Won’t tow your boat? Tesla’s Cybertruck tows a 5-tonne caterpillar digger

EVs were famously labelled as cars that are unable to tow. That’s thanks to local politicians who didn’t know about EVs and their ability to tow while performing meaningful tasks, or refused to learn.

Now, a Tesla Cybertruck has been spotted towing a 5-tonne Caterpillar Skid Steer loader. This machine is often used on construction sites to dig, landscape, excavate or in colder climates, clear snow.

It was shared by the owner, Oleg K, of the Cybertruck on the Tesla Cybertruck Facebook page which shows the large construction equipment on a trailer about to be towed by the Cybertruck.

This truck is the top of the range Cybertbeast variant with a starting price of $US96,390, or just shy of $A150,000.

For this, you get a tri-motor powertrain that also allows it to have an 11,000-pound or nearly 5-tonne towing capacity.

The 5-tonne version of the Skid Steer is on the larger end and as seen by the photos takes up most of the trailer it’s on while standing at a much higher height than the top of the cybertruck.

The tri-motor Cybertruck weighs 3.1 tonnes, making the weight being towed considerably higher as well.

The owner did have to charge on the way back and showed how they were able to charge at a Tesla supercharger without un-hitching the trailer or blocking any of the charging bays.

In recent months, more effort is being put into drive-thru chargers with Tesla opening its first all-drive-thru bay charging site in Australia, located in WA.

This is also a trend that is likely to be considered in future supercharger sites as more EVs with great towing capabilities are coming to market.

Tesla’s Cybertruck in the Cyberbeast variant comes with some impressive specs, thanks to its 122.4 kWh battery pack and a solid powertrain that delivers up to 547 km of range.

Speaking of range, while towing, the range does drop considerably with some drivers reporting consumption of 1.5 kWh/mile in extreme conditions. 

This was the case when one owner towed a 12-meter recreation vehicle (RV) with very poor aerodynamics. That would give the Cybertruck a max-towing range of 130 km on a full charge.

In the case of towing a Caterpillar Skid Steer, the owner did not state the range achieved in that run, but it’s likely to be better than towing a long boxy RV.

With the supercharger network seeing rapid growth in many parts of the world, Towing large Caterpillars that get close to the towing limits of the vehicle will become more of a common sight.