Tesla appears to be trolling Ford Motor Co. by dressing up a Cybertruck prototype to look like an oddly shaped F-150.
Photos of the wrapped Cybertruck driving or being transported around the San Francisco Bay Area began spreading around the Internet in late July, just as Tesla said it would begin limited production of the electric pickup this year.
The Cybertruck’s angular shape makes it all but impossible to fool anyone with the disguise, though the wrap does hide some of the truck’s details in the same way more traditional camouflage regularly used by automakers does. The truck has a manufacturer license plate, making clear that Tesla itself added the costume.
Ford CEO Jim Farley recently took a dig at the Cybertruck — which Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally promised would arrive in 2021 — during an interview on CNBC, saying he doesn’t consider it a rival of the top-selling F-Series line.
“If he wants to design a Cybertruck for Silicon Valley people, fine,” Farley said, referring to Musk. “I don’t make trucks like that. I make trucks for real people who do real work, and that’s a different kind of truck.”