Tesla obtains wheel cover design patent for the Cybertruck

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Tesla the patent for its Cybertruck wheel covers yesterday. This is the original wheel cover design that Tesla showed at the Cybertruck unveiling.

The patent details show that Tesla filed for a patent for this design on the same date as the unveiling of the Cybertruck on 21st November 2019 (Patent # US D980, 147 S, pdf below).

Since then, these wheel covers have been consistently seen on multiple prototypes of the Cybertruck around the automaker’s factories in the United States. Sometimes the Cybertruck is spotted without these wheel covers showing the stock v-spoke type wheels inside.

Julien Bilodeau, David Imai, and Ivan Lampkin are listed as inventors of this wheel cover design along with Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen. “We claim the ornamental design for a vehicle wheel, as shown and described,” says the Claim part of the patent document (pdf below).

Tesla Cybertruck wheel with the now patented wheel cover (left), the wheel cover design illustration taken from the patent document (USPTO Patent # US D980, 147 S). Credit: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc. / USPTO.

Besides the different diagrams of the Cybertruck wheel cap, the patent document unusually is limited in information. Even the Abstract part of the patent is completely missing. Perhaps, it was not needed since there are not many technical complexities involved in this simple design compared to other Tesla patents.

Similarly, Tesla had filed for Model 3 wheel design patents back in 2016 just one day before the unveiling event on 31st March. However, it just took 1 year for USPTO to approve these designs vs. Cybertruck wheel design patent approval took almost 3 and a half years.

Tesla finally getting the approval for this wheel cover design hints that this wheel will be making it to production. However, it will not come as a surprise it is offered as optional for an additional cost. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Tesla is preparing to start Cybertruck production this year and Elon Musk has reassured it last month.

Stay tuned for constant Tesla updates, follow us on:
Google News | Flipboard | RSS (Feedly).

Tesla Cybertruck Wheel Cove… by Iqtidar A