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Originally Posted by smoo
Only owns 13%, was the cyber truck his idea? He seems weird enough for it to be, as if it is one of his pet projects.
A smaller, lighter pick up with normal styling and design themes from current models could have made it a sales success.
Seems like a missed opportunity and the Chinese are capitalising on it, on the global market anyway.
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Playing it safe isn't what gets you attention though. His involvement is considerably overplayed by the company as the hype man. There are people who love the man (it's crazy!!) and will buy anything he says he was involved in without questions.
Ford used the Mustang name on the EV because they knew it would generate a huge amount of interest and polarising views. Some buy it because they think it's a Mustang, some because they like the car and others avoid it because they feel the Mustang name is used in vain. Right now, the Mach E is out selling the ICE models (sure, different car and a family car but people said by using the Mustang name, no one would buy it!).
Similar story with the CyberTruck. I can't think of a single ute that has had such a global response. Everyone, whether you like Teslas or not, knows what a CyberTruck is. And many love it.
At the EV show, the line to sit in it was 20 minutes long and people still waited. Kids love it! They go crazy for the CyberTruck. By comparison, the BYD Shark, you could walk up and sit in it at any point during the show with no wait times (maybe 30 seconds).
If it looked like every other ute, they wouldn't sell as well. Americans have liked big and bold things for a long time. If you remember, Fusion and other global models had very different front grills that could only be classified as "bold" compared to the global Mondeo.
Ford played it safe like you suggested with the F150. The CyberTruck has beaten it though production issues for Tesla has kept the F150 ahead overall. Shows you that you don't have to follow the norm to be at the top.