Couple other things have leaked about the Cybertruck. (these are leaks - they're subject to being wrong - but I'd rank them as "plausible")
Battery capacity 123 kWh. That's same-ballpark as Rivian and F150 Lightning. That tracks with the curb weight (~ 6700 lbs) being same-ballpark as Rivian and F150 Lightning. (That curb weight also tracks with the whole thing NOT being made from 4mm-thick stainless steel ... maybe some parts might be, but not the whole thing, but that's another matter)
Drag coefficient ... someone with CFD experience made a mathematical model of the Cybertruck as accurately as they could suss out from known dimensions and photos, with the objective of establishing Cd. It's 0.39. I'd say that's plausible. Most pickup trucks nowadays (which have all seen the wind tunnel during development) are in that vicinity. There are some things that hurt it: lots of ground clearance (too much air gets underneath ... note the air dams that a lot of other pickup trucks have nowadays to cut down on this), projecting fenders (side of the truck is aerodynamically pretty dirty because of this), and the sharp corners up front and at the A-pillars disrupt flow as it transitions onto the sides. (A-pillars are normally rounded because of this.) I saw the model ... didn't have outside mirrors, didn't have the windscreen wiper.
Marques Brownlee (youtuber) evidently got his hands on one. No video posted yet but he posted a screenshot on social media ... which showed the state-of-charge (bar graph showing 9-and-a-bit out of, we think 10 bars) and range remaining (265 miles). That suggests range being 290-ish miles (470-ish km). Unknown what the surrounding circumstances were. But ... the combination of battery capacity, and vehicle weight, and drag, and a guesstimation of the range, all rate as plausible in my opinion.
Unknown why Tesla allowed him to post that screen-shot (I'm sure he wouldn't have done it without their permission). Reaction has been a combination of people shell-shocked that it's not 500 miles, and the realisation that physics applies to Tesla just as it applies to everyone else.
The thing that we don't know, and may not find out until later, is whether Tesla have protected space underneath the vehicle for more battery capacity in a different version of this vehicle later on. With technology that we have today, it'll need a battery of same-ballpark size and weight as GM's big-boy 212 kWh Hummer/Silverado EV battery in order to get 500 miles of range (the GM will do 450). There's no magic here ...
Battery capacity 123 kWh. That's same-ballpark as Rivian and F150 Lightning. That tracks with the curb weight (~ 6700 lbs) being same-ballpark as Rivian and F150 Lightning. (That curb weight also tracks with the whole thing NOT being made from 4mm-thick stainless steel ... maybe some parts might be, but not the whole thing, but that's another matter)
Drag coefficient ... someone with CFD experience made a mathematical model of the Cybertruck as accurately as they could suss out from known dimensions and photos, with the objective of establishing Cd. It's 0.39. I'd say that's plausible. Most pickup trucks nowadays (which have all seen the wind tunnel during development) are in that vicinity. There are some things that hurt it: lots of ground clearance (too much air gets underneath ... note the air dams that a lot of other pickup trucks have nowadays to cut down on this), projecting fenders (side of the truck is aerodynamically pretty dirty because of this), and the sharp corners up front and at the A-pillars disrupt flow as it transitions onto the sides. (A-pillars are normally rounded because of this.) I saw the model ... didn't have outside mirrors, didn't have the windscreen wiper.
Marques Brownlee (youtuber) evidently got his hands on one. No video posted yet but he posted a screenshot on social media ... which showed the state-of-charge (bar graph showing 9-and-a-bit out of, we think 10 bars) and range remaining (265 miles). That suggests range being 290-ish miles (470-ish km). Unknown what the surrounding circumstances were. But ... the combination of battery capacity, and vehicle weight, and drag, and a guesstimation of the range, all rate as plausible in my opinion.
Unknown why Tesla allowed him to post that screen-shot (I'm sure he wouldn't have done it without their permission). Reaction has been a combination of people shell-shocked that it's not 500 miles, and the realisation that physics applies to Tesla just as it applies to everyone else.
The thing that we don't know, and may not find out until later, is whether Tesla have protected space underneath the vehicle for more battery capacity in a different version of this vehicle later on. With technology that we have today, it'll need a battery of same-ballpark size and weight as GM's big-boy 212 kWh Hummer/Silverado EV battery in order to get 500 miles of range (the GM will do 450). There's no magic here ...
