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2026 Honda Ridgeline ReviewTesla Cybertruck: Our Sci-Fi Future is Now
Blisteringly fast and radically styled, no recent vehicle has been as polarizing as the Tesla Cybertruck. Is it the future of the pickup or mere novelty?
Designing the Future
The Tesla Cybertruck might not be what “Bladerunner would have driven*,” since Deckard drove a flying car, but Elon Musk’s post-apocalyptic fever dream of an electric pickup, with its radically angular silhouette and stainless-steel body paneling, is nothing if not cinematic. And as of November 2023, this would-be backlot prop can now be found in your front driveway, that is if you’ve got around $100,000 dollars burning a hole in your pocket. After a four-year incubation period, many a production delay, and one thoroughly memorable press launch, the Tesla Cybertruck has finally arrived.
Musk wanted the Cybertruck to look like the future, and that it does, above all else (and there’s plenty else). The Cybertruck’s custom-developed alloy of stainless steel created for the body paneling isn’t just for show, or even there to deflect bullets; it’s so tough as to serve as a veritable exoskeleton. The long flat panels and sharp angles make the Cybertruck probably the easiest ever pickup to accurately recreate via origami.
Yes, the Cybertruck’s looks are outlandish. But the electric truck’s performance is even more crazy.
Powertrain & Output
It’s well known that Teslas are fast, and the company has made it a point of pride (and promotion) that cars like the Model S Plaid, a seemingly sedate four-door sedan, are among the world’s quickest cars, thanks heaps of instant torque afforded by their electric motors. Naturally, Musk and Tesla engineers have made certain that the Cybertruck is every bit as wild behind the wheel as it looks sitting curbside.
The Cybertruck will come in three flavors: a single-motor rear-wheel drive version, a dual-motor all-wheel drive version, and the tri-motor AWD “Cyberbeast.” The latter two are currently on sale while the single-motor version is set for a 2025 release. The dual- and tri- motor Cybertrucks carry a 123-kWh battery pack. The dual-motor version offers 600 horsepower, 340 miles of range, a zero to sixty time of 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 112 mph. The tri-motor “Cyberbeast” boasts 845 horsepower, 320 miles of range, a neck-jolting zero to sixty sprint of 2.6 seconds, and a top speed of 130 mph.
Quickness isn’t the Cybertruck’s only party trick either, its 35-degree approach angle and 28-degree departure angle plus up to 17-inches of ground clearance should allow for tackling gnarly off-road challenges. DC fast charging, say via a Tesla Supercharger, will juice up the Cybertruck’s battery pack by 128-136 miles in just 15 minutes. An at-home 240-volt charger will fully charge the Cybertruck in roughly ten hours. A 50-kWh range extension battery pack, located in the truck’s bed, will also be available, lifting ranges to 470 or 440 miles for the dual- and tri-motor versions, respectively.
Towing/Payload, Cargo, & Interior
Aside from totally unnecessary levels of insane acceleration and polarizing aesthetics, what does the Tesla Cybertruck offer in terms of real-world application? The Cybertruck offers up to 11,000 lbs. of towing capacity (short of the 14,000 lbs. first touted but still respectable) as well as a 2,500-lbs. payload capacity. The bed of the Cybertruck measures 6×4-feet for 120.9 cu. ft. Under the bed is an additional 67 cu.-ft. storage space.
Like the rest of Tesla’s lineup, the Cybertruck’s interior is spartan in the extreme, eschewing both adornment and physical controls. Instead, the Cybertruck features antiseptic levels of long clean lines and expansive unbroken surfaces (for those of you who use the upper dash as a waypoint for your mail and other detritus, Tesla has provided you a filing cabinet’s worth of space under the sharply raked windshield). The only interior adornment is a novelty-size 18.5-inch infotainment touchscreen housing most of the vehicle’s controls. Rear-seat passengers aren’t left out, either. They get their own 9.4-inch touchscreen interface set into the rear portion of the center console.
Pricing
When the Cybertruck was first unveiled, Tesla said it was targeting a base MSRP of $40,000. Four years and a good deal of inflation has seen that number rise to around $60,000 for the single-motor version, which again, won’t be available until 2025 or so. In the meantime, the dual-motor version is priced at $80,000 while the tri-motor “Cyberbeast” will set you back a hefty $99,900. However, since the Cybertruck is built in Texas, USA, it does qualify for up to $7,500 in federal EV tax credits.
Will the Tesla Cybertruck successfully contend with the likes of the Ford F-150 Lightning, GMC Hummer EV, and Rivian R1T? Tesla says they plan to scale production up to 250,000 units per year. Reuters recently reported that that number may be hard to achieve given battery production hurdles that may keep production to just a small fraction of that target number.
Time will tell whether the Tesla Cybertruck really is the future of the pickup, a sci-fi movie prop come to life, or something in-between.
*This from Musk’s tweet touting the Cybertruck: “It’s an armored personnel carrier from the future – what Bladerunner would have driven.” Wherein Musk makes clear he’s no cinephile.
