A few hours after Tesla’s Cybertruck unveiling on November 21st of 2019, I gave Tesla $100. Had I purchased shares of TSLA that day, the value would be just over $1000 or an 896% return on investment. Some people on the Cybertruck forums actually put $39,900 (Cybertruck’s original base price) and did the same and they can buy over 3 fully loaded models today with that initial investment. That’s called being smart with your money.
When the Cybertruck was unveiled, it was set to go into production in 2021 (3 years ago) and cost $39,990 for the base model. I pre-ordered the $69,900 model with no extra features as it was said to have “over 500 miles” of range and later, leaks said more like 620 miles so I sat patiently ready to buy a $70K truck that I knew would have very little storage and a bed that was too small but again to embrace our electric vehicle future as I had with the all electric Hyundai Ioniq that let me down again and again to the point I just sold it and instead purchased a half ton diesel truck to replace it. I chronicled my experience owning a Hyundai Ioniq diligently (1,2,3,4) and I don’t miss that car at all. Short range, slow as molasses, cheap materials, no storage and no charging network in northern New Hampshire.
Here are additional claims from Tesla at the Cybertruck unveiling:
Musk said the Cybertruck can go from 0 to 60 mph in less than 6.5 seconds at the low end, and in 2.9 seconds at the high end. The midrange dual-motor version does it in 4.5 seconds. Towing capacity for the single motor version is around 7,500 pounds, dual-motor around 10,000 pounds and trimotor around 14,000 pounds.
My Ram 1500 EcoDiesel by comparison:
- 25-30 miles per gallon
- 700-1000 miles of range on a 33 gallon tank
- 260 HP, 480 lb/ft of torque
- 8,290 pounds towing capacity and 1,750 pounds of payload (mine is around 1200 due to options)
- 6.5 x 5.5 foot bed or around 34 square feet of storage area (not accounting for depth)
Of course, the RAM has gobs of storage everywhere. 12 cup holders, storage behind the seats, under the seats, two glove compartments and a massive center console. It’s astonishing how much you can haul around…like 4 grown adults comfortably, three dirt bikes, camping and motorcycle gear and then you still get 25 miles per gallon at full payload on the interstate if you keep it under 70 miles per hour and stopping for diesel takes about 2-3 minutes at the truck stop pumps and you’re back on the road.
Despite my now 2.5 year old RAM, I still anxiously awaited the Cybertruck because I wanted to embrace electric vehicles. I have aggressively paid down my RAM where I have about $50K in equity I can roll into my $70,000 Cybertruck basically buying it outright and I was going to accept the fact that interior storage space was going to be very limited. Less leg room, less compartments and just super minimal and also losing the truck things like buttons for everything and having to go Tesla Touch screen for almost every control. It was going to be a lesser truck and cost more than my truck which was $63,000 and 0% interest but man was I excited. 620 miles of range would mean about 400 towing and 350 KWH charging at new super chargers would mean 30 minutes to recharge which isn’t unreasonable. Again, these were all inconveniences that I was going to put up with.
Then the Cybertruck pricing and specifications were released. In fact, today I received my email to officially put in an order for my Cybertruck since my place in line is fast approaching and here’s my $70,000 620 mile range Cybertruck (sorry for all caps, that’s just Elon’s style):
- $99,990
- ALL-WHEEL DRIVE
- EST. DELIVERY JAN. 2024 – MAR. 2024
- DUAL MOTOR ALL-WHEEL DRIVE
- 318 MI. RANGE (EST.)
- 340 MI. RANGE (EST.) WITH ALL SEASON TIRES (AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE IN 2024)
- 4.1 SEC. 0-60 MPH
- 112 MPH TOP SPEED
- 600 HORSEPOWER
- 7,435 LB-FT TORQUE
- 11,000 LBS. TOWING CAPACITY
- INCLUDED WITH FOUNDATION SERIES
- LIMITED-EDITION CONFIGURATION
- LASER-ETCHED FOUNDATION SERIES BADGE
- FOUNDATION SERIES CABIN GRAPHIC
- 20” CYBER WHEELS WITH 35” TIRES
- WHITE DÉCOR
- PREMIUM ACCESSORIES
- POWERSHARE HOME BACKUP
- POWERSHARE MOBILE CONNECTOR
- FULL SELF-DRIVING CAPABILITY
- LIFETIME PREMIUM CONNECTIVITY
A few key areas to point out:
- The price increased by $20,000
- It’s a dual motor, no longer a tri-motor
- 340 miles of range if I go to Tesla and replace the tires with All seasons. If not, 318 miles of range and that’s best case scenario…single driver, no payload, flat drive at a reasonable speed limit
- 4.1 second 0-60 but their site notes “With rollout subtracted.” Meaning that’s not from 0..it’s more like from 2-5 MPH. The industry hates “rollout numbers” because it’s not a true 0-60. How well the vehicle puts down torque from 0 is a big part of the entire time!
