How the Tesla Cybertruck has changed since 2019

Now that the first few customers have taken delivery of their Tesla Cybertrucks, it’s probably worth taking a closer look at how the price and specs have changed since the original announcement in 2019. After all, a lot has happened since then!

While the truck looks remarkably similar to how it did four years ago, almost nothing else about the production versions is the same. The price, range, and performance have all shifted dramatically — and probably not in the direction most customers would prefer.

First of all, the price is more expensive. We’ve known for a while that Tesla wasn’t going to be able to keep to its 2019 price estimates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself admitted in 2022 that the Cybertruck’s specs and price “will be different,” citing inflation and other “various issues” that have cropped up in the intervening years.

Let’s start with the performance-oriented Cyberbeast trim, since that’s the one we have the most details on. Tesla hasn’t said whether this version will have three electric motors, as promised in 2019, but it’s a fair guess that it does.

So, as you can see, the biggest changes are price — with Tesla charging nearly $40,000 more for this version of the truck — and range. The 500 miles that was quoted in 2019 always seemed somewhat aspirational. And now we know that optional battery extenders will help get the production version part of the way there, with up to 440 miles of range estimated.

The torque appears to be the number that has changed most significantly since 2019. Tesla was originally promising around 1,000 lb-ft, but now the company says the Cyberbeast trim can put out an eye-watering 10,296 lb-ft. That could be due to the active torque vectoring that Musk announced at the event Thursday.

“It has locking differentials, rear torque vectoring,” he said. “And the crazy thing is it’ll do this all in comfort.”

Okay, now let’s look at the all-wheel drive model.

There are better range estimates on the AWD Cybertruck, and also a heftier price tag. And like the other versions, the production model is slightly shorter and a little more compact than what was first announced in 2019.

And now the model for which we have the least amount of information, the rear-wheel drive Cybertruck.

This one’s not coming until 2025, so presumedly even more could change. Tesla will likely have more to announce about the most affordable version of the Cybertruck as we get closer to its actual release date.

So as you can see, Tesla stuck close to some of these numbers, but others turned out way different than we were expecting. It can’t tow as much or carry as much as originally envisioned. And it will cost more — a lot more — than we were told. It retains its polarizing design. And arguably, thanks to Musk’s antics in the last few years, it has become polarizing for entirely new reasons.

If you still like what you see, here’s how you can order one. And if you don’t, well, I guess that makes you a blackmailer. So good luck with that.