Could Tesla Be Planning a Camping Trailer Just for the Cybertruck?

Even in a year packed with big car reveals like the new Defender, the Jeep Gladiator and the Porsche Taycan, few cars made quite the splash of the Tesla Cybertruck. The electric pickup veritably broke the Internet, Kim Kardashian style, when Elon Musk revealed it in all its slab-sided glory on a late-night livestream last month. The truck’s impressive stats gathered their fair share of attention, but it was the truck’s shocking appearance — a dystopian blend of sharp angles and cold steel — that caused double-takes across the planet.

But as with everything Tesla, the initial explosion of attention shows no signs of fading any time soon. Several weeks after the reveal, the Blade Runner-esque rig continued to dominate the automotive conversation, with reports popping their heads out of the digital ether to satisfy a world craving any hint of new info about this wild rig. The latest example: the hint of a suggestion that the EV-maker might whip up something like a camping trailer attachment for the truck.

Now, before we dive too deep into the weeds here, let’s keep something in mind:

The Tesla Cybertruck Is Not Ready For Production.

The carmaker may be taking $100 pre-order deposits on it already, but that doesn’t mean the Cybertruck is ready to hit the streets in large numbers. The design is still missing a few features needed to gain the approval of federal regulators — silly little things like side-view mirrors and DOT-approved headlights, among others.

Given these missing items — and Tesla’s propensity for blowing past its planned deadlines — it seems possible that carmaker may not be able to meet the planned late-2020 on-sale date. But that could actually be good news, if it gives the company time to work on developing wild add-ons like a camping trailer.

The crux of this idea comes from the Tesla lovers at Electrek, which surfaced a quote from Elon Musk claiming that the company is working on a “sick attachment for the Cybertruck.” Considering the current growth in overlanding and vehicular camping, and the fact that Tesla showed off both a promo image of the Cybertruck dressed out with a bed tent and one of it towing a custom, similarly-edgy trailer in its launch materials, and a camping trailer seems like an obvious play for the California-based carmaker.

(We’ve reached out to Tesla for comment on this, and will update this story if we hear back from them.)

Further proof of the opening for such a rig can be found with upstart Tesla competitor Rivian, which has already revealed its plans for a pop-out camping kitchen for its electric pickup, the R1T. Electrek even highlighted a YouTuber named Motorhome Man who claims to have commissioned a custom camping trailer for his Cybertruck as proof of the market for such a rig. So while there’s no concrete proof here yet, there’s certainly enough to suggest the company could be exploring the idea — or that it should be if it’s not. As a shadowy figure once told a handsome actor playing an intrepid reporter, follow the money — and there’s tons of it in camping trailers and overlanding these days.

Of course, Musk is the guy who also said he wanted to put rocket tech-inspired maneuvering thrusters on the next Tesla Roadster and let the carmaker add “Emissions Testing Mode” to its fleet of models, so there’s ultimately no predicting what ideas may arise from his fertile brain. One thing’s for certain, though: If they do wind up making a camping trailer, it’s going to be pretty damn wild.

Related Topics