Tesla has confirmed it has given up on plans to make a Cybertruck range extender to achieve the range it originally promised on the electric pickup truck.
It started refunding deposits for the $16,000 extra battery pack.
When Tesla unveiled the production version of the Cybertruck in late 2023, two main disappointments were the price and the range.
The tri-motor version, the most popular in reservation tallies before production, was supposed to have over 500 miles of range and start at $70,000.
Tesla now sells the tri-motor Cybertruck for $100,000 and only has a range of 320 miles.
The dual-motor Cybertruck was supposed to cost $50,000 and have over 300 miles of range. In reality, it starts at $80,000 and has 325 miles of range.
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I was seriously considering it back then. My wife hated the look and wouldn’t let me even consider it, but as someone who likes Back to the Future and Tron, I didn’t hate the aesthetic, though it took some getting used to. And I want a comfortably large EV (my compact is too small for my old bones) with 500 miles to avoid range anxiety. A 100 mile distance in the middle of a midwestern winter without a charger at the other end is going to require 500 miles of range to get back home due to heating the battery and cabin, and driving at 80mph. And my longest daily commute was 212 miles round trip before someone asks how often I need to drive 100 miles away in the middle of winter.
I wouldn’t say bullet dodged because I was never really close to getting one, but charging three times the price for only 60% range compared to that announcement is fucking insane.
How good was that job for you to be commuting for 2+ hours a day?
Where I live is not super uncommon for people to drive an hour into the nearest city. I don’t recommend it, though!
It really makes me envious when I see how much Europeans work: my partner already works more hours on average than the average European, and then his commute is on top of that. Why are we here? Give me mandatory vacation and a job I can bike to ANY DAY.
I hate driving so much, I moved somewhere 15 minutes from work even though I only go in like 3 times a month
I was transitioning from being a lotus notes developer to a java developer and I was moving back home to the Midwest from DC. As that job took a chance on me and allowed both, it was a really good fucking job for the moment. It eventually transitioned to hybrid.
We had planned to move to the area but couldn’t find a place we liked and kept living with my folks until I just said fuck it and we bought a house near them instead and I dealt with the commute. Then Covid hit and I got laid off on my two year anniversary.
Now, my commute is about 70 miles one way 1-2 times per week (and that’s still 3 hours total drive time). That’s a pretty typical drive for me. My kids also live kinda near where I work so even if it weren’t for commuting, I’d still make that drive quite often. As it is, I drive down the night before an office day, spend time with them and stay over night, and then drive back home about 2pm the next day (fucking hate rush hour in Detroit). But I can’t charge at their houses anyway so that doesn’t help.
I drive a PHEV because there isn’t an EV out yet that can get me there and back. Though I finally have a plug at work if I get in early enough.
Now that’s dedication. I’d probably have driven myself into a ditch by the 3rd month of that (but I haaaate driving)
I don’t mind driving as long as I’m not sitting in traffic. Which is why I’m in the Midwest making far less money than I could on either coast. My commute times were just as long near DC with a third of the miles traveled. There was the commuter train but that was just a different kind of stress.
I’m with you, I’ll spend a lot more on a house or accept a lower paying job to avoid commuting.