Every example of the Tesla Cybertruck on the road comes with two boomerang-shaped pieces of metal attached along its roofline, completing a unique sharp point at the top of the car’s windshield. In at least two cases reported to the federal government, drivers have stated this part or a similar one has flown off the car at speed — and one Cybertruck owner even says he has video of it jettisoning a boomerang-shaped piece of metal into the the road at highway speeds.
The clip, recorded by the on-board cameras of owner Reid Tomasko’s Cybertruck and shared with Road & Track, appears to show that trim piece flying off of the driver’s side of the truck. The trim piece then seems to fly into the lane behind the vehicle.
Tomasko owns Shock Auto Styling, a New Hampshire-based car-wrapping business that he says has worked on dozens of Cybertrucks, and says he has seen many of the trucks up close and removed so many of the vehicle’s panels while wrapping them. He says he has encountered the problem on multiple trucks owned by other customers. In a video shared to YouTube two weeks ago, Tomasko detailed what he has seen happening with both his own Cybertruck and another truck suffering from similar problems.
As the video illustrates, the trim piece that flew off of his truck is connected to a plastic frame bolted directly to the car; that trim piece, he says, is stuck to the frame with adhesive rather than welded or bolted to anything. That adhesive has seemingly failed in multiple places on his truck, leading to the loosened roofline trim panels.
The trim piece may not be the only part of the truck that is effectively secured only with adhesive: Tomasko says he believes other components, including the truck’s quarter panels, also seem to be held on this way, and that those components maybe vulnerable to the same sort of failure. Tomasko’s video illustrates a similar adhesive problem on different parts of each of his truck’s two quarter panels. The customer-owned truck in his video also appears to show similar adhesive problems on both of its quarter panels, as well as the tailgate, but the latter is also welded on at points.
Tomasko estimates that he has wrapped “30 to 35” Cybertrucks. He tells R&T that he has seen signs of adhesive problems on “five to seven” trucks, including his own truck with a VIN around 15000 and the customer unit in the video. He estimates that relatively new trucks with “VINs from 30,000 up to 60,000” seem to be more frequently impacted, and notes that he has not seen the problem on earlier trucks, “probably VIN 3000 to 10,000.”
Similar problems have been reported in two separate formal complaints to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration. The first, from an owner in Brooklyn, states that his roofline trim piece “suddenly started falling off” at highway speeds. Another complaint from an owner in Illinois claims that an “upper passenger trim piece,” seemingly the same panel, fell off while the owner was driving their truck. The owner then claims that they asked a Tesla service center to replace the same component on the truck’s other side, but a brand representative told him that the location “will not do it unless [the panel] falls off.”
Other examples of the problem have been reported on a Cybertruck owner Facebook group. Screenshots shared with R&T like the one above show four additional cases of trucks that have allegedly shed their roofline trim piece. At least one owner in the group claims that the piece flew off while they were driving.
The cause of the issue is still unknown, but Tomasko speculates that cold weather may have something to do with the problem. He also notes that at least one other owner he knows has not experienced any problems.
“Based on research and responses that I’ve had to the video, it seems that something, the glue is not flexing with the panels, so what happens is the stainless steel seems to flex when it gets cold when it gets cold and hot, but the glue that they use is kind of brittle, so my guess is the glue is separating,” Tomasko says.
“Also, I have a friend with an earlier build than mine, and he lives in Vermont; I live in New Hampshire, he lives in Vermont, so we’re both in cold climates. His truck, his is fine, same amount of miles and everything, his is fine, but then mine is falling apart. So I don’t quite know, maybe it’s a glue batch that was incorrectly made — I don’t know.”
Tomasko tells R&T that he has pursued a buyback, noting that he “[feels] like a new vehicle shouldn’t really have to have all the panels replaced.” He adds that some other Cybertruck owners have accused him of being “just a hater,” even though he bought the vehicle, and “definitely [misses]” his truck, which he says is currently at a Tesla Service Center.
“No, I’m not a hater. I have the truck, I love the truck. I bought one! I love the truck. I wrap, mostly, exclusively Teslas in the Northeast at my wrap shop. So I love Teslas,” he says. “I’m just trying to share what’s going on to better help the engineers to fix this super fast.”
Tomasko says the problems he has faced are frustrating, in part, because they play into negative perceptions of the Cybertruck from others.
“It does suck, because everybody kind of makes fun of the Cybertruck. To the outside person, it’s kind of weird, it’s ugly, whatever. Once you actually get in it, drive it, you realize it’s pretty frickin’ cool,” he says. “It’s kind of been sad, because I’ve been trying to prove to people that it’s a really awesome truck that’s not falling apart, and then mine starts to fall apart, so it’s just… Yeah, it’s kind of unfortunate and sad.”
Road & Track has reached out to Tesla for comment, but has not received a response as of this story’s Friday morning publication. We’ll update this story with any reply from the carmaker, should we receive one.
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