Tesla’s new Cybertruck was the talk of the town last week. Its design is polarizing and both windows broke during the unveiling (Elon’s reaction was amazing). At first I couldn’t tell if this wasn’t some sort of spoof on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. Everything seemed to fit, including the design of the car, the chosen brand typography, and Elon’s outfit.

But within the first 24 hours and with no paid advertising, Tesla received 146,000 pre-orders for the truck (though, all it takes is a USD 150 fully refundable deposit to secure a place in line). So while a lot of you may consider this to be one the ugliest vehicles around, there are others who think this entire move is genius.

The design was jarring when I first saw it. It looked like a comical representation of what we thought vehicles in the future were going to look like. But I have to admit that the design is growing on me. And I agree that for Tesla to win any sort of marketshare in the pick-up category, it needed to do something radical. Brand loyalty to Ford’s F-Series pick up truck is simply too strong.

Marques Brownlee has a good video explaining this take (and why he ordered a Tesla Cybertruck):

But if successful, I also wonder to what extent the Tesla Cybertruck will eat into the sales of existing pick-up truck models versus capture new buyers that historically wouldn’t have bought this kind of vehicle. In other words, we are seeing tech people and successful YouTubers, like Marques, pre-order this truck. But I bet that very few of them currently drive an F-150.

Image: Tesla