The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its official Tesla Cybertruck filings, revealing additional details about the stainless steel triangle on wheels that few people seem to have had enough of. The information in the documents, reviewed by InsideEVs, is not earth-shattering by any measure, but some details are worth noting.
For starters, the Certification Summary Information Report, filed on November 21, 2023, just ten days before the buoyant delivery event, mentions the total voltage of battery packs at 816 volts, battery energy capacity at 150 (amp hours, we believe), and battery specific energy at 170 (watt-hours per kilogram, we believe). That leaves us with 122.4 kilowatt-hours of energy capacity—in line with the unofficial value of 123 kWh in some reports. Annoyingly, Tesla does not release the battery capacity of its EVs.
Moving on, the initial application for the Certificate For Conformity was filed by Tesla on November 11, 2023, and that document confirms the presence of a heat pump. Well, that’s not entirely surprising because most new Teslas get the heat pump, and we also saw some spy shots early this year, shared by members of the Cybertruck Owners Club, that exposed the cooling systems behind the frunk.
For those who don’t know, Tesla’s ingenious heat pump design is its solution to minimize heat losses and maximize range and efficiency. In principle, heat pumps reuse the heat generated by the battery and drive units to warm the cabin, save energy, and improve the range on long drives—they’re crucial in the winter when range losses tend to be higher. Here’s what the document says about the heat pump:
The heater unit incorporating a variable speed electric fan is located in the front of the chassis tub with ducting directing the blown air to defrost, face level and floor level vents in the passenger compartment. The heater element is of the heat pump, drawing HV electrical energy from the battery pack High Voltage.
It goes on to mention how the HVAC system reduces energy usage in both heating and cooling scenarios:
The energy required to heat the cabin varies by weather and occupant comfort needs, but on average consumes approximately 10 percent of the total energy available for driving. However, even in moderately cold weather (0 degrees Celsius), consumption can increase to 25 percent or more. A heat pump consumes a small amount of electrical energy to thermodynamically “upgrade” low-temperature (less useful) thermal energy to higher-temperature (more useful) thermal energy, making it suitable for occupant comfort. That is, for a given electrical power input, a heat pump will return 1 to 5x in useful heating power; an electrical cabin heater provides 1:1 in heating power, and therefore is far less efficient.
That said, we also found a quirky little detail about the Cybertruck’s charging. The charging port, mounted on the rear left fender, will put on a colorful display regarding its state of charge (SoC). For example, a solid white illumination indicates that the charging cable can be removed or inserted. An orange light would indicate that the cable isn’t properly latched, and a flashing blue light would signal that charging is underway as expected, among others.
Lastly, the curb weight of the Cyberbeast is 6,898 pounds, and the all-wheel-drive tips scale at 6,669 pounds. The gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) is 9,169 pounds for both variants. We were hoping to find details about the rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck, due in 2025, as well. But the EPA hasn’t made those files public yet. That said, the EPA documents are publicly available, so anyone can review them. Let us know if you find any additional interesting nuggets of information worth highlighting.
