Tesla CEO Elon Musk said three years ago that the Cybertruck would be able to float, that is, it would be an amphibious electric vehicle, but on a serial basis The pickup truck, presented at the end of November, did not have a swimming mode. This week, Musk confirmed his intention to turn the Cybertruck into a boat.
Tesla Cybertruck, of course, became the most high-profile automobile premiere of this year — it is too out of the ordinary, too different from everyone else . After a short and rather skimpy presentation of the production pickup truck on November 30, hundreds of videos appeared on YouTube, in which the technical and design features of the Tesla miracle pickup truck were broken down.
The legendary American TV presenter Jay Leno, who has his own large collection of cars and motorcycles, also paid attention to the new Tesla product: this week in his YouTube show Jay Leno's Garage, the Cybertruck electric pickup appeared accompanied by Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen and head of Tesla development department Lars Moravi. During our acquaintance with the car and communication, the conversation, of course, turned to Musk’s promised ability to cross rivers, lakes and straits with a pickup truck. Lars Moravi tried to laugh it off: they say, the Cybertruck is almost floating, but some things need to be improved to improve buoyancy, if you want, you can even connect an electric propeller to a household outlet in the body — it’s a simple matter, jack-of-all-trades Jay Leno can definitely handle it.
Fragments of Jay Leno's conversation with Tesla executives quickly spread across the Internet and reached Elon Musk, after which he said in all seriousness that the company was preparing an optional package for the Cybertruck that would allow the pickup to float on calm water for at least a hundred meters, for this you only need upgrade door seals. Musk did not mention any connected propeller, that is, the role of propulsion, as previously assumed, will be performed by rotating wheels. Elon Musk did not specify when exactly the “swimming package” will be available for order.
For now that the Cybertruck can only boast a special mode for fording: it is activated through the multifunction screen in the cabin and requires about 10 minutes of preparation: the air suspension raises the body to a maximum of 443 mm above the ground, in addition, the air suspension compressor pumps air into the battery housing to create excess pressure there and is guaranteed to protect it from water. The maximum fordable depth is only 787 mm, and the vehicle can remain in ford mode for no more than 30 minutes. In general, so far the Tesla pickup’s ability to overcome water obstacles is not very impressive — we are waiting for a full-fledged “swimming package”.