Some of Tesla’s engineers were not fans of the design of the Cybertruck that Elon Musk envisioned, and for that reason, they secretly worked on an alternative proposal. This revelation comes from Franz von Holzhausen, the head of design at the automaker, in Elon Musk’s biography released last week, written by Walter Isaacson.
“Most of the people in the studio hated it. It was like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was very weird,” von Holzhausen said regarding the futuristic design of the Cybertruck.
Some Tesla engineers began secretly designing another version of the pickup after seeing a model of the futuristic design on display at the SpaceX exhibit in Los Angeles in the summer of 2019, according to Isaacson, who wrote Musk’s biography and spent three years with him.
It’s not clear what happened to the alternative version of the vehicle, with the biographer writing that Musk did not listen to von Holzhausen and his team regarding the design. Instead, he asked them to have a functional prototype ready with the futuristic design, which they managed to accomplish despite working around the clock, seven days a week, according to von Holzhausen. This prototype was presented at a Tesla event in November 2019.
Musk wanted the Cybertruck to have a futuristic design in response to traditional pickups, which he found “boring.” Broad production of the Cybertruck is expected to begin sometime within the year.
