Tesla’s Cybertruck has been used as an awesome off-road vehicle so far, with some great videos from both Tesla themselves, as well as many owners who have been challenging difficult off-road obstacles.
One frequently requested feature, however, is additional armor for the Cybertruck to improve its off-road capabilities. Wes Morril, Program Manager for the Cybertruck, has confirmed that Tesla will be introducing Battery Armor and Rock Sliders as retrofit “options” by the end of 2024.
Battery Armor
The Cybertruck’s underbody plate, while not completely unarmoured, isn’t exactly super thick, and can leave the battery exposed if the weight of the truck is left on a high-center point or a sharp rock. This upcoming battery armor will be similar to the armored undersides offered by other companies specifically for off-roading.
Rivian, for example, sells armor as a single package for $3,950 USD, or $5,800 CAD, along with a 20” wheel upgrade, full-size spare, and a utility panel including an air compressor and enough hose to let you reach any of the tires when airing up or down your tires for off-road. Tesla’s upcoming Battery Armor will be a retrofit option, unlike Rivian’s – which can only be added when purchasing the vehicle.
Rock Sliders
The Cybertruck has a simple and clean bottom corner – but that also means that it exposes the plastic trim directly. Rock sliders go on the bottom edge of off-road vehicles between the wheels to protect the vehicle's body. Rock sliders are a pretty common modification, and some companies have already begun to offer them for the Cybertruck – but a first-party OEM option is always best.
This is especially true since most third-party options use the lift points of the vehicle to attach rock sliders, which can make replacing wheels or lifting the vehicle difficult without removing the third-party additions. This adds considerable time to what should be a quick job.
Release Date
We’re looking forward to Tesla bringing these options to the Tesla store in the coming months. Wes said they’d be available as retrofits before the end of 2024, along with the upcoming Winter Tire Package, which is arriving next month. The Winter Tire Package is already available to order for Cybertruck owners.
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There are a few features to keep in mind when taking your Tesla through a car wash, but Tesla’s Car Wash Mode makes it easy by enabling or disabling several features for you. These settings don’t only prevent damage to your vehicle, such as locking the charge port door so that it doesn’t automatically open when a cleaning brush touches it, but they also improve the experience by recirculating the air in the vehicle to prevent cleaning chemical smells from coming in.
Car Wash Mode makes it easy by giving you a checklist of items and their real-time status, alerting you of any important items, such as your trunk being open.
When activated from Controls > Service > Car Wash Mode, it performs a list of actions:
Automatically closes all windows
Locks the charge port door to prevent accidental opening
While Car Wash Mode monitors more than a handful of items, it doesn’t continuously check the status of your windows. When you first enter Car Wash Mode, the vehicle will automatically roll up any open windows. However, it won’t alert you if a window has been lowered after Car Wash Mode was enabled. This could spell disaster for your vehicle's interior, as one user found out.
Lincoln posted a video on X, demonstrating what happened to his friend and requesting that Tesla add open windows to the list of flags in Car Wash Mode.
Tesla’s Troy R. Jones, VP of North America Sales and Service, noticed the post and decided to take action, offering to pass on the suggestion to the vehicle software team.
Good recommendation. Sharing with the team. Thanks
While Troy’s response doesn’t confirm the feature being added in a future update, it’ll at least be put in front of the software team to potentially address.
Tesla could add this window-specific solution in several ways. Tesla could add this as another on-screen flag while the vehicle is in Car Wash Mode, simply alerting the driver that there’s a window open. However, they could also go one step further and lock the rear windows to prevent accidental opening while Car Wash Mode is enabled.
In case of an emergency, Tesla could present an on-screen button that pops up when a user tries to open a window while Car Wash Mode is activated, letting the driver override Car Wash Mode.
We’re interested to see what Tesla would do here, as these little quality-of-life changes really improve the end-user experience. What else would you like to see added to Car Wash Mode?
Tesla offers a range of home energy products — from the widely used Wall Connector to the Powerwall and the innovative Solar Roof. Now, for the first time, a unique residential development in Houston, Texas, combines all of these technologies — and more — to move toward energy self-sufficiency.
Self-Sufficient
This community, located in Oaks of Shady Acres and built by Utopia Homes, consists of just 11 townhomes, each designed using Tesla technology to be self-sufficient. Utopia has equipped the homes with Solar Roofs, Powerwalls, and Wall Connectors to complete the entire ecosystem.
Tesla’s Solar Roof replaces traditional roofing materials while doubling as a clean energy source during daylight hours. The best part is that it mimics the look of conventional shingles while improving durability and longevity. Any excess energy generated is stored in the home’s Powerwall 3 units, providing power when the sun is down.
Tesla's Solar Roof
Not a Tesla App
Tesla’s Universal Wall Connector, which can charge any EV equipped with either a NACS or CCS port (through a J1772 adapter). If you added on a Cybertruck with Powershare (more vehicles will support Powershare in the future), you’d have a backup system that would last an extremely long time on batteries alone.
A Powerwall 3 stores about 13.5 kWh of energy, while a Cybertruck has a battery pack of 123 kWh, which is roughly equivalent to about nine Powerwalls. In addition, the Cybertruck could be used as a “mobile battery pack,” which can get additional energy from Superchargers and bring it back to the home if there’s an extended power outage.
Utopia markets these homes with “100% energy security,” - but they’re still grid-connected. However, they appear to have made quite a point with this - as many people in Texas, with its notoriously unstable electricity grid - were excited to get into these homes.
Sadly, these homes still include a gas range, so they’re not entirely green and disconnected. This likely comes down to the fact that powering an induction range alongside a heat pump in the winter could draw more energy than Powerwall 3 is capable of outputting instantaneously.
Attention Getters
These 11 homes attracted a lot of attention - according to a broker working on Utopia’s team, they had requests to see or buy these homes coming from across the country. Priced around $544,900, these homes are about $150,000 higher than Houston’s median list pricing for similarly sized townhomes, but the benefits are clear for many buyers who will recoup these additional costs over the home’s life.
Utopia has acknowledged the demand for Tesla-powered and future-proofed homes like these and is already planning to build more in the future. This is an excellent showcase of what an electric-powered future could look like, and we’re excited to see more of these types of homes and neighborhoods in the future.
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