Tesla Cybertruck
Full-size electric pickup · 2023–present. This review has not established this model’s 2024 U.S. sales.
How it began
Tesla, Inc., led by chief executive Elon Musk, developed its first pickup with the design team led by Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer. He threw the metal ball at the windows during the 2019 unveiling. The original 2023 ISSAT conference biography identifies Tesla engineer Wes Morrill as Cybertruck’s lead engineer; TIME also interviewed him in that role in November 2024.
It was unveiled at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, California, near Los Angeles. Its assembly plant is Gigafactory Texas in Austin. Tesla announced its first Cybertruck built there on July 15, 2023, then listed pilot production in its third-quarter report. Tesla lists annual installed capacity of more than 125,000 Cybertrucks, a different measure from actual output.
It was unveiled on November 21, 2019, with a promise to start production in late 2021. The date slipped two years: pilot production began in the third quarter of 2023 and the first customer deliveries came on November 30, 2023, at an event at Gigafactory Texas. It is a 2024 model year and later, and it has been sold in the United States from day one.
Musk announced the Cybertruck name on Twitter before the unveiling. His original Recode interview described a futuristic cyberpunk pickup inspired by Blade Runner. On November 21, 2019 he also wrote that the design was influenced “partly” by The Spy Who Loved Me, the James Bond film in which a Lotus Esprit transforms into a submarine.
At the 2019 unveiling, NBC’s coverage placed Tesla’s pickup in a profitable U.S. market dominated by established brands; Ford’s F-Series had led U.S. pickup sales for more than 40 years. In his original 2018 Recode interview, Musk said he wanted a “really futuristic-like cyberpunk, ‘Blade Runner’ pickup truck.” Tesla’s 2019 annual report proposed thick cold-rolled stainless steel and ultra-strong glass for work-vehicle durability. Its 2023 report described a truck under 19 feet, with four doors and a bed over 6 feet, designed to fit a garage.
Generation by generation
- Gen. 12023–present · Foundation Series, AWD, Cyberbeast
The stainless steel pickup that took four years to arrive
Photo: Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0 What changed. It is Tesla's first pickup, so there is no earlier version; the comparison is with the 2019 prototype. The production truck is about 5 percent smaller and came in pricier: in 2019 it was promised from $39,900, and in 2023 it arrived with all-wheel drive (AWD) at $79,990, an estimated 340 miles and 11,000 pounds of towing, and the three-motor Cyberbeast at $99,990, 845 horsepower and 2.6 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. Initial deliveries were Foundation Series trucks with a $20,000 package premium, including FSD (Supervised), laser-etched badges and Powershare Home Backup capability. Tesla’s FAQ describes conditional eligibility for Wall Connector and Powershare Gateway hardware for Foundation trucks delivered before December 28, 2024. Tesla invited non-Foundation orders in October 2024. Lineup changes followed: in April 2025 a rear-wheel-drive version with 362 miles, dropped in September 2025, and in February 2026 the Dual Motor AWD, launched at $59,990 while the earlier AWD was renamed Premium AWD.
The innovation. Tesla describes a cold-rolled full-hard stainless-steel exoskeleton that carries crash loads, increases torsional stiffness and has high dent and corrosion resistance. Its Q4 2024 technical table describes automated tooling developed by Tesla to bend that steel without touching and scratching the outer surface. The same table describes the 48-volt electrical system, with four times less current and 16 times less heat than a typical 12-volt system; steer-by-wire replacing the traditional steering shaft with redundant controllers and motors; about ten degrees of rear-wheel steering; and an 800-volt battery architecture enabling charging power up to 500 kW.
If you buy one usedNHTSA gave the 2024 and 2026 Cybertruck AWD five stars overall (four stars for rollover). Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov: early 2024 trucks carry several recalls with shop repairs. Those requiring physical service: the accelerator pedal, whose pad could come loose and get trapped by the trim (24V276, 3,878 units, 2024); the windshield wiper motor that could fail (24V456, 11,688); the bed's side trim piece that could come loose (24V457, 12,150); the drive inverter that could cut power to the wheels (24V832, 2,431); the stainless-steel exterior cant-rail trim panel that could delaminate and detach (25V170, 46,096 units, 2024–2025, the largest physical-service campaign by potentially affected population in the retained November 2, 2026 Cybertruck inventory); the service-installed off-road light bar fitted with the wrong primer (25V735, 6,197); and, on 2024–2026 trucks with 18-inch steel wheels, brake rotor stud holes that could crack (26V255, 173). The published OTA software remedies cover: delayed rearview camera image (24V718, 27,185), front parking lights too bright before software 2025.38.3 (25V699, 63,619 units, 2024–2026), the tire-pressure warning light (24V935) and the font size of the brake warning lights (24V051). The cant rail is separate from the service-installed off-road lightbar. Recall populations are potentially affected vehicles, not failure counts. Confirm both physical service completion and installation of the applicable software remedy by VIN.
Tesla Model Y2020–present
Tesla Model 32017–present
Tesla Model S2012–2026
Tesla Model X2015–2026
Ford F-Series (F-150)1948–present
Toyota RAV41994–present (US from 1996)
Honda CR-V1995–present
Ram 15001981–present
Chevrolet Silverado1999–present
