Is the “Cyber” identity strong enough to sustain its own SUV sub-brand?
The post contains digital illustrations made through AI that are neither related to nor endorsed by Tesla.
Tesla and its chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, made a bold move when they unveiled the Cybertruck. Despite its polarizing design, there is no denying that the truck stands out from everything else on the road.
Yes, its stainless steel body panels are similar in concept to the DeLorean, the truck owes a great deal of its aesthetic identity to the car and its sci-fi legacy, but von Holzhausen really went all in on cyberpunk chic, and ultimately, I think it will pay off for the company.
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Already, the aesthetic is inspiring other products, such as Tesla’s limited edition Gigabier and a portable power wall in China. If Tesla operated like other brands, that would almost certainly mean the creation of a sub-brand.
Read: The Tesla Cybertruck Is The Most-Anticipated EV Among Reddit Users, Says New Study
GMC is doing it with the Hummer, and others are doing it to a greater or lesser extent. For example, there’s Mercedes’ AMG, BMW‘s M, and even Volkswagen’s new Scout brand. Although it’s a fully-fledged brand, it’s a breakaway entity designed to house a range of electric trucks that don’t fit in anywhere else in the automaker’s empire.
That’s why we decided to play around with an AI image generator to imagine what would happen if Tesla decided to expand the Cyber sub-brand with a rugged SUV. Based on the same platform, the vehicle would simply extend the roof for buyers who have people to haul, rather than sheets of plywood.
Starting with a four-door SUV, the profile of the CyberCross would have to be massaged slightly for it to make sense. In some iterations above, that leads to a slightly awkward peak in the middle of the SUV.
As Franz von Holzhausen pointed out in an interview last year, one of the problems with working with stainless steel is that it’s very thick. That means that sheets simply can’t be bent into complex curves, leading to very flat body panels. That’s a major factor in the Cybertruck‘s overall aesthetics, but it’s also what leads to those sharp angles.
By introducing another step, and flattening the roof, we can create something that looks a little less awkward. In the version of the CyberCross you see above, influences of the origami style pioneered by Giorgietto Giugiaro in cars like the Lamborghini Countach can even be seen – which I suppose was inevitable given the material the EV is made of.
The truck could even be turned into a two-door CyberCross Coupe, which would no doubt appeal to the kinds of Silicon Valley CEOs who spend time in the desert and prepare, almost hopefully, for apocalypse-type scenarios.
More: What If Lamborghini Made A New LM003 Instead Of The Urus?
The truck needn’t necessarily be made of stainless steel to be a member of the “Cyber” lineup. If the material proves to be too finicky, the aesthetic influences of the Cybertruck could still be merged with the design of other Tesla vehicles, as the second and third photos in the gallery above show.
What do you think, though? Is the Cybertruck a strong enough aesthetic entity to warrant its own off-road sub-brand, or that one vehicle is already too much for you?
