In a recent deep dive with Munro Live, Engineering VP Lars Moravy, Cybercab lead Eric Earley, and other members of the Tesla team behind the Cybercab explained why they ditched paint and what other approaches they tried first.
Why Skip the Paint Shop?
Moravy called the paint shop “one of the most expensive parts of a factory,” costing a few hundred million dollars and around a million man-hours to build. So the team went back to “rule number one at Tesla: question the requirements. Why do you need paint?”
Skipping paint also fit Tesla’s new unboxed manufacturing process. The Model 3 and Model Y are built as a full body shell that gets painted before parts are fitted through its openings. The Cybercab is built in separate front, rear, floor, and side modules that come together at the end. Running those segments through a paint shop would have meant boxing them back up first, which defeats the point. Tesla says this approach could eventually build one Cybercab every 10 seconds at full tilt.
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Tesla even dropped the e-coat used on the Model Y and Cybertruck in many areas. The aluminum alloys used in the Cybercab’s castings don’t oxidize and lose strength over time like many other alloys, so they don’t need to be coated.
The Other Options Tesla Tried
“This isn’t the only idea we had,” the team said. Tesla looked at in-mold lamination, where a vinyl film is placed inside the mold, and the plastic is molded onto it. It also tested a film-over-panel approach, where a painted film is applied to a stamped panel, pressed on, and folded over the edges.
Tesla got pretty far with both, to the point that it started using in-mold lamination on the Semi, which recently entered high-volume production at the new Nevada factory. RIM ultimately won out because it’s fast and cost-effective across panels with different shapes. It only adds a step inside the molding machine Tesla already uses.
The team said “we get no orange peel,” and that if you scratch a panel, “you can repair it just like you would normal paint shop.” Since the color goes all the way through, small scratches won’t reveal a different color underneath. We’ve also looked at how RIM helps reduce the Cybercab’s environmental footprint.
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Coming to Other Teslas?
Tesla said it will try to bring these ideas to future vehicles, and that the Cybercab is designed to run “half a million miles at least.”
The federal EV tax credit could be coming back to the U.S., and at twice its old value. More than 160 House Democrats are backing a new bill that would bring back the credit for new and used EVs and make it permanent (via @SawyerMerritt).
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) introduced the 21st Century Vehicle Choice Act on October 22, just over a year after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit ended under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
What the Bill Would Do
According to Landsman’s press release, the bill would double the new EV credit from $7,500 to $15,000 and the used EV credit from $4,000 to up to $8,000. It would also raise the credit for EV charging equipment from 30% to 50% of eligible costs.
The bill keeps the same structure the credit had under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, where the new EV credit was split into two halves tied to battery components and critical mineral sourcing. Each half would double, so only vehicles meeting both requirements would get the full $15,000.
Income limits for the new EV credit would drop to $225,000 for married couples filing jointly, $169,000 for heads of household, and $112,500 for single filers. You can read the full text of the bill for every detail.
“We have to make life more affordable and give folks more choices. Our bill would make electric vehicles more accessible and help families save money on gas,” Landsman said. Coltura, a group backing the bill, said the highest-mileage drivers “could save over $4,000 a year by switching to an EV.”
What It Could Mean for EV Sales
When the old credit was set to expire, buyers rushed to lock it in, pushing U.S. EV sales to a record in the third quarter of 2025. A permanent $15,000 credit would give Americans a strong reason to go electric for their next vehicle. That would help EV-only brands like Tesla and Rivian, and it could also pull legacy automakers like Ford and GM, which have slowed their EV plans, back toward building affordable electric models.
Don’t Count On It Yet
The bill has only been referred to House committees, and it would still need to pass both chambers and be signed into law by the President. Landsman introduced a nearly identical bill in October 2024, and it never made it out of committee.
Critics of EV credits argue the government shouldn’t choose sides in the powertrain wars, that taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize wealthier buyers of high-end EVs, and that the market has grown enough to compete on its own, while the Trump administration called the credits wasteful spending. Supporters argue the credits make EVs affordable for more families and lower fuel costs.
For now, there’s no federal EV credit to claim, and that’s unlikely to change unless Landsman’s bill gains support beyond House Democrats.
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