The Tesla Cybertruck is unlikely ever to be sold in Europe or China due to its lack of concessions to pedestrian safety, but as these crash pictures prove, it can make a real mess of cars, too.
Images and video footage captured in Tampa, Florida, and widely shared on social media, show the aftermath of a collision between a Cybertruck and a much smaller Nissan Sentra on S Himes Avenue. Though we don’t get to see the two vehicles making contact, it looks like one of them has run a red light, resulting in the Nissan T-boning the Tesla with fairly spectacular consequences.
While both vehicles left the scene with the help of a flatbed truck – the Tesla riding on top, and the Nissan towed behind – the level of damage differs hugely. The Cybertruck has visible damage to the fender and front and rear doors on the passenger side, plus two flat tires, and of course there may be some serious structural damage to the sill and floor that we can’t see from here – the Tesla uses unibody construction rather than body-on-frame like its Ford F-150 rival.
Related: Tesla Cybertruck Rear-Ended By Ram Fuels Silly Online Debate About Safety
Cybertruck obliterated this Sentra. My gosh! More images in the RT below! https://t.co/46Iyu1e4pd pic.twitter.com/xRGf0FXDMo
— Greggertruck (@greggertruck) March 25, 2024
But the Nissan is comprehensively destroyed, the entire front end of the sedan folding up almost to the base of the windshield. But in doing that it’s only doing exactly what Nissan’s engineers intended. The crumple zone at the front of the car compressed to absorb the energy of the impact while keeping the passenger cell almost completely undisturbed.
We can see that the Sentra’s passenger door was still able to open to let the passenger out, and while they and the driver have probably suffered shock and bruising in the impact, it’s possible that they walked away without any serious injuries.
Both parties will be left without cars and there’s no way the Sentra is going back on the road. But the Cybertruck’s high value and shortage of supply means that it could find itself another life. The driver will certainly be hoping it does because the waiting list is so long that he’s probably going to have to twiddle his thumbs for well over a year before getting access to a replacement.
Alright who in Tampa crashed their cybertruck? pic.twitter.com/rYPSPW87DQ
— Mario Luigi (@Florida_Tesla) March 24, 2024