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Pity anyone who launches something in the automotive technology space, during the same month as Tesla. The world’s most closely-followed car technology company was always going to be trending even stronger than usual in November, as it promised a public reveal of its Cybertruck.
But Tesla was not the only brand that had news about a battery-bakkie product. Although Neuron is not nearly as well known, the American start-up posted very compelling renderings, for its all-electric bakkie concept, which has now evolved into a rolling concept.
There has been strong criticism of the Tesla Cybertruck’s design. Elon Musk promised something revolutionary and he certainly did not underdeliver.
The Cybertruck’s 1970s wedge-shape styling is unlike any other bakkie. But that has also given it potential issues in operation and perception.
Which of these electric vehicles would you actually go for? The Tesla Cybdertruck or the Neuron T/One ? Email us and tell us why.
Image: Tesla
Cybertruck is a polarizing design
Sharp angles make the Cybertruck appear very aggressive – almost like a military special forces vehicle. This is not an aesthetic that sits well with alarmist alternative transport groups such as cyclists.
Many traditional bakkie customers have also questioned how loading items over the load boxes sills will work, considering the sharp angles.
The Cybertruck’s sheer size, larger than anything Tesla has ever done before, has also called its smart-design philosophy into question. Disrupting Ford’s traditional (and hugely profitable) F-Series bakkie business is Tesla’s ultimate business destiny, but Elon Musk’s company is also held to a higher standard.
Tesla’s followers are not traditional car-people, and some are disappointed with a vehicle that appears to be mimicking legacy bakkie product planning, instead of revolutionising it.
Image: Neuron
T/One looks like a normal bakkie
This is where Neuron is interesting. It has a more considered design, with softer corners and traditional proportions.
Where the Tesla Cybertruck has rectangular wheel arches, the Neuron T/One’s wheels sit in conventionally shaped arches, with slight fender extensions. A very interesting front design detail, present in the lower bumper section, is a heavy-duty recovery point. This would indicate that Neuron will be engineering significant off-road ability into its T/One.
Neuron has also equipped it with a very special cabin architecture, featuring a single driver’s seat, in the middle. This will make the T/One potentially much cheaper to produce, for a diversity of right- and left-hand drive markets.
Image: Neuron
The interior design and ergonomics also feature advanced haptics and there are no traditional buttons, knobs or dials. Neuron’s designers were given a brief to re-imagine the user/driver experience of a bakkie and their solution was to employ screens and sophisticated voice activation for all the functions that a driver would require, beyond steering, braking and accelerating.
Although Tesla dominated the news cycle in November, with its Cybertruck, Neuron’s T/One bakkie is unquestionably the more fluid design.
And for those doubters who criticised the new start-up electric vehicle company as existing only in the digital realm, a prototype version of the T/One bakkie, has been spotted on a marketing tour in China.
