Tesla Cybertruck Wrapped Like a Ford F

Ford may have gotten the last laugh thanks to the Tesla’s tiny-looking frunk.

RobDrivesCars

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In 20 years, the auto industry will remember one of its greatest modern rivalries: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his Cybertruck versus Ford CEO Jim Farley and the F-150 Lightning. Both of these white-collar bosses have been casting shade on one another over the direction each company has gone with their pickups. That's what makes this latest Cybertruck spotting even more interesting.

Recently, several photos of Cybertrucks reportedly parked inside Tesla's global engineering headquarters were leaked online over on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum. The fact that the photos were leaked is a story on its own, but what's more hilarious is that one of these trucks is adorned with a special wrap to feature the "boring" styling of the Ford F-150.

Several wrapped Cybertrucks have been spotted driving around recently. The majority of these trucks have worn artsy, camouflage vinyl, which isn't abnormal for unreleased vehicles. But for Tesla to slap the likeness of another manufacturer's flagship truck on the side of their own—this has to be an elaborate troll, right?

The wrap extends from the sides of the Cybertruck onto the vehicle's front end. It shows the Ford's side profile (including door handles and body lines), as well as the headlights and grille. It's unclear if the rear of the truck matches the tailgate of the F-150 too, but I’m willing to bet that it does.

Now, while Tesla's goal here was probably to troll Ford by leaking some viral images, the Blue Oval automaker may get the last laugh here with an inadvertent frunk measuring contest.

The Cybertruck seems to have borrowed a trick from the F-150 Lightning's playbook: the Mega Power Frunk. Well, at least the way that the front trunk opens at waist level. In the Ford, this makes for easy loading and unloading of gear. The Cybertruck seems to take a similar approach, but given that none of the leaked photos have internal plastics, the actual room and storage situation is still unknown. It’s worth noting that the frunk's interior volume appears to be quite small even without the plastics.

The smaller frunk space could be a trade-off for a more spacious interior. Tesla CEO Elon Musk bragged about the Cybertruck's large cab during the company's most recent quarterly earnings call; however, when it comes to balancing hardpoints, design, and usable volume, there will always be a trade-off.

"This is the first truck that we're aware of that will have four doors, over a six-foot bed, and fit into a 20-foot garage," Musk said. "So, it's sort of biggish on the outside, but it's even bigger on the inside. One of the elements of good design is it should feel bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. And this is no small car."

During a previous interview with The Drive, the Ford F-150 Lightning’s Chief Engineer Linda Zhang told me that the Mega Power Frunk was an important innovation for the truck because it improved on one of the most sought-after features of a pickup: dry lockable storage. If Tesla sacrificed storage in the frunk of the Cybertruck, perhaps it believes that customers will utilize the bed's (affectionately called "the vault") motorized tonneau cover as dry lockable storage instead.

The Cybertruck's length was previously announced to be 231.7 inches, or just a tad over 19 feet long. This dimension may have changed with final tweaks, though Tesla has said that the Cybertruck is one of the only vehicles with a full-size cab and six-foot bed to fit in a 20-foot garage. A similarly-spec’d Ford F-150 with a 5.5-foot bed carries the same overall length.

Tesla produced one of the first release candidate Cybertrucks on its new Texas production line just over a week ago. While there's still no official release date, Tesla says that it plans to begin delivering the Cybertruck later this year.

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