Looks like a writeoff to me. 
Unrelated to the above, the other day I saw one wrapped in about the same shade of medium blue as many Hyundais are painted. It’s a pleasing color but boy did it look out of place on a CT.
Wow, I would have really expected the wood chipper to the source of the fire, there. But it looks like the Cybertruck was the most likely source.
The towering flame jet in the first image in that news story (the static image for the video) must have been the fuel tank on the chipper. Unless there’s something very special about the design of a CT’s battery pack that makes a battery fire vent straight through the cargo deck or the passenger compartment 
Thanks for the laugh! 
I actually hadn’t seen a CT around here in a while, but I saw one three days ago. Seeing one after a little while of not seeing one…really impressed me again how ugly they are.
“I’m going to walk downtown, need anything?”
“That’s five miles… just take the Cybertruck!”
“Uhhh, that’s okay…”
“Well, call if you need a ride home.”
“I’d rather Uber, if you don’t mind…”
Tesla is believed to have only delivered about 5000 cybertrucks in the second quarter. Tesla doesn’t breakout model delivery data, in their reports, so they have 3/Y at 384,122, deliveries and 10,394 deliveries for S/X/Cybertruck/Semi. According to this article, estimates from international data put the S/X deliveries at around 5000, so about 5000 cybertrucks were delivered in Q2.
Manufacturing capacity was scaled to produce 250,000-500,000 cybertrucks per year.
Maybe the reason people don’t seem to see as many anymore is that they’re not even being sold at replacement rate, with all the Youtubers wrecking them and what not.
It reminds me of those videos that were popular a while back of people’s vape pens catching fine in their pants. There was usually a big, long flame shooting out of their pocket, not too dissimilar to the jet in the photo above.
Boo freakin’ hoo, Elon, ol’ pal:
Elmo’s Edsel.
Here’s more.
Blair’s note pointed out that Trump’s bill not only removed the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle (EV) buyers, but also eliminated the financial penalties for automakers that fail to meet federal emissions targets. Emissions fines have historically forced automakers who still build primarily gasoline powered cars and trucks to buy “regulatory credits” from EV companies.
Removing those fines eliminates “market demand for Tesla’s credits,” said the note from William Blair analysts Jed Dorsheimer and Mark Shooter. The sale of those federal and state credits added $10.6 billion to Tesla’s bottom line since 2019 and often enabled the company to post a profit.
I missed that the Big Ugly Bill eliminated the federal penalties for missing emissions targets. There are a lot of state penalties still in place, though.
Can’t tell if this has come up in this long thread:
Man burns to death in Cybertruck. Relatives sue Tedla, alleging the power failure after the accident meant he couldn’t open the door and escape.
Apparently the Cybertruck shares with some Tesla car models super-fancy computer-controlled doors that can probably be opened via voice activation, or even through mental telepathy if you have a Neuralink chip installed in your brain, but cannot be opened at all in an emergency. This is one of many features that should bear the distinguished label “Design by Elmo”.
Glued-on Cybertruck panels that spontaneously fall off is another one. The CNN article linked above gives 8 reasons that the CT is such a flop, which include high price, appallingly ugly design, repeated recalls, range much less than promised, and the inevitable association with Elmo.
Not only that, but the regulatory credits that automakers selling high-emissions vehicles have had to buy from Tesla are also now gone. Tesla received around $10.6 billion in these payments since 2019. Now they get nothing.
CNN article on Tesla’s earnings call with analysts; apparently Musk and analysts both ignored fact that Tesla’s sales are cratering and share price is dropping; focussed on Tesla going to be an AI company with robots and robo-taxis “soon”.
I can’t speak to CTs in specific, but it seems the other models of Tesla with electric opening doors also have a small discrete mechanical pull built into the arm rest / door grab.
If you know it’s there, it’s easy to use. If you don’t know it’s there, you sure aren’t going to find it timely in a crisis.
For some years now it’s been a requirement that car trunks have a mechanical pull handle on the inside so someone trapped in a trunk can open it. The handle is required to be exposed, not hidden behind a panel, and to glow in the dark. Which generally means it’s a yellowish white plastic in daylight.
As all cars, not just Teslas, become increasingly electrified I could easily imagine a similar regulation requiring emergency mechanical door releases to be some kind of standardized obviousness so anyone can escape any unfamiliar car in a familiar way.
This is one of those things that blew my mind when I first heard about it. Why would you build a door that cannot be opened if you lose power? Besides that Elon thought it would be cool, that is.
The door can be opened without power
I am vaguely recalling some Tesla owners – can’t remember the model – who are Uber or Lyft drivers are taping over the mechanical release with a sign on it to use the push button to exit. When done that way the side window drops a quarter inch and doesn’t tear up the rubber seal. I’m guessing the latches are not too hard to find, at least in the sedans.
They aren’t. It’s exactly where you’d expect the latch to be. Everyone who has been in my Y who is unfamiliar with Teslas has opened the door that way unless I tell them first. The electric button is not obvious.