Ehh not really, it’s almost definitely a case of sky high costs with near zero practical benefit. I’ve never been in, or know anyone that’s been in, a car that’s been shot at. However, I have been rear ended and knocked unconscious by a drunk driver, and had friends and family die from being t-boned without side impact airbags or being tossed from a rolling vehicle due to malfunctioning seat belt. There are much more important areas to put resources in to, in terms of safety.
There’s almost zero benefit in making a civilian truck bullet proof, while there are huge costs in doing so. When you’ve already gone with an SS body, I suppose it’s just a “free” marketing gimmick (ignoring all the drawbacks of having exposed SS…which are many). But windows? You’d be adding many thousands of dollars to the price, and for what? Nothing that anyone can realistically be able to point to in order to justify the cost.
So I get why they’d compromise on the design from the original pitch. And I get why they’d try to make a splash with the original pitch. But I do feel some vindication in calling bullshit on the original pitch, because their specs and claims were way beyond what could be reasonably expected.
Now that RAM has announced their EV trucks, I’m actually quite a bit more interested in the market, because the Ramcharger has a full on gas V6 to act as a generator/range extender and its towing specs (2,600 payload/14,000 towing) are in the HD truck range. That’s something that could actually make me feel comfortable to use as a long range camping rig. And, I don’t realistically expect to get shot while out and about.
