Having made its ASEAN debut in Thailand over the weekend, the Tesla Cybertruck has now made its appearance in Malaysia, fittingly at the Tesla Experience Centre Cyberjaya. This massive stainless steel electric pick-up truck is in the midst of its Asian tour that has already visited China, Hong Kong and Japan, and it will be on display at Tesla’s showrooms in Cyberjaya and Pavilion Damansara Heights in May.
Not that you should hold your breath for it ever to be sold here in the foreseeable future – the Cybertruck is enormous, one size larger than the already sizeable one-tonne trucks like the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton. It also hasn’t been converted to right-hand drive.
The Cybertruck has made waves thanks to its extremely angular wedge design, formed by tough stainless steel panels (dubiously claimed to be “bulletproof”) that continues to drop jaws five years after it was first shown. At the front, you’ll find a full-width light bar (the actual headlights are mounted low down in the bumper) and a short bonnet that leads into the flat windscreen and its giant single wiper.
From its peak at the top of the windscreen, the roofline then slopes dramatically down into the rear deck, which features a powered roller tonneau cover that completely obscures rearward visibility when it’s up. Other notable cues include the completely flat sides, squared-off overfenders, full-width taillights and a complete lack of door handles – you instead press a button on the B- and C-pillars to get in.
The alloy wheels measure 20 inches in diameter and are wrapped in 285/65-section Goodyear Wrangler Territory RT tyres that have been custom-made to fit the distinctive black aero covers. An issue with these covers caused them to rub against the tyre and cause excessive wear; it’s unclear whether they have been fixed.
It’s hard to overstate just how huge the Cybertruck is. Measuring 5,683 mm long, 2,032 mm wide and 1,796 mm tall, it’s 358 mm longer and 132 mm wider than a Hilux, while its humongous 3,635 mm wheelbase is 550 mm (!) longer. To give you a sense of perspective, the Tesla is over 130mm longer than a Rolls-Royce Ghost. It’s also very heavy, with a kerb weight ranging between 3,009 and 3,129 kg.
Open the tailgate and you’ll find a huge bed that measures 1,852 mm long and 1,295 mm wide, allowing you to fit 4×8 feet construction materials with the tailgate down and up to 1,591 litres of cargo with the tailgate up. Together with 91 litres of underfloor storage, a 200 litre front boot and fold-up rear cushions (that alone free up an additional 1,533 litres) and you have an overall cargo capacity of 3,421 litres – including 1,888 litres of lockable storage.
Inside, you’ll find Tesla’s typical minimalist interior with an almost yoke-like steering wheel (yes, with integrated indicator and wiper controls and no stalks), a floating centre console and not much else. The centre touchscreen now measures a massive 18.5 inches across, while a second 9.4-inch touchscreen at the back sits between the two front seats.
There’a also the usual Tesla features, including twin wireless chargers, a HEPA air filter that enables a “bioweapon defence mode,” a large glass roof and a 15-speaker sound system with twin subwoofers. Tesla is also finally offering a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function through 120- and 240-volt sockets in the bed, outputting up to 11.5kW of power.
Under the stainless steel “exoskeleton”, you’ll find an “ultra-strong” steel alloy structure claimed to offer greater stiffness than the carbon fibre McLaren P1. You also get acoustic “armour” glass said to be able to withstand a 70 mph (113 km/h) baseball fired at it – equivalent to Class 4 hail, the company says.
There are three variants available, starting with the base rear-wheel-drive model can get from zero to 100 km/h in just 6.7 seconds on its way to a top speed of 180 km/h.
Stepping up to the all-wheel-drive model (which this Foundation Series is) adds a front motor that pushes power to 600 hp (441 kW), slashing the century sprint time to 4.3 seconds. Torque is claimed to be an insane 10,080 Nm, although that figure is at the wheels, multiplied by the ratio of the single-speed transmission. The actual figure, divided by a ratio of 15.02:1, is 671 Nm.
But the one you’ll really want is the triple-motor Cyberbeast, which pushes out a stratospheric 840 hp (630 kW) and gets to 100 km/h in just 2.7 seconds (with the rollout subtracted, as is typical for Tesla these days), on its way to a top speed of 209 km/h. Wheel torque is bumped up to 13,959 Nm, or 929 Nm at the motors.
Range is quoted at 402 km for the RWD model, 547 km with AWD and 515 km for the Cyberbeast. Payload capacity is 1,134 kg for the dual-motor model and 1,030 kg for the Cyberbeast, while towing capacity is rated at 4,990 kg.
The Cybertruck is also the first Tesla to feature an 800-volt architecture that should allow for higher sustained charging speeds at DC fast chargers (including Tesla’s Superchargers). It’s also the first production vehicle to come with a 48-volt electrical architecture, allowing for lower amperage and thus thinner wires.
Other features include steer-by-wire (which reduces the amount of turns lock-to-lock, finally making sense of the small steering wheel), rear-wheel steering (up to ten degrees) and air suspension that provides 305 mm of ground clearance in Normal mode and up to 443 mm in the off-road Extract mode.
Despite making its appearance here, the truck isn’t likely to be sold outside of North America and probably won’t be converted to RHD, due to a number of factors. These include the difficulty in getting the “ultra-strong” stainless steel exterior panels and razor-sharp front end to pass global pedestrian protection legislation, as well as the arduous task of ramping up production just to meet demand in the US.
Then there’s the fact that the Cybertruck won’t fit the relatively tiny roads and parking spaces outside of its home country. But what do you think – would you buy a Cybertruck as is if it were sold in Malaysia? Sound off in the comments below.
