Since first hitting production at the end of last year, the Tesla Cybertruck has had a rough go of it – especially when compared to the Ford F-150 Lightning, one of its main competitors. Last month we reported that the Cybertruck lost badly when it comes to sales, and now it’s losing badly in races.
Both of these trucks are billed as off-roaders (somewhat), so instead of heading to a normal drag strip, a couple of owners decided to race their trucks at the Moses Lake Mud Flat in Washington on sand. Pretty neat. Luckily for us, it was all caught on video and posted to Facebook. The results are not pretty for the Cybertruck.
Both seem to struggle off the line with traction, but rather quickly the all-wheel-drive systems kick in and the trucks are off. They’re sort of even for a few seconds and then the Lightning rockets away from the Cybertruck – crossing the finish line well before the Cybertruck does in this rather unscientific race. It really wasn’t even close.
To be fair to the Cybertruck, we’ve got no idea what models of truck these were if the drivers were good at drag racing and driving on sand or even how long the race was. No matter how you slice it, though, there is a very clear winner. On paper, the Cybertruck should be faster than the Lightning. I mean, Tesla says it’ll do 0-60 in 2.6 seconds, and the fastest Lightning can only manage it in 3.8 seconds. However, I’ve got to think here the big differentiator here was the Lightning’s all-wheel-drive system, which is almost certainly better at tacking loose surfaces than the Cybertruck’s.
We cannot say for sure that the Lightning would beat the Cybertruck every single time, but one thing is certain: if the results went the other way Cybertruck freaks would be touting it as the greatest race in the world.