Sandy Munro knows a thing or two about car manufacturing. So much so that he is the guy people ask for advice on technical doubts about that. In an interview with Autoline After Hours we have already suggested you watch, Munro tried to explain to the hosts how crucial it is that the Tesla Cybertruck has a stressed-skin structure, with an exoskeleton. Although it seems he did not succeed in this matter, he showed them that the Cybertruck will probably be a cash cow for Tesla as soon as it goes on sale due – among other things – to tooling costs. After all, you do not have to amortize money you do not spend.

Munro estimates annual production of around 50,000 units. When Elon Musk said Tesla would have more Cybertruck demand than Tesla could meet in three or four years, he implied an annual production a little higher than 60,000 units.

For the 50,000 units per year Munro was working with, he believes Tesla would spend $30 million on tooling. For a similar amount of F-150, Ford would have a cost of $210 million. In other words, Tesla would spend 1/7 of what Ford would disburse to make the Cybertruck. If you prefer percentages, that's 14.3 percent of Ford's CAPEX (capital expenditure).

The most significant saving in production refers to the lack of paint on the Cybertruck. Not because it won't have it, but because it does not need it. Considering the issues that the Model 3 has with that, that is quite an improvement for the brand. The paint shop alone for the F-150 would cost $150 million, or five times the cost in tooling Tesla would have with the Cybertruck.