I still have the figures Tesla put on the screen when the Cybertruck was unveiled in November 2019 saved in a note: 39,900 dollars, 500 miles of range, 14,000 pounds of towing. Almost none of them made it into production, and yet they are still the numbers most people quote at me when the subject comes up. So this review deliberately ignores the truck that was promised and looks only at the one you can order today.
Where the numbers actually landed
- The cheapest Cybertruck in the 2026 line-up costs 71,985 dollars with destination, not the 39,900 dollars announced in 2019.
- Range peaks at 325 miles on the two all-wheel-drive trims and 320 miles on the Cyberbeast.
- Towing is 7,500 pounds on the entry truck and 11,000 pounds on Premium and Cyberbeast, not 14,000.
- US sales fell 48% in 2025 to 20,237 units, the steepest drop of any electric vehicle on the market that year.
- 1 The 2026 line-up, trim by trim
- 2 Design: the shape is still the whole argument
- 3 Performance: quicker than it has any right to be
- 4 Utility: a real pickup bed, with real electric-truck caveats
- 5 Technology: familiar Tesla, on a new electrical architecture
- 6 What it costs, and what it stopped costing
- 7 Running costs and the environmental case
- 8 The competition, and how the sales actually went
- 9 The questions readers keep sending in
The 2026 line-up, trim by trim
Three versions are on sale, all with two or three motors. Tesla restructured the range in February 2026, dropping the short-lived rear-wheel-drive model and turning the entry price point into a dual-motor truck instead.
| Trim | Price with destination | EPA range | 0 to 60 mph | Max towing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dual Motor AWD | 71,985 $ | 325 mi | 4.1 s | 7,500 lb |
| Premium AWD | 81,985 $ | 325 mi | 4.1 s | 11,000 lb |
| Cyberbeast (tri-motor) | 101,985 $ | 320 mi | 2.6 s | 11,000 lb |
Two details in that table matter more than the headline prices. The base truck gives up 3,500 pounds of towing capacity, which is the difference between pulling a 21-foot boat and pulling nothing much at all. And the Cyberbeast lost 15,000 dollars in the 2026 restructuring, which tells you plenty about how the top of the range was selling.
Design: the shape is still the whole argument
Nothing about the Cybertruck’s flat-panel stainless bodywork has softened with familiarity, and that was clearly the point. Tesla spent a decade refining conventional surfaces on the Model S and Model 3, then built something that reads as a wedge from a hundred metres away.
The engineering logic behind it is real. Bending unpainted stainless steel into curves is difficult and expensive, so the panels stayed flat. No paint means no paint shop, no colour matching after a scrape, and no clear coat to oxidise. It also means the truck shows fingerprints like a fridge door and picks up marks that a painted panel would shrug off.
The rust question, answered honestly
Owners started posting photographs of orange spotting on the panels within weeks of the first deliveries. Tesla’s position, repeated in its service guidance, is that this is surface contamination from airborne iron particles settling on the steel rather than the steel itself corroding, and that it should be cleaned off promptly with a mild abrasive cleaner. That explanation is plausible for anyone who has owned a stainless barbecue near a rail line, but it is still maintenance a painted truck does not ask for.
The recall that hit almost every truck built
In March 2025 Tesla recalled 46,096 Cybertrucks, covering essentially the entire production run from November 2023 to February 2025, under NHTSA campaign 25V-170. The cant rail, the stainless trim strip running along each side of the windscreen, could delaminate at its adhesive joint and separate from the vehicle at speed. The fix was a re-bonded panel. It is worth knowing about if you are shopping used: ask for proof the campaign was completed.
Performance: quicker than it has any right to be
The Cyberbeast reaches 60 mph in 2.6 seconds, which puts a 6,800-pound pickup into genuine sports car territory. Even the dual-motor trucks do it in 4.1 seconds, comfortably ahead of anything with a V8 and a tailgate.
What impresses me more is the suspension. The adaptive air setup drops the body to roughly 9.5 inches of ground clearance at motorway speed for efficiency, and lifts to about 17.4 inches in Extract Mode when you need to clear an obstacle. Very few production vehicles cover that spread, and it is what lets one truck work as a commuter and a trail vehicle without compromising badly at either end.
The Motor of Cyberstruck’s Tesla
Four-wheel steer-by-wire is the other party trick, and the one that surprises people on a first drive. There is no mechanical link between the wheel and the front axle, and the rear wheels turn too. In a car park the truck pivots like something two feet shorter. On a motorway slip road it feels quick in a way that takes a few miles to trust.
Utility: a real pickup bed, with real electric-truck caveats
The bed measures six feet with up to 2,500 pounds of payload, and the powered tonneau turns it into a lockable, weatherproof box. That last part is genuinely useful in a way spec sheets undersell: tools stay dry and out of sight without adding an aftermarket cover.
On towing, the Premium and Cyberbeast trims pull 11,000 pounds against 10,000 for a properly equipped Ford F-150 Lightning, so the Cybertruck wins that comparison but not by the margin the 2019 slide claimed. The Rivian R1T matches the 11,000-pound figure in its highest-rated configurations, and rather less in others, so check the exact trim before you assume it.
