Video blogger turns a Tesla Model 3 into a pickup called Truckla

Simone Giertz, a YouTube blogger with a penchant for tinkering, grew tired of waiting for Tesla to release a pickup truck and took the matter in her own hands. Enlisting the help of Rich Benoit, a hobbyist car mechanic who founded Rich Rebuilds and had done quite a few Tesla conversions before, she bought a used Model 3 and turned it into a pickup.

The choice of the donor vehicle was anything but accidental: the Model 3 has an aluminum body, which makes it much easier to work with than the Model X or S (both are stainless steel). The duo began by removing the roof, the trunk compartment and a part of the cabin. They then got rid of c-pillars and installed a truck bed with a roll cage for stability.

For the truck to be as practical as possible, Simone fused a tubular expedition rack to the roof and put three floodlights on it. She calls the end result ‘Truckla’, a portmanteau between ‘Tesla’ and ‘truck’.

In turn, Tesla seems in no hurry to release a pickup truck on the market, saying it will arrive in a few years. Elon Musk claims you will be able to buy one for U.S. $50,000 or even less, although you will be forgiven for being skeptical on that point. The company promises us a cabin for six people, two electric motors producing insane amounts of torque, and between 400 and 500 miles (650 and 800 kilometers) of range.

Photo: youtube.com