A couple days before Nov. 30, a 2023 Tesla Cybertruck showed up at the Tesla Gold Coast store in downtown Chicago. The sales people didn’t even know it was coming. But the surprise showing gave us an opportunity to do a quick walk around a couple hours before Tesla’s big customer delivery event in Austin, Texas.
2023 Tesla Cybertruck deliveries event
During the walk around, we alluded to the fact that a delivery event would be happening, and we were hoping to have more information to share about the truck. But details were scant during the half-hour-long presentation. Other than not breaking the side window with a baseball (rather than using a steel ball like they did the first time around), here’s the sum of what we learned:
- A Tommy Gun’s bullets won’t penetrate the Tesla-designed alloy steel body.
- It can tow 11,000 pounds and has a max payload of 2,500 pounds
- The bed is 6 feet long and 4 feet wide, which means it can fit plywood with the tailgate down.
- It has a true 17-inch ground clearance.
- It’ll roll on 35-inch all-terrain tires.
- It has steer-by-wire and four-wheel steer, producing a turning circle that’s less than a Model S.
- It has a 0-to-60-MPH time of 2.6 seconds and can make a quarter mile sprint in less than 11 seconds.
- The Tri Motor Cybertruck will have a curb weight of 6,850 pounds.
As far as in-depth specs, like length, height, interior volume, etc., well, that’s all still TBD.
One interesting thing of note we saw on the website: There will be an available bed-installed range extender that will deliver an estimated 470+ miles of range. No details on what the range extender is, how it will operate or what it will cost, but we do know it will be installed separately. The 470 number is for the AWD model, and the Cyberbeast extender will ring in at 440+ miles.
Base price is $60,990
The Tesla.com website does finally have a little more information available in terms of pricing, range and estimated delivery time. Right now, Tesla is advertising three models: the Rear-Wheel Drive, the All-Wheel Drive and the “Cyberbeast.” Breaking them down:
- Rear-Wheel Drive ($60,990): 250 miles of range, 6.5-second 0-to-60-MPH time, won’t be available until 2025.
- All-Wheel Drive ($79,990): 340 miles of range, 4.1-second 0-to-60 MPH time, 112 MPH top speed, 600 horsepower, 7,435 pound-feet of torque, 11,000-pound towing capacity, will be available sometime in 2024.
- Cyberbeast ($99,900): 320 miles of range, 2.6-second 0-to-60 MPH time, 130 MPH top speed, 845 horsepower, 10,296 pound-feet of torque, 11,000-pound towing capacity, will be available sometime in 2024.
One interesting note is that the prices above assume a federal tax credit of $7,500 for the RWD and AWD models, which tells me the actual price you’ll pay for those two models might be $7,500 more than what’s listed.
The bottom line
Today’s deliver event was not the font of information we hoped for. While we do think the truck looks better in person, the jury is still out on the capability and interior. We’ll share more information as we have it.
2023 Tesla Cybertruck Photo Gallery from Chicago
Editor’s note: We have to give a hat tip to automotive colleague Larry Nutson, a Chicago-based journalist who writes for The Auto Channel.Â
