Performance Cybertruck Model
Just as we received news that the first Cybertruck deliveries are expected for October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk hits us with a teaser via his social media account on the Everything App.
On September 22nd, Elon posted one sentence:
And, I mean, how are we not supposed to start speculating on that?
It certainly makes sense that there would be a “Performance” version of the Cybertruck when they officially launch the vehicle in October - all the other cars in their fleet have at least one performance model - usually coming with better batteries, updated trim and cosmetic features, and more motors.
And while we really can’t say much about the Cybertruck’s battery situation - we have lots to say about the prospect of extra motors.
Elon and Tesla have commented a handful of times about proposed motor options for their prototype pickup truck - with options ranging from one motor, all the way to four - one for each wheel. But we haven’t exactly heard anything recently about a four motor variant, so it’s best not to wait on that version just yet.
We did hear some rumours earlier this year that the single-motor variant isn’t likely to ship at first, and so that would seem to imply that the dual motor version is the base model currently. Which would further imply that the tri-motor option would be what Elon was referring to in his September 22nd post.
Some earlier numbers from Tesla’s site have indicated that the Dual motor variant would have a range of about 300 miles, while the Tri Motor AWD variant would have a whopping 500 miles and be able to pull 14,000 lbs - which definitely qualifies as “Performance”.
More to the point, it just makes sense that we would only be seeing two variants of the new vehicle when it launches. Tesla has had a hell of a time with Cybertruck pre production before this year - and the sudden smoothness of the run-up to its launch would seem to point to the team choosing to take some work off their plates by focusing their efforts on one or two models.
But we should be careful to remember that things can change a lot during pre-production. By now, Tesla has almost certainly finalised what they want to offer in terms of vehicle options - but even back in July, some rumours from community members were that Tesla sources were only working on one version.
But a teaser from Elon this late is a pretty good sign that we’re going to be seeing a performance version of the Cybertruck pop up sooner rather than later. Even if it’s not among the first offerings, it clearly exists as a working prototype at least - so we should be getting some idea of what it actually can do within the next couple months.