Tesla CEO Elon Musk has flagged that a performance variant of the upcoming Cybertruck electric ute is now planned, and that it will – of course – be “next-level”.
The news – delivered via a post on Twitter/X, comes as Tesla finally begins the commercial production of the Cybertruck that was first unveiled in 2019 as one of the most radically different vehicles in the automotive industry. At that unveiling, three variants were shared. Now there will be another.
The post, which followed a Musk drive of a performance variant, raised a number of questions about the number of motors the performance variant is likely to have.
“I think it must be Tri-Motor,” said one. “We saw in one of the Munro videos that they had a dual motor, and the fact that he is just now posting about performance must mean Tri-Motor. I think?”
Tesla currently uses a tri-motor setup on their high-performance Model S and Model X flagship models which it calls “plaid” variants for those vehicles.
The tri-motor powertrain set-up also falls in line with what was shared at the unveiling event back in 2019 where a tri-motor AWD variant with 500+ miles of range and a 0-60 mph sprint time of 2.9 seconds was announced.
This variant is expected to have a 14,000 pounds of towing capacity which translates to roughly 6.350 tonnes. That’s likely to put many “EVs can’t tow” myths to rest.
Back in April, Musk shared that the Cybertruck delivery event was likely to be in Q3 this year when a question was asked about the timing of the truck: “Well I think we will save that for the Cybetruck handover which will hopefully be at the end of Q3 this year.” There are five days left in Q3.
At the same earnings call, Musk also highlighted the significance of the Cybertruck as a Tesla product: “One thing I can confidently say is that it is an incredible product, it’s a hall of famer, I think. And a product like this only comes along once, once in a long while. People will not be disappointed in it at all. It’s amazing.”
The first delivery event of the Cybertruck is likely to be only weeks away, and in Texas where the vehicle is produced.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.