Tesla hints “Baja rally” capability for Cybertruck reveal

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says the company’s all-electric pick-up truck will be ready to tackle the Baja Rally.

The Cybertruck has been revealed in California, promising fully adjustable air-suspension, dampers, ride height and a superior approach, breakover and departure angle to rival or better other offerings like the Ford Ranger Raptor.

The Cybertruck is already available for pre-order in Australia, with $200 down required. You will be waiting a long time though: deliveries are not expected to begin until late 2022.

Tesla says the Cybertruck offers 16 inches (40cm) of ground clearance – better than the Raptor’s 28.3cm – and gives 35 degrees of approach, and 28-degrees of departure angle, both also better than the Blue Oval’s “off-road warrior”.

“It’ll basically be able to do the Baja rally,” Musk says tounge-in-cheek.

Musk says he’s particularly proud that the overall dimensions of the Cybertruck are less than a conventional pick-up truck but can offer 1.98 metres of tray area, and says it will even tap into the adjustable air suspension to offer an on-board compressed air supply to inflate tyres.

The reveal event also showed a video demonstration of a tug-of-war with a Ford F150 pick-up where the Cybertruck’s instant torque easily overwhelmed what is the best-selling vehicle in the US.

Cybertruck’s maximum towing capacity is cited as 6.35 tonnes (14,000lbs), with a payload of 1587kg (3500lbs) on the top-spec model, or 3.4 tonnes of towing on the base-model.

“The top three selling vehicles in the US are pick-up trucks, so we have to have one… but they all look pretty much the same,” he says.

“This looks nothing like any other pick-up truck,” Musk attests.

The extremely angular Cybertruck’s body design also boasts a monocoque chassis design using high-strength steel that enabled Musk to demonstrate live hitting the vehicle’s panels with a sledge hammer on stage. Having also hit a conventional pick-up’s passenger door several times leaving large, virtually irreparable dents, the Cybertruck, as Musk describes, is “a truck you can take a hammer to, won’t scratch, and a 9mm bullet shot at the door the skin is so strong it is basically bulletproof.”

Three Cybertruck models will be available, including the top-spec 500+ mile range, tri-motor, all-wheel drive version capable of 0-100km/h sprints of 2.9 seconds (costing US$69,900 / NZ$109,000​).

The Cybertruck range will start at US$39,900 (NZ$62,390) with a 250+ miles of battery range for a single-motor rear-drive layout.

The conclusion of the reveal also announced Tesla’s foray into the motorcycle market, with Musk almost forgetting: “Oh, we also made an ATV”.

A fourwheeled ATV was ridden onto the stage and up onto the Cybertruck using built-in ramps where, “You can load an ATV or dirt bike on the back and adjust the suspension, and it’ll plug-in and charge in the Cybertruck,” Musk revealed.