Tesla’s new $3,000 Cybertruck tent must be a prank

Add another link to Elon Musk’s long ball-and-chain of lies and broken promises: Tesla’s sleek camping tent of the future designed for the Cybertruck has, in real life, turned out to be a sad hodgepodge of flaccid fabric. Shocking. This new Tesla tent is one step removed from covering a broken window pane with trash bags and five layers of Scotch tape. And, for the privilege, it will cost you $3,000.

For Cybertruck owners who have already shelled out anywhere from $81,900 (baseline price) to $102,000 (top of the line price) an extra $3,000 might not seem like a lot for some gray fabric to cover the truck’s bum while camping. And yet, it’s hard not to feel like it’s one big cheat when you compare the render to real life.

The Cybertruck Basecamp promised to be the be-all and end-all of camping on four wheels. Its website says that this collapsible tent can “inflate in minutes” on the truck’s bed using a manual pump “without any structural poles.” Made out of “tactical gray kaleidoscope-patterned nylon interior,” the company’s site continues, it’s designed to keep you “safe from the elements while screen windows allow for airflow to keep you comfortable” on its “ultrasoft mattress.”

But when the tent finally made it to customers, all the Jetsons turned into flotsams. One Tesla Cybertruck fan who goes by the nickname, TownBiz, posted some photos on the Cybertruck Owners Club, and let me tell you: This thing doesn’t look at all like the sleek polygonal volume that integrated seamlessly into the Cybertruck aesthetic.

It just looks like saggy junk, as a multitude of Tesla fans and observers have pointed out. From the outside and inside, the Basecamp looks like any other tent you can buy for a fraction of the price—even tactical gear that retails for less than $500. (Tesla updated its Basecamp website with new hero shots that more accurately depict the tent.)

What distinguishes the Basecamp from your average Amazon.com tent is that it’s custom designed to fit directly on the back for the Cybertruck. And while photos do show that it fits snugly on the tushy of the truck, it is apparently neither easy to install nor operate on a daily basis. First, you need to go to a Tesla Service Center to attach the brackets that secure the tent to the truck’s vault-side rails. Then, every time you want to go out camping, you will need a friend to help you lift and place it into position—unless you can manage to life a large 90-pound structure from the ground and place it atop your Cybertruck. And then, repeat that process when you’re back home.

Still, despite the obvious dissonance between promise and reality, TownBiz seems to be okay with his flabby tent. Though not enough to recommend it yet: “Because the rainy weather hasn’t allowed me to do a full setup [and] takedown more than once, I still can’t definitively say whether or not I recommend the $3K Basecamp.”

It seems that once again, Tesla has met with its oldest and fiercest nemesis—the actual physics of manufacturing. The same nemesis that turned the rendered Cybertruck itself into a mess, shattered two of its bulletproof windows, and produced doors whose alignment was off in production models.

Tesla did not return our request for comment.