Ford CEO says Tesla's Cybertruck is only for 'Silicon Valley people' and he's not threatened by it: 'I make trucks for real people who do real work'

I am going to judge a lot of them for driving like assholes. There's a reason people call them Tasshole.

At least where I live Tesla is a good option for overpaid office guys, the guys that used to drive a BMW or Audi. Lots of Tesla drivers that are impatient, aggressive and just annoying on the road.

I drive a Tesla and Elon can suck Dick, but the actual people that make the car have done a good job for what I've gotten.

Don't know much about the truck though really

I drive a Tesla. my excuse is, I bought before he went full fascist. I don't think I'll buy another one.

I have. A lot of pickup trucks, for example, are built out of F450s. Old F450s.

The F-150 line is almost entirely vanity vehicles, though, and I have never seen a Lightning on the road but am sure I do not exclude it from my judgment.

The only time I've seen it was when it was a company-issued truck lol

If I could get a new electric truck for less than $60,000 I'd use it though, because I get free charging and I could use the truck to make enough money to cover half of the payments. Just my personal situation.

I make Costco runs in my Golf just fine. Very few families really NEED that giant vehicle. Even the ones that do, could easily get by with a normal 5 seater car and one larger vehicle.

People who don't need trucks but want them anyway are the main force driving what types of trucks go to market. If it weren't for that performative nonsense, automakers would go back to their primary market: practical work vehicles, without all the family suv bells and whistles. Therefore, cheaper.

All trucks are not built the same, that's my point. I want a truck that's a truck, not a minivan masquerading as a truck.

I've no idea what that means

Well, you're right, that guy is an asshole. But he also makes a point, namely that there is no person in the world with a reason to purchase a Cybertruck other than just to jerk off Elongated Muskrat a bit more. It doesn't do anything practical. Even someone with an F150 or a Ram 2500, while yes they do generally own a parking lot princess, it can do truck stuff in a pinch. It has a bed and a tailgate and it can haul a trailer. Cybertruck can maybe haul a trailer but it isn't going to do anything else practical that a Ford won't. You'll never catch a contractor driving a Cybertruck. You will find them driving an F150.

Point is, he's not saying you aren't real, he's saying the hypothetical person that has a valid use case for a Cybertruck isn't real. If someone is going out to buy a truck to perform work they aren't looking at Tesla.

Do you need a truck? No? Don't buy a truck. It's that easy.

I think the point still stands: people who buy trucks want to believe they can do real work, kind of like the fantasy of an SUV as a rugged vehicle even though their buyers typically treat them like street cars.

I agree with you that most people driving trucks probably don't need to be driving trucks. My home vehicle is a nice little Corolla that gets great gas mileage.

But reality is that for a lot of workers, the show must go on, rain or shine, heat wave or cold snap. I've had to be that guy -- coldest day of the year and some piece of critical infrastructure is broken, the boss says "I don't care, we need it working, get out there". Temperatures that cold you literally start to feel death's caress. It starts to soak into your meat, and it at some point it doesn't matter what you're wearing.

Days like that, even a diesel is pretty scary, but pretty much no vehicle ever turns off. If it's a gas vehicle at least the block heater can let you start the thing.

solar doesn't work well in the darkness of winter.

We'll see.

Everything I keep on hearing says that these things become basically worthless the moment you're not driving under perfect conditions. I've personally witnessed EVs become basically useless in winter, or when there's a few too many hills. I've even heard that you're going to want a heated garage to go with your fancy EV in real winters. I'd also like to know what toll real winters have on the overall lifespan of a battery on a $100,000 truck -- it'd suck if you have to send your expensive vehicle to the junkyard in just a few years because you don't live in an ideal climate. I guess I should also point out that -20 is not -40, and the work doesn't stop because it isn't warm out.

I've been eyeing an EV for running around town, but the risks hold me back.

Except that generally speaking, your gas tank doesn't really change capacity that much based on the weather -- the fact you have to idle it is obviously a concern, but typically your fuel economy doesn't dramatically change because the weather outside changes. By contrast, I've heard and seen an EV in very cold winter weather basically become a brick until it spends some time in a nice heated space, and then it only wakes up until you bring it back outside and the battery freezes again.

I've done really long road trips in extraordinarily cold weather. I used to live in the far north, and I still work up there occasionally. You're not losing 80% of your travel capacity or anything like that.