Cybertruck Highway Range Test (Dual-Motor AWD) -- Run Until Battery Empty (by Out Of Spec)

[CyberTW]

Your post made me consider something I hadn’t before. Perhaps that long range/towing truck is never going to be a good/cheap off-road daily driver truck, with current battery tech. We need to double the capacity per battery weight. But similar to today’s trucks, where you buy a heavy duty 3/4 ton 2500 diesel for long range towing, with a long wheelbase and huge tank, which is horrible off-road. The best available current ev for towing, the hummer ev, weighs 9000lbs to house that 200+kwh pack, half a ton more than full size diesel trucks. Sure, there are likely many places they could have saved weight, so we get the Silverado 1500 instead with the same pack and all of a sudden there is the 500 mile, 200-300 mile towing range truck. If only they were actually shipping them in quantity.

It feels like this is it.. the Silverado might accomplish this.. though price, scale, availability, support, dealer network, etc might be something of drawbacks..
didn’t Barra basically say they are scaling back their EV side? Did I miss something? Feels like that would be like buying a Lucid know they could be out of business during the life of the car

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[TickTock]

TickTock said:
The question I have is "Why?" This efficency is almost exactly the same as my Lightning. I thought the CT was supposed to be more slippery (drag co. of 0.34 CT vs 0.44 FL). With those numbers CT *should* get 2.5 mi/kWh. Tesla custom-engineered tires for the CT - hard to believe rolling resistance wasn't a key factor. So... Why isn't the CT more efficient?

I will guarantee the Ford F-150 Lighting is not nearly as efficient as the Dual Motor Cybertruck when run at 70 mph, under the same conditions, with All-Terrain tires. That's why Ford needs a bigger battery to go less distance at the same speeds.

Maybe. Need data. Colder air is a factor but doesn't account for a 20% error. I want those Tesla OEM tires - everyone who has reviewed them are amazed at the performance and (lack of) road noise and I think they look great. Maybe put the Tesla tires on a F150 Lightning and compare side-by-side.

 

[DumpsterFire]

So I'm seeing a few peeps here cancelling their FS orders. Sad to see them go but for the rest of us mushy brained early adopters I guess this is good news??

 

[Undecided_certainty]

Seems on par to me... Driving at a constant high speed with little to no regen and in cold temps.. maybe 20% "loss" of range over the 320 total range.

Someone not familar with EVs i suppose might see this and be a bit confused. If someone did this type of test in an ICE pickup truck, the results would be similar as far as range loss goes. Of course, no one actually tests ICE vehicles like this.

Just did a cross country trip in my ICE and mpg goes up. I avg about 360 real world range on mixed use. Over 1800 miles on last 3 days was getting 420 on steady highway in Midwest at 80 on my G35 sedan with winter tires.

Still looking forward to the CT but as a never fanboy of things, I don’t care about EPA I want a transparent sense of what life is like with something. 250 range plus less than stellar charging just flat out blows.

 

[GollyGee]

What would it take for vehicles charging while going down the road? Can you imagine the benefits of a smaller battery pack and almost unlimited range?

 

[HitchHiker71]

Just did a cross country trip in my ICE and mpg goes up. I avg about 360 real world range on mixed use. Over 1800 miles on last 3 days was getting 420 on steady highway in Midwest at 80 on my G35 sedan with winter tires.

Yeah BEVs are the exact opposite of ICE vehicles in this respect. Better in the city, worse on the highway due to higher wind resistance coupled with less regen braking.

Still looking forward to the CT but as a never fanboy of things, I don’t care about EPA I want a transparent sense of what life is like with something. 250 range plus less than stellar charging just flat out blows.

All Tesla has to do is use the default EPA adjustment factor instead of the more generous 5 cycle EPA factor that they tend to use to boost up EPA range estimates. The default factor is 0.70 (70%) whereas Tesla uses anywhere from 0.76-0.89 (in fairness the 0.89 was in times past), which results in what we see - that almost no one can actually get the claimed ranges. For example - for the dual motor CT with AT tires - EPA rating is 318 miles using IIRC a 0.77 factor - if Tesla used a 0.70 factor - it would be about 289 miles instead. The recent test in this thread was at 46 degrees at a steady 70mph - whereas the EPA tests are between 55-65mph at 60-65 degrees. I'd bet that if Kyle ran this same test in 60-70 degree temps at a 60MPH speed - he'd have seen 290 miles instead of 254 miles. IMHO Tesla is actually working against itself by publishing EPA estimates that aren't close to real world as it results in precisely what most traditional automotive consumers have come to believe - that the advertised ranges are not true/accurate. Best to be more honest about real world ranges especially over the long term.

 

[TickTock]

What would it take for vehicles charging while going down the road? Can you imagine the benefits of a smaller battery pack and almost unlimited range?

Just hook up and pull - let regen charge the battery.

