The Tesla Cybertruck has finally started reaching customers after several delays and a few broken promises. With all that said, the arrival of the Cybertruck revealed some new cards that Tesla has been holding close to the vest until now—namely a range extender option that could be considered a compromise between the 500 miles of range originally promised back when the Cybertruck concept debuted in 2019, and what Cybertruck buyers are actually getting in 2023 and 2024.
Not only does the top trim not deliver 500 miles of range, it costs far more than the $70,000 initially promised. In fact, the entry-level Cybertruck (which originally wasn’t to appear until 2025, and has since been abandoned) was to start at $60,990, and deliver just 250 miles of range. The longest-range model is the mid-grade, all-wheel-drive Cybertruck, which starts at $79,990—not terribly far off from the estimate for the promised 500-mile version, but also falling well shy of that range estimate with a mere 340 miles of range. (The $99,990 tri-motor Cyberbeast version takes a 20-mile hit for its extra performance.) Intriguingly, however, the Cybertruck website shows a creative avenue for Tesla to bridge the claimed-versus-reality range gap: A range extender capable of adding 120 miles of range to the Cyberbeast and 130 miles to the AWD model. That raises the total potential driving range to up to 470 miles, for those keeping score. Note quite the 500 originally promised—but close.
Weirdly, there was no initial elaboration on Tesla’s website about what form this range extender might take, and CEO Elon Musk himself didn’t even mention it during the Cybertruck delivery event livestream. Luckily, just as we were scratching our heads wondering whether it was a gas-fueled extender like that in the upcoming Ram 1500 Ramcharger or maybe something even more out-there (a fuel cell?), Drew Baglino—Tesla’s SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering—confirmed on X that the range extender is a “toolbox-sized battery” that sits in the bed just behind the cab.
Tesla updated the Cybertruck website again with an image of the range extender (below), which appears to take up more than a third of the bed space; an assertion backed up by Elon Musk on X. The range extender adds $16,000 to the Cybertruck’s price tag, and is available to pre-order now. Drop a $500 deposit for it, and Tesla promises “priority” installation—which, oh yeah, it can’t just be installed at home, likely because it weighs a ton. A Cybertruck equipped with the feature is said to deliver around 470 miles of range, at least when the range extender becomes available in early 2025.