The very optimistically-named Cybertruck Owners’ Club recently published some interesting and, what the hell, even amusing pictures of a pair of pre-production Cybertrucks, one of which was having what appears to be a Ford F-150 wrap installed on it. Why the Cybertruck was being dressed for some F-150 cosplay isn’t yet clear, but is clear, or at least a bit clearer than I think has been seen before, is an inside look at the Cybertruck’s frunk area. In these shots, the frunk appears unfinished, at least if it is intended to be used to actually store anything, since there is no inner liner of any sort, and all that can really be seen is a lot of the thermal management hardware used by the Cybertruck. Let’s take a closer look.
The pictures also showed up in a number of Tweets (are they still called that?) including this one:
I am…. Confused. But enjoy this shot. @elonmusk troll level 69420
Cybertruck wrapped like an ICE F150 with its hood up. 🥸 pic.twitter.com/MQGXU0GmLD
— Greggertruck (@greggertruck) July 23, 2023
That’s a pretty good-looking F-150 wrap, too; I bet everybody is going to be grabbing fecklessly at those fake door handles.
Look at the round wheel arches over the Cybertruck’s angled ones in that pciture! And how much headroom you give up in the Cybertruck! If we overlay the Cybertruck upper body lines over the Ford F-150 Lightning, the differences become more clear:
I get that the Cybertruck’s big appeal to many people is how radically different it looks, but if Tesla was trying to troll Ford with this wrap, all they really seem to be doing is reminding everyone that there’s a lot less headroom, especially at the rear.
But let’s look closer at the inside of that frunk:
Can we get in any closer? Computer! Zoom and enhance!
Okay, let’s see here: we have a space much wider than deep, heavily encroached by the large wheel wells in there as well as all of that likely HVAC/thermal management hardware. Based on these views, it looks like only about half the floor area would be available for storage use, essentially from the leading edge of the wheel wells forward. If there was a sort of frunk tub/liner in place, I think you’d have a decent area to store a few things, maybe around the size of two airline carry-on bags, placed side-by-side? Maybe a bit more? It doesn’t look like a huge area, certainly nowhere near what the Ford F-150 Lightning trunk has, as Ford shows us in this publicity image:
In this shot, it looks like just the free trunk area in the F-150 Lightning, ahead of all the stuff already crammed in there in that picture, may be similar to what the whole Cybertruck trunk offers? Let’s look side-by side:
Of course, the Cybertruck frunk doesn’t look finished, and I don’t think this is a production-final design. It’s possible there could be a lot of re-packaging that will happen prior to production that would change this. I think it would be wise for Tesla to do all they can to carve a usable frunk out of this area; it’s a big selling point for Ford, having lockable, dry storage, the sort of thing that people used to use aftermarket in-bed toolboxes for.
Also, are the main forward lights integrated into the hood? There seem to be indicators and DRLs in the lip above the bumper, but I don’t think those are the main headlamps.
I’m curious to know more about what’s going on here, and to eventually see what the production frunk looks like. I can be patient, though. We’ve been waiting since 2019 as it is, anyway.
That is some grade-A shade-throwing, right there.
I kinda still prefer the Rivian. Or the Ford.
I think I read that the Cybertruck was designed to have a large cab area with four doors and a 6-foot bed as well — while still fitting in a 20-foot garage. I think to do that, they moved the cab as far forward as possible — which would explain the small frunk.