Jan. 20th 2020 8:56 am

Tesla Cybertruck could be “incredibly cheap” to bring to production, thanks to its novel body technology, according to a manufacturing expert.

Sandy Munro is a manufacturing expert who rose to fame in the Tesla community after his breakdown of an early Model 3.

At first, he made many unfavorable comments about Tesla before changing his tune and recognizing the automaker’s lead in electric vehicle manufacturing.

Now Munro is turning his attention to the Tesla Cybertruck, even though the engineer has never actually had access to the vehicle.

Instead, he is going off what Tesla has revealed about the upcoming electric pickup truck, like the fact that it’s equipped with a structural body shell:

Cybertruck is built with an exterior shell made for ultimate durability and passenger protection. Starting with a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton, every component is designed for superior strength and endurance, from Ultra-Hard 30X Cold-Rolled stainless-steel structural skin to Tesla armor glass.

Munro states that combining the body with the platform and the lack of paint should result in a significant reduction in capital expenditure to bring the vehicle to production.

He has thrown some numbers around like ~$30 million of capital required to establish the production of 50,000 trucks versus $210 million for the Ford F-150.

While the engineer doesn’t have enough detail to give an in-depth analysis, his comments were insightful enough to get the nod from Tesla CEO Elon Musk:

Munro’s analysis of Tesla engineering is accurate, both pro & con. I think he will appreciate some elements of the Model Y body design.

Even though Model Y shares most of its parts with Model 3, the design is still supposed to feature some interesting manufacturing improvements, and it will go into production before the Tesla Cybertruck.

To hear Munro’s full comments on the Tesla Cybertruck, you can watch Autoline After Hours here:

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