This morning Tesla held a groundbreaking event for their upcoming lithium refining facility just outside Corpus Christi, TX. The location is around 3 hours drive from the Texas Gigafactory, where much of the lithium refined, will be used for vehicle production.
While turning over some dirt with cyber-shovels was an important milestone for the company, we saw something brand new today.
Elon Musk arrived at the event in the most complete, finalised version of the Cybertruck seen to date. With the Cybertruck production gearing up for deliveries later this year, the company has a pilot production line setup, however, it’s likely this one got some human love before leaving the factory.
The big news here is the back, where we see a new, unseen storage rack accessory on the bed of the vehicle.
This black frame looks securely attaches to anchor points on the frame of the cybertruck, and performs two functions. Not only does it help contain items placed in the bed of the truck, but also offers the ability to secure off-road items like shovels and items like recovery boards.
The rear shot shows unobstructed access to the tailgate and the top provides a flat surface for attaching even more storage to the vehicle. It will be interesting to see the load rating on this.
From the front view, we see this rack provides a great ability to mount aftermarket lights, that could be wired into the power outlets in the bed of the truck.
The roof rack / cybercage accessory is likely to be offered through Tesla’s online store, along with many others as Musk alluded to in the past.
We have seen other vehicle accessories like the towbar of the Model Y, be offered as a service installable item, rather than something you can select at the time you design your vehicle. It is possible that Tesla sells this and will ship it directly, although there are practical limitations and shipping costs to consider, given the size of the item.
As streamlined as this accessory is, it will add drag and therefore reduce range, so it’ll be important to understand how easily this can be attached and removed from the vehicle.
We can see from the images shared by Chuck Cook on Twitter, that the flag attachments for today are fairly rudimentary. Given this is likely an uncommon use, it makes sense this mounting solution was a little more ad-hoc.
You can watch the full event in the video below and as you watch the earthmoving equipment in the background, know that’ll need to go electric at some point in the future too, possibly powered by Lithium refined at this site.
