How could it be otherwise? It’s no wonder that Elon Musk, the eccentric boss of Tesla, presented with fanfare his “new” baby Cybertruck, a model that was announced in 2019 and which after four years finally hit the roads.

At Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, on a stage worthy of a rock concert, Elon Musk, wearing a leather jacket behind the wheel of his Cybertruck, once again put on a show.

The same goes for demos to demonstrate the strength and power of the product: machine gun shots through doors without a trace, dragging construction equipment, defeating a Porsche 911 (while the Cybertruck towed another 911 on a flatbed).

Porsche 911 wins when towing a 911
pic.twitter.com/4YdS1tKQse

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2023

Crazy ambitions

“I think it’s our best product yet,” said Elon Musk, describing the Cybertruck as “the most exceptional object on the road” and declaring it “The future will finally look like the future with this creation. » With its clumsy lines, the Cybertruck presents itself as a cross between the futuristic world of Blade Runner (1982) and the mythical Wet Nelly, the Lotus Esprit-inspired amphibious vehicle seen in The Spy Who Loved Me. » (1977).

Despite skepticism about its “rogue” design, the order book for the Cybertruck has already exceeded one million. The base model is sold in $60,990slightly more expensive than the Ford F-150 Lightning, available for $50,000.

During the presentation, customers received their Cybertruck to the delight of the audience. Elon Musk plans to start production of 250,000 units in 2025, but some experts doubt that this unusual design will lead to such large sales.

Tesla cyber truck in several pictures

The Cybertruck’s body is made of stainless steel plates to ensure its strength, an atypical architecture that gave the manufacturer a hard time. The most recent unofficial release of the prototype raised doubts about the production qualities of the model, especially with very special body adjustments.

Unsurprisingly, the features that were announced in half in 2019 have largely changed four years later, but not necessarily in a good way. The entry-level version (Propulsion) will only be available in 2025, and its price has increased significantly since 2019, from $39,990 to $60,990 ! Autonomy has melted like snow in the sun, because it is satisfied with this version 402 km.

For its part, the middle-class version with all-wheel drive claims 547 km range, 600 hp. and $79,990. Finally, the Cyberbeast version with three electric motors total power of 845 hp, promises 515 km of autonomy, at a selling price of $99,990.

If you find the range too short, Tesla offers to extend the range with an external battery that sits in the bed and takes up about 1/3 of it. Enough to add about 200 km of additional autonomy.

At this point, we still don’t know if the Cybertruck will cross the Atlantic to set its wheels in Europe. If that’s the case, you’ll definitely have to expect a price tag of around €70,000 for the base version and more than €100,000 for the top-end model.