These Tesla Cybertrucks are already ending up in the scrapyard, but there is a reason for that

Tesla Cybertrucks lined up in the middle of a junkyard and about to be blown to pieces; there is enough to give food for thought to the detractors of electric vehicles. However, it is a process that could not be more common in the automotive industry.

The sad fate of development prototypes

Thus, these copies of Cybertruck, at least seven in number and whose photos were apparently published for the first time on @Calimotive (tweet since deleted), would be old development prototypes of the model, as evidenced by their stickers. Once the marketing of a car has been launched, it is customary for manufacturers to seal the fate of the majority of the prototypes which enabled its development by ensuring their destruction. The others, if any remain, could continue to be used to test various parts and technologies, or even as a development mule for another car.

Unlike some pre-production models, which occasionally end up on the second-hand market, development prototypes can differ from the final model in many aspects. It would therefore be impossible to resell them and their legal status would not allow it in any case.

It also happens that manufacturers send some of their concept cars to the scrapyard, which is all the more regrettable. The vast majority of General Motors EV1s, an electric car offered for rental by GM in the 1990s, also suffered this same fate, documented in the film Who Killed the Electric Car?while most BMW ActiveEs disappeared under similar conditions.

While we may therefore regret seeing such recent vehicles scrapped, this is nevertheless an ordinary practice in the industry. The stainless steel bodywork of these Cybertrucks will have no trouble being reused and could end up, who knows, in any recycled metal objects.