Two years after Tesla was due to deliver its first electric trucks, the Cybertruck is really, truly here—and the base model costs $61,000. That’s about $21,000 more than CEO Elon Musk promised when the Cybertruck was first introduced four years ago. And that cheapest model won’t be available until 2025.
Want one of these one-of-a-kind vehicles for your own? Deliveries to reservation holders started onstage at the Austin, Texas, event today, with Musk himself doing the honors. Tesla’s webpages say that two other versions of the Cybertruck, an all-wheel drive model (estimated at $80,000) and a “Cyberbeast” premium model (estimated at $100,000), will be available next year.
Musk said last month that Tesla will really start churning out the trucks in 2025, when he expects to hit 250,000 produced a year. But anyone who hasn’t already made a reservation yet—as Tesla says more than 1 million people have—might have to wait longer. Tesla more than doubled the price of a (refundable) reservation today, to $250.
Another crucial stat: 250 miles per charge for the base model Cybertruck, and 320 for the premium Cyberbeast. Compare that to plug-powered competitors including the Rivian R1T (which gets 270 to 350 miles a charge) and the Ford F-150 Lightning (which gets between 230 and 320 miles), and that’s not as impressive as some were hoping.
The Cybertruck is powerful, though, as Musk emphasized during the Austin event, which included footage of the truck’s premium model outpacing a Porsche 911—while towing another Porsche 911.
The base model, which has a single-motor and is rear-wheel, will go from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds. The all-wheel drive middle model, available next year, can hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds. The premium pick, also due in 2024, will be able to hit top speeds of 130 miles per hour, go 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds, and tow a fairly beastly 11,000 pounds—more than the Ford F-150 Lightning, and about on par with the Rivian R1T.
In 2019, Tesla and Musk launched a thousand memes when the carmaker’s head of design, Franz von Holzhausen, tried to prove the strength of the Cybertruck’s windows by throwing a metal ball at it. The glass shattered. Today, Tesla went a bit easier on its truck. Von Holzhausen went after the windows with a baseball. The Cybertruck survived.
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