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Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck isn’t just a visual departure from traditional pickups — its engineering also breaks new ground. In Munro & Associates’ first teardown of the Cybertruck’s battery pack, Sandy Munro and his team offer an expert breakdown of its internal structure, cooling strategy, safety mechanisms, and off-road readiness. What they found under the lid reveals just how far Tesla has pushed innovation in battery integration and design.
A Closer Look at the Structural Pack
Earlier Tesla designs such as the Model Y used a cell-to-module-to-pack structure. Unlike them, the Cybertruck features a true cell-to-pack architecture. Four electrically distinct modules are permanently bonded into a single structural unit. This makes replacement difficult, but it improves strength and energy density. The entire battery pack becomes a load-bearing element of the vehicle, providing torsional rigidity and acting as a crash-absorbing structure.
This glued-down, rock-solid assembly means serviceability has taken a back seat to structural integration. As Sandy put it, “there’s very little hope for replacing anything unless you just take this out and put another one in.”
Crash Zones and Ventilation Capacity
One of the standout design features is how Tesla incorporated safety features for thermal runaway. Instead of relying on plastic vent channels like the Model Y, the Cybertruck includes mica sheets designed to act as vent troughs in the event of a cell failure. A brilliant touch: snap-off panels that serve as pressure-release vents. These are designed to eject under specific internal pressures, allowing gases to escape safely without creating shrapnel.
More impressive is what Sandy jokingly dubbed a “spark arrester” — a layered containment system designed to catch particulates from battery fires and prevent projectile hazards. It’s an elegant response to the chaotic energy of thermal runaway events.
Cooling System Redesign
The Cybertruck battery utilizes a familiar serpentine cooling layout, but with a few novel twists. Most notably, one row of cells appears to be cooled independently — potentially to equalize thermal loads across the pack. The team speculates the presence of flow restrictors and headers to balance coolant flow.
While it’s not yet confirmed if the system is entirely in series or parallel, the plumbing shares similarities with Tesla’s prior designs. This is especially true with the Model Y, but with notable changes in flow management and heat rejection capacity.
Flood Ports and “Scuba Mode”
With the Cybertruck’s off-road ambitions, water ingress mitigation is critical. Tesla’s solution includes flood ports with moisture-absorbing wafer discs. These discs open once saturated, allowing coolant or water to escape. This feature is essential for water fording, especially in “scuba mode.” In this mode, the vehicle’s air compressor system slightly pressurizes the battery cavity. The pressure helps prevent water from entering during deep water crossings.
Sandy and Tom discussed how these features may prevent catastrophic failures like those seen in submerged EVs. One anecdote involved a Model X submerged during jet ski loading — its battery pack outgassed flammable vapors for 4.5 hours, which ignited on the water’s surface. Tesla’s modern flood port and vent designs aim to avoid similar disasters.
Mystery Materials and Unique Components
The teardown analysis also revealed unconventional materials like extruded fiber reinforcements, sometimes mistaken for wood. These act as energy-directing elements, transferring load without stressing the battery cells themselves. Tesla seems to have engineered a clever multi-function architecture, where each component supports cooling, structural rigidity, or safety — sometimes all three.
Another notable change: Tesla ditched the soft black foam used in the Model Y for crash absorption in favor of a 32mm crush zone and high-clearance aluminum shields. This new configuration appears purpose-built for trail and off-road use, aligning with Cybertruck’s rugged mission.
Electrical Layout and Cell Count
Based on preliminary counts, the Cybertruck pack likely contains 48 cells per row, across seven rows per module, with four modules total. While final figures will depend on further teardown, this structure suggests a significant increase in the number of series-connected cells (S), possibly reducing the number of parallel groups (P) from previous models.
The estimated 800V nominal system voltage places the Cybertruck in the high-voltage EV category — critical for faster charging and efficient power delivery. The full voltage potential is distributed across large busbars covered with thick orange plastic isolators, with the actual terminals recessed beneath safety foam layers to prevent accidental contact.
Takeaways and Key Innovations
- Cell-to-pack architecture eliminates removable modules, enhancing structural integrity.
- Innovative thermal runaway vents include breakaway panels and spark arresters.
- Enhanced water resistance supports deep-water fording, aided by pressure equalization via onboard air compression.
- Off-road durability is evident in the 32mm aluminum crush zones, standoffs, and skid plate design.
- Advanced cooling channels and headers suggest sophisticated thermal load balancing across cells.
Why It Matters
This battery pack isn’t just about energy — it’s a cornerstone of the Cybertruck’s chassis. It provides crash protection, power, rigidity, and off-road reliability all in one monolithic slab of technology. From the vent ports to welded busbars and spark mitigation layers, this design shows Tesla’s commitment to EV innovation where it counts most: beneath the surface.
Final Thoughts
Tesla’s Cybertruck battery design highlights a new phase in electric vehicle engineering, where the pack is more than power storage — it’s a structural, safety-critical, and mission-specific system. Munro’s teardown reveals just how much thought went into getting it right, and how different it is from anything Tesla has done before.
Stay tuned to Munro Live for deeper dives as the teardown continues — and for more insights from the experts transforming how we think about EV technology.
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