Owner-Built Six-Seat Tesla Cybertruck Shows What Tesla Skipped

A Tesla Cybertruck owner, reported by Rex Sanchez, shows a custom six-seat front layout, highlighting why Tesla kept the electric pickup a five-seat model.

A Tesla Cybertruck owner has offered a glimpse of what a six-seat version of the electric pickup could look like by modifying the front row and fitting an additional center seat. The result was shown in a family setting, with all six occupants inside the truck, highlighting a layout Tesla itself ultimately chose not to bring to production.

The idea of three seats across the front was not entirely foreign to the Cybertruck project. Early development stages explored such a configuration, but it was later abandoned. Safety considerations and regulatory compliance played a decisive role, and the production model settled on a five-seat layout with a wide center console separating the driver and passenger.

To make room for the extra seat, the owner removed that center console entirely. In its place sits a narrow middle seat that visually blends into the minimalist interior. The trade-offs are immediately apparent: storage space is lost, cupholders disappear, and practicality takes a hit. More critically, the center front passenger lacks a dedicated frontal airbag, a key reason why this setup never progressed beyond the concept stage at Tesla.

While front bench seating has long existed in traditional pickup trucks, those configurations are engineered, tested, and certified from the factory. In contrast, this Cybertruck conversion remains a private experiment, one that could raise serious safety and legal questions if driven on public roads. That context explains why the demonstration took place off-road, rather than in everyday traffic.

For buyers who genuinely need more passenger capacity, Tesla already points them elsewhere. The Model X offers a third row and seating for up to seven, while electric alternatives such as the Rivian R1S and Hyundai Ioniq 9 are designed from the outset to carry six or seven occupants.

Given these realities, a factory-built six-seat Cybertruck appears unlikely. The vehicle’s mission as a rugged, utilitarian electric pickup leaves little room for compromises in structural design or occupant protection. For now, the five-seat configuration looks set to remain standard, with six-seat Cybertrucks existing only as one-off projects created by determined owners.