Zheng Li

Cybertruck rear under body (RUB) is a completely unconventional design composed by a single giant piece of giga-casting assembly which is made of Tesla in-house high-strength alloy. However, there are still certain circumstance that rear casting would be damaged in rear-end crash.

In early of 2023, I used full-scale dynamic finite element analysis (FEA) to investigate Cybertruck rear casting repairability to maintain original structural performance. I successfully paved out and validated several repair solutions for Cybertruck rear casting that achieved the same structural performance and crash safety as pre-damaged condition.

As an example if damage occured till section rail, the damaged portion of casting is trimmed and cut on the reserved reference line, then a dedicated small casting part (on-demand service part) which fully shares the same shape with the trimmed portion of original casting is installed to the vehicle body. In CAE analysis, connections joints (such as rivets, structural adhesive, bolts, etc) and giga-casting parts are accurately modeled with validated material models. The final repair solution is able to achieve same structural impact performance per FMVSS 305 regulations.

After trimming of damaged portion of casting, a rear rail casting (red part) is installed to the original casting with backing plate, rivets, and structural adhesive.

Picture from public available resource on Tesla official service guide webpage:
Cybertruck Collision Repair Manual
https://service.tesla.com/docs/Cybertruck/BodyRepair/BodyRepairProcedures/en-us/GUID-0611074E-4F3C-417E-86AB-5BBC588393CC.html

Youtube blogger “JerryRigEverything” shared his own story about repairing his Cybertruck rear casting at Tesla collision center where my solution validated using FEA was seen implemented in reality again. See more through the video below starting at 3:33.

Other FEA validated repair solutions for Cybertruck rear under body casting can be accessed from Tesla official service webpage: Cybertruck Collision Repair Manual – Rear Under Body