Recently, the chief engineer for Tesla’s Cybertruck begged for an end to the capricious experiments that both supporters and opponents of the electric pickup company have been subjecting its initial model to since its launch.
The Cybertruck has been shot at with a variety of guns and bulletproof vests, and its doors have withstood attacks with baseball bats.
In softer tests, “rust” patches were scratched and polished to show that the stainless steel Tesla used to build the Cybertruck is neither unbreakable nor as terrible as people had thought before it was released.
The latest such test comes in a parking lot with the Cybertruck and numerous other Teslas. A member of the Cybertruck Owners Club noticed that the reflections of the sun falling on the electric pickup parked nearby felt very hot.
They decided to test the accuracy of the claims that the stainless steel will make the Cybertruck a hot box in the summer, and took out their FLIR thermometer. Apart from the Cybertruck’s surface temperature, the Model Y owner measured what the blazing sun brought to several other Teslas in the parking lot. They included a black, white, and midnight silver metallic models.
As can be expected, the black Tesla heated worse in the sun, while the white one fared best. What’s more interesting, however, is that the Cybertruck was as good as the white Tesla in the blazing heat, as it reflected enough rays to hit a surface temperature of 106.1 F, or 41.17 Celsius.
The black Tesla went up to the toasty 144.6 F, or 62.56 Celsius. The dark silver Tesla fared a bit better, and registered 140 F surface temperature, with the prospective boost in cabin heat.
In essence, Cybertruck owners in warm, sunny climates can stop worrying that the stainless steel truck will heat up more. As can be expected, in the hot sun it will be as cool as a Tesla painted in white.
