Elon Musk knows that it isn't easy to shake up an entire industry, and ever since he first announced the wedge-like, poly-graphic silhouette of his electric pick-up truck in 2019, the queue of naysayers began stretching around the block.
Last week, Tesla hosted a Delivery Event at its Gigafactory in Texas, where a handful of those who put down early $100 deposits finally got hold of their electric vehicles.
Ironically, there wasn’t a mention of pricing at the event (you had to dive into the Tesla website shortly after to glean that info), so those new owners rolled away without knowing their outstanding balance.
In fact, price was arguably one of the biggest bones of contention following the seemingly rushed event - especially if you discount Musk’s muttering, the ridiculously poor lighting, the lame baseball thrown at the window stunt and general lack of vital information – as they have jumped from the $39,900 starting price suggested in 2021, to an eye-watering $69,900.
Other notable disappointments included the fact the rear pick-up bed has shrunk from the proposed 6.5ft to 6ft, the max payload has dropped 1,000lbs to 2,500lbs (around 1,134kg) and the all-electric range from the battery packs is no longer in excess of 500-miles (as previously suggested), but 340 miles, or 470-miles with a range extending pack that eats into cargo space (we will get to that later).
Oh, and if you’re wondering why we are citing the British Imperial Measurement system and US dollars, it’s because Cybertruck is still only available in North America, due to its current form not meeting a number of pedestrian safety laws in most other regions.
But if you are in based the US, or you are just very curious, here’s everything we now know about the Tesla Cybertruck, so you can decide whether to honour that deposit, or run for the hills.
Electric range is a shocker
Elon Musk originally suggested his genre-busting Cybertruck would boast an electric range in excess of 500-miles. We now know that not to be true.
According to the Tesla website, the All-Wheel-Drive variant, which starts at $68,890 (around £63,150 / AU$120,740), will offer 340-miles of range.
The cheapest Rear-Wheel-Drive model, which will cost $49,890 (around £48,200 / AU$92,160) when it goes on sale in 2025 will offer 250-miles of range, while the most expensive and most powerful tri-motor Cyberbeast ($96,390 – or around £79,000 / AU$150,915) will offer 320-miles.
Bear in mind that all of these figures are estimated and haven’t been officiated by any standards authorities, so could in fact prove to be a lot stingier than advertised.
This is particularly true if you are prone to drag-racing your Cyberbeast, you need to haul heavy loads in the bed or you are towing chunky machinery.
A range-extending battery is an option
In order to combat the issue of range, Musk confirmed that there will be a range-extending battery pack available as an optional extra. He revealed this on X, formerly Twitter, after the event. Who knows why.
Again, according to Tesla’s website, this comes in the form of a large battery pack that sits in the rear pick-up bed and adds around 130-miles of range, while neatly eating into your load carrying space.
In a classic Tesla move, there is no word on how heavy this additional battery pack is, whether it’s possible for customers to fit it themselves or how much it costs.
Cybertruck will be faster than expected
Perhaps one of the most notable highlights of the Delivery Event was when Elon revealed a short film that saw a Cybertruck beat a Porsche 911 in a drag race… while towing a Porsche 911.
Clever PR stunts aside, Musk revealed that Cybertruck will smash the 0-60mph sprint in just 2.6-seconds in its most potent Cyberbeast guise.
Even in its "middling" All-Wheel-Drive specification, it will still manage to hit 60mph from rest in just 4.1 seconds. It will then accelerate to a max speed of 112mph. That top speed is lifted to 130mph in the Cyberbeast model.
You can power stuff from your Cybertruck
It’s not exactly ground-breaking, seeing as the likes of Kia and Hyundai have been offering bidirectional charging for some time, but Tesla confirmed Cybertruck will be its first model to offer this technology.
In addition to being able to power high-drain items (such as power-tools and camping equipment) directly from outlets in the bed, the Cybertruck’s battery pack can also power homes thanks to Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) functionality.
What’s more, if your EV-owning chums run out of juice, Cybertruck customers can also share charge thanks to its Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) offering.
Again, it’s still unclear as to whether this all comes as standard across the range, or whether it’s a costly extra.
Off-roading is not an issue
It seems ridiculous to us that this information wasn’t available before the Delivery Event, but Musk confirmed the Cybertruck can handle itself off-road (good thing, seeing as it’s a pick-up truck) thanks to air suspension at each corner.
This has the ability to automatically raise the truck to a dedicated off-road ride height, where it benefits from 17-inches of ground clearance. What’s more, Tesla’s boss also confirmed it has "locking differentials and all-wheel-steering", which helps get it out of sticky situations and improves the turning circle no end.
In fact, thanks to a steer-by-wire system and all-wheel-steering, the Cybertruck boasts a turning circle that’s tighter than that found on the current Model S, despite boasting a considerably larger footprint.
The options list makes for interesting reading
Aside from the usual rubber bumper protectors and interior carpets, customers can specify a geodesic pump-up tent that neatly attaches to the bed of Cybertruck to create a comfortable home-from-home when out in the wilderness.
It costs $2,975 (that’s one expensive tent) but Tesla does throw in a mattress to help sweeten the deal. In addition to this, there’s a Tailgate Ramp, which assists in wheeling motorcycles and heavy e-MTBs into the bed, as well as a full-width LED light bar that sits on the roof and adds an additional blast of camp or construction site illumination.
If you don't like your Cybertruck in its naked steel finish, you can option a Tesla-fitted black wrap for $6,500. Finally, there's also a sticker you can add to the rear window, which makes it look like some fool has thrown a steel ball at it.
