Smacking a bumper or fender into a tree does the same damage to a bodyshell bolted to a frame as it does to one that's integral with its frame (which is what a unibody is). Front fenders are almost always bolted on nowadays, and bumpers always are. Truck boxes are a bit more of an issue; the bed of a body-and-frame truck is easily unbolted and replaced or repaired if someone is careless with a heavy load; not so much if it's welded into the structure. If they do the design right, the interior of the bed should be protected from damage (with a liner of some sort).
Random thoughts on this Tesla.
I like much of the the "idea". I like the idea of smoothing out the hood and windshield into something closer to a single line (for aerodynamics). I like the idea of an integrated but removable
bed cover to smooth out the aero during normal driving but allow it to be removed to carry taller loads, but I don't like the idea of that being glass (or almost all glass). It is going to be *heavy*. (The vehicle as a whole is going to be crazy heavy because of that thick steel outer skin. That heavy skin needs supporting structure that's heavier. And then it all compounds.)
I can't stand the details. I hate the front end styling. I hate the
rear end styling. I hate the built-with-a-brake-press sheet metal. I hate the sharply peaked roof (which could have easily been smoothed out). Bumpers are missing. Mirrors are missing. Reflectors are missing. Proper headlights are missing (and thin headlights with not much surface area mean having to emit a ton of light from a small area, which results in a really intense light source, which means ... glare to oncoming drivers).
Taillights across the tailgate means the vehicle needs a redundant set of taillights somewhere that become active if the tailgate is not closed. (See: Chevrolet Bolt, and some Audi CUVs.) There's a reason why most normal trucks and vans have the taillights confined to the stationary parts of the body and not on the tailgate.
No wheel well intrusion into the bed just means they brought the bed sides inward ... less total cargo volume. I certainly use the space around the wheel wells in my van.
The cargo floor is still way high, no different from any other pickup nowadays. They all have that problem. This doesn't solve it.
The range that they're claiming might be possible under ideal circumstances (due to - hopefully - better aero than a standard pickup, although nowhere near what it could be, due to the protruding wheels and sharp roof peak) but take that
bed cover off (wrecks aero), or hitch up a trailer, and that range is going to plummet. There is no magic involved here. The range situation when towing will be the same as when TFLcar / TFLtruck (don't recall which - same underlying site) hitched up a trailer behind their Model X: Dismal.
They could have done SO much better. But apparently this thing was developed in about 3 weeks, so there's that ...
The Rivian looks better thought out. Yeah the bed is shorter; biggest market segment with pickups is the full cab and short bed configuration anyhow, so it makes sense to hit that first. Nothing really stops Rivian from making a longer version later ... I don't particularly care for the Rivian's styling, either, but at least it (mostly) isn't objectionable aside from odd headlights.
I am sure Tesla will get plenty of deposits because Tesla.
