The Tesla Cybertruck is rolling off the assembly line in the USA – and is gradually being delivered to customers. It is available in four versions: with rear-wheel drive, as an all-wheel drive, in the limited “Foundation Series” and as a Cyberbeast. If you want the longest range, you should choose the “all-wheel drive” model. Here Tesla gives an estimated value of 547 kilometers, later it will be up to 755 kilometers with an optional range extender.
The other models are sometimes significantly lower, the popular “Foundation Series” is estimated by Tesla to be around 318 miles, i.e. 511 kilometers. The off-road wheels are to blame for the reduced range of the limited edition, because with all-weather tires, which Tesla still wants to bring onto the market, it should be 547 kilometers. The battery in this car has a capacity of 123 kilowatt hours.
One of the few range tests of the Tesla Cybertruck so far came to a rather sobering result. The YouTube channel “Out of Spec Motoring” got behind the wheel for a road trip lasting several hours on Texas interstate highways, roughly comparable to European highways. The goal: from 100 to 0 percent at a constant speed of 70 miles per hour (around 113 km/h) – and then take a look at the speedometer. The test was captured in a video lasting more than five hours. The comparatively low speed, as far as Germans are concerned, results from the usual speed limits in the USA.
After the battery was mostly empty, the Cybertruck was driven to a standstill in a parking lot. The result: 254 miles – 408 kilometers. The measurements were taken at around eight degrees Celsius and dry weather.
This results in an output of 2.06 miles per kilowatt hour, the equivalent of 3.32 kilometers. This results in a consumption of just over 30 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers, which is relatively high for the speed driven – even for a car as large as the Cybertruck. For comparison: Under the same weather conditions but at significantly higher highway speeds, the Kia EV9 consumed around 27 kilowatt hours in the stern test.
Fred Lambert, an auto journalist for “Electrek” who has been reporting on Tesla for years, writes about the result: “The result is well below the EPA range. That’s not great. I would have been closer to 270 miles (434 kilometers) at this temperature. “I’m really worried about how the Cybertruck would perform in sub-freezing temperatures like we have now in Quebec and when pulling a larger load.”
It is not uncommon for the range of electric cars to differ in reality from the manufacturer’s specifications. Officially, they are measured according to certain standards, such as the American EPA, the WLTP method used in Europe or the Chinese CLTC method. Although measured under different conditions, these data have a common problem: in order to make the results comparable, the tests take place under strictly controlled conditions that only partially correspond to real-world conditions. So you can almost assume that the information is at most a guideline, but that it has surprisingly little in common with everyday performance.
There are cases in which some electric cars even exceed the official figures – it always depends on the conditions of the respective journey. But you should take a closer look, especially if the range under real conditions is significantly below the promised performance.
