YouTube Personality Builds Tesla Pickup Using Chopped Model 3
During Tesla’s most-recent shareholders meeting, Elon Musk said the company’s pickup should be arriving this fall — adding that we would probably see it near the end of the summer if everything goes according to plan. Apparently disinterested in waiting another two months, robotics enthusiast and self-professed EV fan Simone Giertz decided to fabricate her own using a Tesla Model 3 as a starting point.
Giertz, who runs a YouTube channel focused on quirky building projects, claimed the home-brewed pickup’s relation to the sedan was one of necessity. She only chose the Model 3 because it possessed a steel chassis and was cheaper to risk ruining than a Model S would have been.
Enlisting a gaggle of friends to help convert the electric vehicle, Giertz documented the process for her channel. But not before releasing a fake advertisement showcasing the finished product while cleverly satirizing car commercials as a whole.
The build entailed removing the back half of the Model 3 and gutting the rear interior to make room for an old bed floor ripped from an tenth-gen Ford F-Series. A hacked-apart GMC Canyon served as the missing portion of the vehicle’s cabin, providing the necessary glass and sheet metal to isolate the driver from the load. As Giertz said she had hoped to make the vehicle as functional as possible, a roof rack providing additional structural support was also incorporated.
As DIY builds go, the affectionately named “Truckla” looks pretty polished. But it probably would have been more cost effective for Giertz and company to have simply installed a tow hitch. Of course, the resulting video wouldn’t have accumulated nearly as many views as cobbling together an electric ute.
As a proponent for electric vehicles, Simone said she’s enamored with the makeshift pickup and intends on using it as her daily driver. It is not, however, finished. Giertz admitted that she still needs to do some waterproofing, completely seal off the cabin, spruce up the interior, add a bed liner, and fix some bodywork that was damaged during the build process.
[Images: Simone Giertz via YouTube]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Now just drop a diesel-powered generator in the back.
LOL at the people questioning the quality or utility of this project. That is *literally* not the point. (As in, this was not an attempt to create a serious vehicle... butchering it into a crappy pickup truck is obviously not a cost-effective use for a Tesla 3.) She's the self-proclaimed "Queen of $hitty Robots" and creating improvised and impractical technology projects is what she does. (And she makes a decent living at it; nothing wrong with entertaining people for money.) Lighten up, folks; she is well-aware this is a silly thing to do.