Tesla Cybertruck

On November 21, 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stood on a stage in Los Angeles and watched as designer Franz von Holzhausen threw a steel ball at the driver's window of a prototype pickup. The glass cracked. That moment, part theater, part engineering demo, introduced the world to the Cybertruck, a vehicle that looks like it drove out of a video game from 1992. Its body is made of unpainted 30X cold-rolled stainless steel, the same alloy Musk uses for his Starship rocket. Tesla calls it an exoskeleton, a term borrowed from industrial design, and claims it can withstand a sledgehammer blow without denting.

Production didn't arrive until November 2023, years after the promised 2021 launch. The first trucks rolled off the line at Gigafactory Texas, and customers took delivery that same month. The Cybertruck comes in two main flavors: the Dual-Motor All-Wheel Drive, which makes 600 horsepower and sprints to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, and the tri-motor Cyberbeast, which cranks out 845 horsepower and hits 60 in 2.6 seconds, quicker than a Porsche 911 Turbo S. Both versions can tow 11,000 pounds and carry 2,500 pounds in the bed, a 6-foot cargo box Tesla calls "The Vault." A motorized roller shutter covers the bed, and the truck can supply up to 9.6 kilowatts of AC power through five outlets, enough to run a welder or charge another EV.

The Cybertruck's design is polarizing. Some see a futuristic masterpiece; others call it a stainless-steel dumpster on wheels. The angular shape compromises visibility, the rear window is tiny, and the hood slopes away to nothing. Consumer Reports noted the "unwanted attention" drivers attract. Still, the truck sold 38,965 units in the United States in 2024, making it the best-selling electric pickup that year. But by mid-2025, sales had dropped 48 percent year-over-year, and the Ford F-150 Lightning and GMC Hummer EV both outsold it. The Cybertruck remains a statement piece: a vehicle that makes people stare, whether they like what they see or not. [edit]