten. Or the solar shingles. Or FSD. Or robo-taxis.
But hey, the TRK will be awesome.
I maintain, this will be the third electric pickup to market at best, behind Rivian and Ford.
Please specify the ‘old vapor vehicles’.
Roadster 2: Presented, test-driven, and orders placed by real people.
Semi: Presented and orders placed by real companies.
Model Y: Presented, test-driven, and orders placed by real people.
Tesla eventually delivers every product it has presented. The only true ‘vapor’ product at this point is the pickup truck. It will soon move from vapor status and join the other pending products that people seem to want.
The other stuff you mentioned were just ideas – no money transacted, and no commitments were made. However, I’ll agree on the Full Self Driving – Tesla will have a reckoning on that because I don’t believe they’ll ever pass legal muster to release it. FSD truly is vapor.
It’s just a matter of time before Tesla faces a class-action suit demanding refunds for the extra cost of the Autopilot option for every single owner who bought it. They’ve been making impossible-to-fulfill promises about it since the first day it was offered, and have never stopped doing so.
Seems consistent with the totally over-the-top cartoon-masculinity approach that other makers are taking with pickups.
I mean if you take out all of that functionality and usability all the others offer (based on teasers…we haven’t seen it nor do we actuall know when you’ll be able to take delivery)
I don’t think we have any information yet on the thing’s capabilities. I’m just referring to marketing. I don’t find “CYBRTRK” more or less offensive than billboard RAM lettering or chrome grilles that are as tall as I am.
My friend who runs a CDJR dealer service center says the expensive RAMs are delivered without some of the badging so customers who spend over seventy grand can decide how garish they want to be.
Did he get the name inspiration from CyberPunk?
Please buy more vowels.
Pat, I’d like to buy a vowel.
“By that time, plenty of competition will be on hand from the likes of Rivian, Ford, and perhaps even GM”
So says every Tesla critic who doesn’t realize how hard it is to catch them, especially when most ‘competitors’ don’t have the will to go all-in.
Have you seen the story on that fleet (Tesloop) with all the Teslas over 300,000 miles but half of them have had the battery pack replaced on warranty which is about 20 grand cost?
Something about prior to a date Lord Elon selected all examples will have a lifetime battery warranty, I presume because something was wrong with the technology and Musk was doing the right thing to save face and help his marque.
@Indi500fan: Show me. I know of only TWO units needing battery replacements and it turned out even then that one of those replacements wasn’t even necessary–it was a software error that misreported the battery capacity.
https://autoweekDOTcom/article/green-cars/how-do-300k-mile-teslas-hold-ev-fleet-operator-has-some-interesting-data
Broken link for me, Indi
Now that the Tesla Cybrtrk is announced, I can’t wait for the Tesla Cryptid.
;-)
Maybe you get to insert the vowels of your choice, without vowels consonants cannot be pronounced.
Maybe CYBuRTRiK or CYBiRaToRiK”?
Hm. Lambert is going to have to change his site’s name to LCTRK.
T is a good letter for Truck, so why not just the Model-oh wait, right.
Something about early Gen X and that film, I don’t get it.
Musk says it will be a better truck than an F150, and a better sports car than a 911. Not to mention it can tow 300,000 lbs. Probably uphill through a sand dune. If you’re going to spout rubbish, Elon figures why not make it complete, utter and totally clueless rubbish? Some dolt will believe you.
Just like the Tesla semis going from the Nevada Gigafactory to Fremont and gaining charge due to altitude change.
Perfectly fitting with the Sci-Fi theme he’s been running for this truck almost from the beginning. Interestingly, the font is roughly similar to one I’ve read for over 35 years, so I’m not put off by it the way some are.