Tesla finally delivered a ten-pack of Cybertrucks to company employees and investors this morning. It’s hard to call this a ‘production’ launch, as they’ll still be effectively in the hands of in-house beta testers, but it’s a lot closer to production than the truck was a year ago. During the unveil event, company CEO and political landmine Elon Musk finally, officially unveiled the real thing and gave us a rundown of what the hundreds of thousands of Cybertruck deposit holders can expect. The truck will come in three flavors, starting at $US60,990. (You can read about how pricing stacks up to the competition here.)
Four years is a long time. On November 21, 2019 Tesla teased the world with a new pickup truck that looked like nothing else on the road. Four years ago we watched Franz Von Holzhausen chuck two metal balls at the windows of his beloved monstrosity, and watched them crack into a million pieces, mouths agape at the awkwardness of it all. Back then Elon hit us with a series of truly unbelievable specs. The truck was alleged to tow 14,000 pounds, could handle a payload of 3,500 pounds, and was available in three ranges from 200 miles to 500 miles, came standard with air suspension, and started at $US39,900.
The Cybertruck isn’t quite as capable as Elon promised in 2019, as it is now ‘only’ capable of towing 11,000 pounds and can ‘only’ handle 2,500 pounds in payload. In Tri Motor “Cyberbeast” guise, it’ll weigh a whopping 6,850 pounds with four-wheel steering. It’s still pretty quick, despite the weight, because it’ll run from 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds and flash the quarter mile in under 11 seconds. Elon claims the Cybertruck can tow a Porsche 911 down the quarter mile faster than the 911 can drive itself.
The base rear-wheel-drive model is the least expensive, and its starting price of $US60,990 is $21,090 more than it was originally claimed to be. For that much cash, you get a truck capable of 250 miles of range, 0-60 mph in 6.5 seconds, and 7,500 pounds of towing capacity. It won’t be available until 2025, supposedly.
The mid-tier $US79,990 all-wheel-drive package says it offers 340 miles of range, but that can be bumped to “470+ miles” with a “range extender” but doesn’t say anything about what that might be. Is Tesla going to start offering an internal combustion engine option? (Doubtful.) This one will go from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, hit a top speed of 112 mph, and tow the full 11,000 pounds.
Opting for the $US99,990 Cyberbeast model dumps your range to 320 miles (or “440+” with the optional range extender). But that range hit comes with a much quicker truck, getting you a third motor and the full-beans 2.6-second 0-60 hit, as well as a 130-mph top speed.
It seems that every all-wheel-drive Cybertruck has four-corner air suspension that give the truck a maximum of 17.4 inches of ground clearance and 12 inches of travel. Four-wheel steering is a Tesla first, and Musk says the Cybertruck has a tighter turning radius than a Model S.
We also now know the Cybertruck’s actual dimensions. At 223.7 inches long and 70.5 inches tall, it’s 9 inches shorter in length and 7.8 inches lower in height than an F-150 Lighting. The Cybertruck has a 6-foot bed that’s 4 feet wide – it can haul 4×8 plywood with the tailgate down – and there’s 67 cubic feet of lockable storage. The bed can also provide 11.5 kW of power to your home or tools, and its composite build means you allegedly won’t need a liner.
Inside, the Cybertruck has an 18.5-inch touchscreen up front and a 9.4-inch screen for rear passengers. There’s a squircle-shaped steering wheel instead of a yoke, but still no gauge cluster display. Other features include a HEPA filter, a 15-speaker sound system and a bunch of charging ports.
But the biggest news, hidden in small print at the very bottom of the company’s website, is that both the AWD model and the Cyberbeast come with a pretty stellar factory warranty. Tesla says it will give your higher-cost Cybertruck with a “basic vehicle” warranty for four years and 50,000 miles, but beyond that, there’s a new battery warranty for eight years or a mega 150,000 miles. I sure hope this becomes an industry standard practice for all EVs.
I have personally heard from people who would know that the Cybertruck was close to production-ready in 2022, but the launch of the Ford F-150 Lightning and GMC Hummer EV, paired with the success of Rivian, sent Tesla back to the drawing board for a re-think. Years later, it’s easy to see why.
With the first ten delivered, I’m not sure we know a whole lot more than we did last week. These owners aren’t getting the base RWD model, for sure, as it’s still some time off; they’re likely all the most expensive, best performing Cyberbeast version. The original $US39,900 price is definitely out the window today.
Image: Tesla
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