Tesla has just five weeks left before it starts customer deliveries of the long-awaited Cybertruck and shortly after taking two prototypes down the Baja peninsula, the carmaker has put the truck’s bulletproof body panels to the test.
A member of the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley club recently stumbled across a Cybertruck prototype that had been riddled with gunshots. Social media quickly went into a buzz after the video was shared online and it didn’t take long for Elon Musk to confirm that this was indeed a prototype it had used for bulletproof testing.
“We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the driver door Al Capone style,” Musk said on X. “No bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment.”
Neither Musk nor Tesla have said what rounds were used for the test but if it did indeed use a Thompson submachine gun, then it would have been firing .45-caliber ammunition. It’s entirely possible that the rounds of a more modern gun would have easily pierced the cold-rolled stainless-steel skin of the Cybertruck.
Read: Elon Musk Admits That Tesla ‘Dug Its Own Grave’ With The Cybertruck
When Tesla first unveiled the Cybertruck four years ago, it also confirmed it would launch with armored glass. The strength of this glass remains unclear they were infamously cracked by a steel ball in 2019 and it doesn’t appear as though this prototype had any rounds fired at its windows.
Does driving around in an armored pickup truck make sense for 99.9% of consumers? No, it doesn’t. However, those with a Cybertruck on order will probably be pleased to know that it may be harder to dent than a normal car. The trade-off for that added protection could be much higher repair costs if the stainless panels are damaged.
