Tesla Cybertruck spotted near BMW’s Munich R&D center
A photo of a large and conspicuously triangle-shaped vehicle in Munich, near BMW’s Research and Innovation Center, has surfaced on the internet, suggesting the German automaker is doing a teardown of the newly-released Tesla Cybertruck.
Now that the Cybertruck is out, sightings aren’t all that uncommon, especially in California and Texas where most of the vehicles are being delivered.
But one place that Cybertrucks still aren’t common is Europe, where it isn’t sold (and it’s unlikely that the vehicle will ever be sold due to its size and the likelihood that its high and boxy front-end wouldn’t pass pedestrian safety regulations).
So imagine the surprise when a flatbed car transporter was spotted with a covered(-but-really-you-can-tell-what’s-under-there), triangle-shaped vehicle in Munich, just down the road from BMW.
The photos were posted by Nextmove, a German EV rental company that also has an active youtube channel posting information about EVs. Here’s an embed of the video, deep-linked to the portion in question (photos start at 27:36):
The photos were sent in by a viewer who says they were taken on April 4 at around 7:45am on the corner of Schleichheimerstrasse and Frankfurter Ring, coming from the direction of BMW’s Research and Innovation Center. The location is indeed just one block away from several BMW facilities, as you can see in this map of the area:
Now maybe this is all just a crazy coincidence, but it seems quite likely that BMW bought this truck, probably for teardown purposes. Which is interesting, given that BMW doesn’t make trucks (though it does make SUVs).
But despite their lack of pickup trucks, BMW is probably still interested in seeing some of the new technologies that Tesla is working with in the Cybertruck. Despite the vehicle being a… let’s say “statement,” it is packed with a good amount of tech that the automotive industry has been talking about for a long time, but which heretofore has been seen in few or no finished vehicles.
This includes things like 48-Volt architecture and steer-by-wire, and some other technologies that are on some vehicles but still reasonably new, like Tesla’s larger 4680 cell format and Powershare bidirectional charging. Tesla also originally promised to use a unique “exoskeleton”-style chassis, though as the truck got closer to production that looks like it didn’t quite pan out the way we imagined – but we’re sure BMW is interested in seeing what’s underneath that skin anyway.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Cybertrucks in the possession of other automakers, and it is common for automakers to obtain new vehicles from other automakers so they can take them apart and see what the competition is up to.
Last month, a Cybertruck was spotted outside Ford’s proving grounds in Detroit, and reportedly the automaker paid quite a pretty penny for it. Early Cybertrucks sold for almost a quarter million dollars on the secondary market, despite Tesla’s threat to sell early buyers who flip their trucks. So far, Tesla hasn’t followed through on this threat with a lawsuit, but it has blacklisted at least one owner after he listed his for sale, and as more trucks have gotten out, the resale market has cooled from its initial extreme highs.
But then, even that quarter million number could be low compared to what BMW might have paid. In February, a Cybertruck was listed on the secondhand market in Germany for a cool €485k, so either a rich enthusiast wantsa triangle to decorate their garage, or a rich German automaker wanted to be the first to check it out. We hope they learned a lot for that kind of money.
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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