Back in June, Unplugged Performance released images of the EV modification company’s latest project— heavy-duty Cybertruck cop car upgrades. Speaking with Popular Science at the time, its president Ben Schaffer remained cagey about whether or not they were truly destined for American streets.
[Related: Militarized Cybertruck cop cars are coming.]
“While I can’t get into great detail at the moment… I’m able to say that we are indeed working with police departments as it relates to Cybertruck Police vehicles,” Schaffer wrote, promising “a lot of news coming as it relates to our UP.FIT Cybertruck programs (the plural is intentional).” This week, one of those “programs” is allegedly available for pre-order: STING, billed as the “Ultimate Tesla Cybertruck Upgrade for Extreme Conditions.”
Offered in partnership with a California-based defense contractor company Archimedes, STING appears to offer three tiers of tank-like additions intended to turn the sharp-edged, sand-weakened, potentially rust-vulnerable Cybertruck into the “ultimate choice for government agencies, defense contractors, and adventurous civilians alike,” according to the product line’s website. Upgrade lines include Baja, Protector, and APC (short for Armored Personnel Carrier), each equipped with Unplugged Peformance’s “INVINCIBLE” suite of off-road add-ons such as a lift kit ($9,995), underbody armor ($4,495), and carbon fiber fender flares ($2,395—$2,495). Archimedes’ addition appears to come in the form of its AMP Drive G125, a “compact, lightweight, frunk-mounted aviation-derived 800V” backup power source, also known as a genset, that runs on jet fuel.
For unspecified additional costs, STING Protector will include “bolt-on, bolt-off external offset steel armor plating” purportedly capable of withstanding 7.62mm assault rifle rounds. The STING APC promises to provide inhabitants with “enhanced IED/mine protection” and ceramic armor plating to block 14.5mm heavy machine gun assaults.
In an email to Popular Science, Unplugged Performance president Ben Schaffer says Archimedes “reached out to us for our renowned expertise in Cybertruck engineering as well as our proven track record in procuring and upfitting custom-engineered Tesla vehicles for various use cases.” In April, Anaheim PD showed off a line of modified Model Y cop cruisers as part of an ongoing pilot program with Unplugged Performance.
Initial enthusiasm appears a bit more more tempered than shortly after UP.FIT’s police modification announcement. Over at CybertruckOwnersForum, one of the internet’s go-to sites for all things Cybertruck, members expressed skepticism about STING, noting that all initial promotional images aren’t actual photographs, but computer generated images.
“[H]ow do you open the door since the panels block the button access?” one user asked, while another questioned if “they [are] actually going to put anything into production or is it just a crescendo of increasingly silly renders?” Multiple other commenters also mentioned Unplugged Performance and UP.FIT’s alleged issues with back orders and product fulfillment.
“Rather than saying ‘we don’t actually make this,’ they seem to prefer saying it’s on ‘backorder’ for an undisclosed amount of time,” another post reads before claiming, “To be clear: [Unplugged Performance] has NOT, to my knowledge, shipped any of their off road armor lines to customers to date.”
Posting to the forum, an official Unplugged Performance spokesman (and CybertruckOwnersForum sponsor) with the username UP_Frank confirmed the STING images were artificial, but defended his company’s practices.
“Please note that all current customers have been informed of the expected timelines for their orders,” UP_Frank wrote on August 19. ”… I understand the importance of setting proper expectations, and encourage any current customers with INVINCIBLE® product line backorders to reach out directly for updates.”
Archimedes’ transparency, by comparison, does not appear much better at the moment. Its website describes the company as providing “high power solutions for government + defense” that can “electrify your AIRCRAFT, BOAT, GROUND VEHICLE, or REMOTE FACILITY.” Otherwise, however, the site is heavy on military industrial stock images and light on additional details. According to Schaffer, Archimedes possesses “specialized expertise in gensets for hybrid aircraft and land vehicles.” But two such models are depicted through schematic renderings without any physical proof of existence, nor any public use cases or other clients. The Archimedes LinkedIn profile says the company formed in 2023 in Temecula, CA, and currently lists two confirmed employees—one of which, an unspecified “LinkedIn Member,” is its president. There is currently only a single company post from August 17 announcing its “apocalypse-ready” STING series.
Meanwhile, Archimedes Senior Vice President of Defense Operations, Jongwon Park, declined to confirm or deny if any potential customers have already submitted one of the STING packages’ $500, non-refundable deposits.
“We are not releasing order information at this time,” Park wrote to Popular Science in an email.
Schaffer did not respond to a similar follow-up inquiry at the time of writing. But while it remains to be seen if fleets of (truly) bulletproof Cybertrucks equipped with tens of thousands of dollars in additions will ever patrol America’s roads, at least one demographic may be interested: Chechan warlords allegedly en route to Ukraine.