The caveat applies to every electric pickup, not just this one. Hitch a heavy trailer and range falls off sharply, often by something close to half. A 325-mile truck towing a boat to a lake three hours away is a truck that will be looking for a charger with a trailer attached, and charging bays that accommodate a rig are still rare. Plan the route before you plan the trip.
Technology: familiar Tesla, on a new electrical architecture
Inside, the 17-inch touchscreen runs the same software family as the rest of the range, which means anyone stepping out of a Model 3 needs about ten minutes to feel at home. The cabin is minimal to the point of austerity, and whether that reads as calm or unfinished is a matter of taste rather than a fault.
The interesting change is underneath. The Cybertruck runs an 800-volt architecture, unusual for Tesla, which is what allows the high DC charging rates and lets the truck power tools and appliances from its bed outlets. It is a genuinely useful feature on a work site and it is the part of the truck I would miss most.
How long does it take to charge Tesla’s Cybertruck ?
Over-the-air updates cut both ways
Software delivered over the air genuinely improves the truck after purchase, and Tesla has a long record of doing it. The flip side is worth stating plainly: updates need connectivity, older hardware eventually stops receiving the newest features, and a vehicle whose behaviour changes overnight is a vehicle you have to keep relearning. None of that is a reason to avoid the truck. It is a reason to read release notes.
What it costs, and what it stopped costing
Cost comparison Tesla Cybertruck vs traditional gas powered pickup
Two product decisions in 2025 tell the pricing story better than any chart. In April Tesla added a rear-wheel-drive Long Range model at 69,990 dollars before destination, then removed it from the configurator around September after what reporting put at roughly 173 sales. Buyers who wanted the cheap Cybertruck did not want one stripped of the air suspension, the powered tonneau and the bed outlets.
The second was the range extender, an auxiliary battery pack meant to sit in the bed and push range past 445 miles. Tesla took 2,000 dollar deposits for it, priced it at around 16,000 dollars, delayed it, then cancelled it outright in May 2025 and refunded everyone. If your buying case depends on more than 325 miles, that case no longer exists.
Running costs and the environmental case
Zero tailpipe emissions is the easy part of the argument, and on a vehicle this heavy it is also the honest part: a pickup that replaces a thirsty petrol V8 saves a great deal of fuel, whatever you think of the grid mix charging it. Servicing is where the day-to-day saving shows up, because there is no oil, no exhaust, no timing belt and no gearbox to worry about. Brake pads last unusually long thanks to regenerative braking.
Two things temper the picture. Tyres are the consumable that punishes weight, and a truck of this mass gets through them faster than a conventional pickup. And the solar tonneau option floated around the 2019 unveiling never reached production, so nobody should be budgeting for a truck that tops itself up in a car park.
The competition, and how the sales actually went
The Rivian R1T remains the more conventional and, to my eye, the more resolved vehicle. The Ford F-150 Lightning is the one that fleet buyers keep choosing because it looks and loads like the truck their crews already use. The GMC Hummer EV is the only rival that competes on sheer presence, and it drinks accordingly.
Against that field, the sales numbers are brutal. Tesla sold roughly 39,000 Cybertrucks in the US in 2024, its first full year. That fell 48% to 20,237 in 2025, the largest decline of any electric vehicle in the American market according to Cox Automotive, and the first quarter of 2026 came in at 3,519 units. For context, Elon Musk had publicly projected up to 500,000 a year at full production.
One statistic deserves a flag rather than a conclusion. Of 7,071 Cybertrucks registered in the US in the fourth quarter of 2025, 1,279 went to SpaceX and around 60 more to other Musk-owned ventures, roughly 19% of the quarter’s registrations. Make of that what you will, but it changes how you read the retail demand figure.
The questions readers keep sending in
Is the Cybertruck bulletproof?
Tesla has demonstrated the door panels resisting small-calibre fire and describes the body as ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel. The glass is a different story: the armoured window demonstration failed live on stage in 2019, and no manufacturer sells a production pickup with certified ballistic glazing as standard. Treat it as a strong panel, not as armour.
Can it replace a diesel work truck?
For a trades vehicle doing local runs with tools in the back and a charger at the yard, yes, and the bed power outlets are a genuine advantage. For anyone towing near capacity over long distances every week, not yet, because of the range penalty under load and the shortage of pull-through charging bays.
Does the stainless steel dent?
Less easily than aluminium or thin steel, which is the upside. The downside is that panels that resist deformation also resist cheap repair, and body shops charge accordingly when something does go wrong. Insurance quotes are worth getting before you order, not after.
Should I buy used now that values have fallen?
A used 2024 or 2025 truck is where the value case is strongest, provided you confirm the March 2025 cant rail recall was carried out and check the panel edges for the orange spotting described above. Anything touching brakes, suspension or structure should go to a qualified technician rather than a home garage.
Comparing it against the rest of the Tesla range?
The Model 3 is the one most Cybertruck shoppers cross-shop, and six months of daily use tells you more than a spec sheet.
Updated August 2026. Prices, range, acceleration and towing figures are the 2026 model year specifications as published in the US market; recall data refers to NHTSA campaign 25V-170 (March 2025); sales figures are US deliveries and registrations for 2024, 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Specifications and pricing change frequently on this vehicle and vary by market, so confirm both locally before ordering. This article is general information and not technical or purchasing advice.