 

[GuyV]

LOL. I agree they aren't my priority choices either, but I guess they win because I have placed my order.

 

[Fleetwood75]

My Yukon holds 26 gallons of gasoline, which at 33.7 kWh/gallon is energy storage of 876 kWh. The engine's thermal efficiency is about 30%, so in terms of useable power that isn't wasted to heat that's an effective energy storage of 263 kWh. The Yukon's drag coefficient is about 0.38 compared to the Cybertruck's 0.34, both vehicles with a comparable height and width, so you can further factor down the effective useable propulsion energy to (0.34/0.38)*(263) = 235 kWh in order to make an apples-to-apples comparison with the Cybertruck.

This tells me that if they put a Hummer EV battery pack (200 kWh) into the Cybertruck's streamlined body you would get highway range comparable to my Yukon's. Until we see energy density in batteries double compared to today I think that you're always going to take a big hit switching from ICE to EV for highway driving and towing.

 

[cyberhunter]

Your post made me consider something I hadn’t before. Perhaps that long range/towing truck is never going to be a good/cheap off-road daily driver truck, with current battery tech. We need to double the capacity per battery weight. But similar to today’s trucks, where you buy a heavy duty 3/4 ton 2500 diesel for long range towing, with a long wheelbase and huge tank, which is horrible off-road. The best available current ev for towing, the hummer ev, weighs 9000lbs to house that 200+kwh pack, half a ton more than full size diesel trucks. Sure, there are likely many places they could have saved weight, so we get the Silverado 1500 instead with the same pack and all of a sudden there is the 500 mile, 200-300 mile towing range truck. If only they were actually shipping them in quantity.

I get what you are saying...no one gets a 3/4 ton diesel to be the best offroader. Too heavy, too big to hit dedicated off road trails at the same performance as say a tacoma. I need whatever BEV truck I end up with in a couple years to be like my 3/4 ton diesel that I put an off-road suspension on or a good 1/2 ton. I need it to have good payload and tow comfortably, but to be able to handle very rough caliche roads that go over dry creek beds, etc. and when those roads get sloppy to have the ground clearance to handle them well. I don't need a baja monster, but I also don't need or want something with incredibly low ground clearance like what I see in the Lightning and Silverado. So, in summary...I need that 200 to 300 mile towing range truck combined with the ability to get over rough terrain. I don't need it to be the best of the best off-road. I just don't want it to get stuck on these very rough poorly maintained dirt roads at the end of my trips. Admittedly maybe the CT has more off-road (no reviews yet) than I think I need, but less towing range capability. I think the Silverado has the towing range capability but it's low ground clearance is an issue (no reviews yet).

 

[Woodrick]

I am sorry, but I have to respond... Many of us who own ICE vehicles perform range tests all the time. Every cross country drive is a range test, and my 2022 Ford F-150 with 5L V-8 consistantly gets 22-23 MPG at 70 MPH (EPA rating 17/25/20)... My last "range test" was a trip from Chicago to Louisville in mid November with 5 passengers and related baggage, temps in the 50's. I hate burning gas, so I am laser focused on gas milage. We have the 36 gallon tank, so we could of done the round trip on one tank. Comparing our milage to the EPA rating, we are down about 10%. It might be possible to get the 25mpg, but the slow down to 55 mph is challenging in freeways. I know this because we bought this truck as a bridge to the Cybertruck, and tow a 9000 lb. tow-behind RV. In our towing mode, we drive 58 mph, and consistantly get 10 mpg. To be sure, everyone passes us, some of whom seemingly enraged at our "being there".

The Cybertruck looks to be a marvel of engineering, but these (254/320=.794) 80% range numbers are discouraging. For us, that equates to maybe 100 miles in towing mode. Fortunately for us, we are about 1,100,000 in line. If 25% of you buy a Cybertruck, it will be 2-3 years before we get our chance to buy one, so range improvements will undoubtedly be made, as well as much better pricing.

Hmmm, just looked up the EPA rating, I think that I got the right one

It appears that you are below average for highway driving, which should be 24. Sure, you are beating combined, but your use case indicated highway driving.

That combined EPA rating is very important, because for EVs, their city is always higher than the highway. Therefore the highway is lower than the combined.

And while they have indeed changed and updated, you have to remember when the EPA ratings were developed, during the Nixon gas crisis (remember having to set thermostats to 68?)


And remember what the highway speeds were?

 

[Woodrick]

Well I was on the fence for keeping my order but this confirms that I will cancel and keep with my diesel .
So disappointed in the Tesla CT … nothing like was promised in the original unveiling. I understand there would be changes to the original design but this is so different from what was originally shown that for me it’s not going to work.
Pricing, specifications and what’s actually delivered is so different from what was talked about it’s just almost like bait and switch.

Sorry to see you go, but you'll make a lot of people happier when they skip up one place in line.

And the line will always be open when you come back.

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