- 11,000 pounds of towing (which will impact range) and a payload of 2,500 pounds (these are good numbers)
- White decor which I don’t want because it’s a pain to clean and I get my truck dirty camping and on dirt bike weekends getting in and out
- They’ve added Full Self Driving as a required add-on and this is in beta and I wouldn’t use it anyway
- Lifetime premium connectivity is a nice to have. I think it’s around $10 a month and it’s something I would have added
- Tongue weight is not printed above but it’s around 1,250 pounds which is about 100 pounds more than my RAM. I’m not towing an RV so that’s more than enough and I’d see an increase in payload with Cybertruck but the Tesla truck is already range limited so they can say you can haul a million pounds but it doesn’t matter if you’re stopping every hour to charge for an hour.
I feel pretty grifted.
If you go into more fine-print though, the truck is $99,990 but that does not include (where I live) another $7,000 in tax (New Hampshire was tax-free and is not currently my primary residence), $2,000 shipping / destination fee and about $1200 in fees, taxes and other miscellaneous things imposed by the government. Also, the truck does not qualify for any EV tax credit so out the door, it’s about $110,000 USD. Tesla is happy to default to a view pricing the truck at $96,390 because they assume that’s how much you’ll save in fuel. Maybe? That’s probably accurate but no other automaker advertises vehicle prices by fuel savings. Only Tesla does this and it’s their default sales pitch on every car page even including the last page you get to as you give them a $1000 non-refundable deposit to buy the vehicle. That “probably savings” view should be illegal.
If I purchased a Cybertruck, I’d be spending $40K more than I anticipated and getting 50% less range oh and about that bed size…so I said my RAM has about 34 square feet of bed. Tesla’s bed is 6 feet by 4 feet or 24 square feet if area (I’m not factoring depth because Dirt Bikes just stand up anyway). It’s 10 square feet of less space or basically one whole motorcycle less of space when we’re doing dirt bikes and certainly wouldn’t be wide enough for my wife and I to put our BMWs side by side like we do today for road trips which is why I bought a truck to begin with.
If you compare the release Cybertruck to the 2019 unveiling specs:
- Towing capacity: More than 14,000 lbs
- Payload: Up to 3,500 lbs
- Bed length: 6.5 feet
Again, I ordered this truck hoping it’d be the same size as my RAM or better in payload, towing, bed size including that ultra-cool built in motorcycle ramp in the tailgate (something I have to cary with me today on trips and is now no longer an option. Instead, Tesla will sell you a ramp just like I have for a cool grand which you’ll have to store in the tiny bed alongside your 1 motorcycle.
Electric Blog actually made a nice table that shows the Cybertruck versus my RAM 1500 with the long bed. They also created a visual of the interior dimensions where the Cybertruck only wins in the interior leg and headroom for the front row over my truck. The rest is smaller
What about the Cyberbeast trim? Well, what about it? It’s $116,390 instead of $99,990 and yes it is the Tri-Motor I was hoping for and actually gets less range (301 miles) instead of 318 of the dual motor and has useless advantages like more horsepower and torque but no additional payload, bed-size or towing capacity.
But wait, there’s more!
For $16,000, I can order a Tesla Range Extender Battery. This gives me 440 miles of range (a gain of over 100) but it takes up about 1/3 of the Cybertruck’s bed meaning I won’t even be able to fit one dirt bike in the back.
So…I’m cancelling my order. Do I like burning dirty Diesel fuel into our atmosphere? Do I want to be a “truck person” and deal with getting stuck trying to park my truck anywhere? Not at all. I want a tiny small hatchback but being into motorcycles has forced my hands at owning a truck and it has come in handy. Elon Musk and his company promised a 500+ mile $70K truck and delivered a 300 mile $100K truck with less storage, less room for passengers, slower to fill than my diesel and will probably have numerous manufacturing defects for years to come.
Sadly, the competition isn’t doing much better with other truck TVs being the size of Tacomas or having abysmal range.
I don’t know when EVs will make sense for people who drive 30K miles a year like I do but I’m going to have to keep polluting the ozone layer until someone makes an electric truck that does what mine does and gets 700-1000 miles of range on a charge and charges in under 10 minutes. We’ll get there eventually. Oh, and it has to be $60 grand like my truck was, not $100K.
I’m really disappointed. I really wanted one of these.