What’s that thing driving around Charlotte? Tesla Cybertrucks are causing a double take.
Inside a Mooresville auto shop, Brian Jenkins is very enthusiastic about working on Cybertrucks — vehicles that look like something Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character would drive in the 1990 sci-fi film “Total Recall.”
But it’s not 2084 and his i1Customs business is not on Mars.
Jenkins opened it in August to provide services to Tesla CT owners after working out of his garage for three years. It’s becoming a little less rare to see the unusually shaped electric vehicle with flat panels on roads and highways in the Charlotte region. They are attention magnets for people who drive them.
But he said drivers have to be focused on the road to avoid distractions from people surprised by their vehicle.
“It’s getting better, but it used to be dangerous on the road because everyone has their phones up taking pictures and video as they’re driving,” Jenkins said about driving a customer’s CT down to Florida.
For people who don’t mind that attention, they’ll have to pay around $80,000 for the base model or more than $100,000 for additional features such as more motors and horsepower on the Cyberbeast edition. The advanced edition also comes with a light bar that can illuminate more than 500 yards when driving off-road.
The electric battery pickup truck is made out of bulletproof stainless-steel and armored glass that can resist the impact of a baseball at 70 mph, according to Tesla. It can go from 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and has a towing capacity of 11,000 pounds.
Tesla did not respond to a request from comment about buyers in the Charlotte region.
The company doesn’t provide sales data for CTs in quarterly reports to investors. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may have provided the total, which is more than 11,600, in a recall notice about a large front wiper on the vehicle, according to a report from Yahoo Finance.
There are some other issues with it too. It’s easy to get fingerprints on the side of truck because of the raw stainless steel surface — and it can get pretty bad, Jenkins said.
“They are not painting these things at all,” he added.
For Jenkins, though, that’s good for business.
iCustoms gives CTs a sportier look with services such as vinyl wrapping, accessory installation, paint protection film, ceramic coating, paint correction and window tint. Jenkins receives about four requests each week in the Charlotte region.
The former carpenter has been on YouTube since 2018 with his i1Tesla channel, gaining more than 60,000 subscribers. It has attracted people from other states such as Texas, Ohio and Maryland for his business. But most are from the Carolinas and the Southeast region.
‘A computer’ that’s really a truck
There are only a few dealerships selling Tesla vehicles in North Carolina, according to Jenkins. The CTs are pre-ordered like other Tesla vehicles. Deliveries began last year for the concept introduced in 2019 for the company owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk. Jenkins is planning to own a CT in the future.
“It’s a rolling billboard,” Jenkins said. “If you own a business, why not get a Cybertruck.”
And that’s what Spenser Morgan had in mind.
He uses his CT to advertise his Charlotte-based business ProForce Pest Control. After being pleased with the Tesla Model 3 Performance for 200,000 miles and not having a lot of maintenance issues from it, Morgan decided to stick with the brand. But Morgan admitted that he was disappointed with the CT look.
“Man, that’s ugly,” Morgan said about his first thought. “Then I started thinking instantly, ‘that thing is going to get a lot of eyeballs.’ ”
Morgan doesn’t like to drive trucks, but the CT feels more like a sporty sedan to him. Access to the truck is provided through Bluetooth on a Smartphone device.
It has an 18-inch screen display with navigation, views of about 10 cameras, video games, music controls and other features such as a map of charging stations. The CT’s 123 kilowatt battery takes about $12 to charge up for 330 miles.
“This is basically a computer that happens to be a car,” Jenkins said.
Most people dig his ride
Morgan gets positive responses or a thumbs up about 90% of the time. “I had a couple of guys act like they’re throwing up as they’re driving by,” he said about the other 10%.
Instagram comedy content creator Kerry at @northcarolinakerry is one of those unimpressed drivers. He made a recent post about spotting a CT on the highway. “These things will never not look goofy to me,” he stated.
Other users chimed in on the post with more than 170 comments. “I’ve seen several in Charlotte,” one user wrote. “Literally don’t see the appeal, ha ha.”
Another said: “When every kid’s first drawing of a car makes it onto the highway.”
But some were intrigued. “I like them because they are different,” one person said, crediting the innovation. “Every SUV/truck looks the same nowadays, but I guess you can only get so aerodynamic.”
It has a boxy shape because its made out of the same steel used by Musk’s SpaceX, which designs and manufactures rockets and spacecraft, Jenkins said about his research on Tesla.
Although the odd-shaped truck may look like it’s hard to park, Jenkins and Morgan said they didn’t have any problems in Charlotte yet.
But Morgan wasn’t so lucky in New York with parking attendants.
“A lot of places are paid parking, and a lot of them didn’t want me to park it there,” Morgan said. “But then the funny thing was, I acted like I was a celebrity and I’d pull up in front of a hotel and ask them if I could park it there.
“And they always said yes.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2024 at 6:12 AM with the headline "What’s that thing driving around Charlotte? Tesla Cybertrucks are causing a double take.."
