Why the Cybertruck is a breakthrough for Tesla and designer Franz von Holzhausen
The Model S is the opposite of futuristic. Beyond that, von Holzhausen took advantage of the inherent engineering of electric cars — no gas engine, no drivetrain, no gas tank — to create a sleek sedan that has a very roomy cabin and SUV-like storage.
The Model 3 offers more of the same.
The Model Y crossover represents an evolution ...
... of von Holzhausen's vocabulary from the Model X.
Even the new Roadster makes use of von Holzhausen's familiar styling cues.
These designs have been influential in ways that more out-there styles aren't. Von Holzhausen's genius is for beauty that's tied to reality.
No one would accuse the Cybertruck of being tied to the reality of pickups.
The RAM 1500, Business Insider's 2019 Car of the Year, is tied to reality.
But this is where von Holzhausen has moved the story forward. Nobody thinks about reinventing the pickup because even tentative efforts in that direction, such as ...
... The first-generation Honda Ridgeline have been rejected by the incredibly conservative truck market.
Everything about the Cybertruck flies in the face of received pickup-truck wisdom. And that's an innovative move, because for von Holzhausen to design a Tesla-fied pickup, using his familiar language, would have been a dud.
Von Holzhausen instead decided to do what he hadn't previously done, and what Tesla had avoided, which was to blow minds rather than hew to middlebrow sensibilities.
And why not? We ask for artists to grow, so when they do, we shouldn't be freaked out by how far they go. They are, after all, THE ARTIST. Trying to control them is foolhardy.
In this sense, the Cybertruck is bold and brave. It is the design that everybody is talking about, inside and outside the car business. So for von Holzhausen, it's a personal and professional triumph.
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