Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Build a "Normal" Truck If Cybertruck Fails
Welcome to The Grid, R&T's quick roundup of the auto industry and motorsports news you should know this morning.
Musk: Tesla Will Build a Normal Pickup If Cybertruck Fails
When Tesla first announced it was going to build a pickup truck, auto industry watchers interpreted it as the California company taking direct aim at one of the most lucrative segments in North America. But when Tesla revealed its Cybertruck last fall, it became clear Elon Musk and co. had different ideas. In an interview with Automotive News, Musk explained that the Cybertruck was born out of a simple desire to build an "awesome" car. And if people don't like it, Musk has a "plan."
"If it turns out nobody wants to buy a weird-looking truck, we'll build a normal truck, no problem," Musk said. "There's lots of normal trucks out there that look pretty much the same; you can hardly tell the difference. And sure, we could just do some copycat truck; that's easy. So that's our fallback strategy."
Does this mean Tesla has a conventional pickup waiting in the wings? It's unclear. Is Musk just spitballing? Possibly.
Ferrari Reports Second Quarter Loss
Despite continuing demand for its cars, Ferrari reported a Q2 2020 loss on Monday, and as a result, trimmed its expected annual earnings. Reuters reports that Ferrari earned €124 million ($145 million) in the second quarter—a drop of 60 percent year over year. Ferrari was hurt by the delay of the Formula 1 season—which meant race and sponsorship money wasn't coming in—plus supply chain issues for its cars, including the new SF90 Stradale.
Pirelli Is Investigating Silverstone Tire Failures
Yesterday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone was quite a boring race until Valtteri Bottas, running comfortably in second, experienced a catastrophic right-front tire failure with just three laps to go. Lewis Hamilton had the same issue on the final lap, and managed to limp his Mercedes to victory on three tires. McLaren's Carlos Sainz had a similar issue, dropping him out of the points from fifth. Racer reports that, naturally, Pirelli is opening an investigation to determine what happened.
Pirelli's F1 boss Mario Isola told Racer that debris on the track could've contributed to the failure. Kimi Raikkonen suffered a front wing failure in the late stages of the race, and that could've left carbon-fiber shards on the circuit. We should have a better picture of what happened by tomorrow.
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