Page 13 - Car South Africa (February 2020)

insight

A TRIO OF ‘TRAINS
The Cybertruck will be offered
LOAD BED LENGTH 1 981 mm with a choice of three powertrain
configurations: single-motor RWD,
dual-motor AWD and tri-motor
AWD. Tesla has been coy regarding
0-96 KM/H 2,9 sec (tri-motor), 4,5 sec (dual-motor), power outputs but the tri-motor
6,5 sec (single-motor RWD) array mirrors that of the outlandish
Tesla Model S “Plaid”, a model with
outputs in the region of 597 kW and
an astonishing 1 356 N.m.
RANGE 800 km SEATS 6

A BABY BROTHER
ON THE WAY?
Musk has fielded numerous ques-
tions regarding a smaller version
of this angular monster and is
entertaining the idea of a smaller,
possibly RWD-only derivative.

FULL METAL JACKET
The body panels on the produc-
tion-series Cybertruck will utilise
the same 3 mm stainless steel
plate that features in the company’s
SpaceX vehicle. According to Tesla,
this lends the Cybertruck ballistic
protection from firearms of up to
9 mm calibre and proved dent-
resistant during a demonstration
involving a sledgehammer that left
no marks. The reinforced windows
were another story.

A COSTLY BREAK
Some say breaking a mirror is worth
seven years’ bad luck but that’s noth-
ing compared to the costly unveiling
of Elon Musk’s Cybertruck. It survived
a sledgehammer blow to the driver’s
door; however, a test involving a
steel ball thrown at the armour glass
twice cracked the purported bullet-
proof glazing during a botched prod-
PAYLOAD 1 587 kg uct demonstration in California. The

upshot was a 6% dip in Tesla’s share
prices, wiping nearly $770 million off
AIR SUSPENSION GROUND CLEARANCE 406 mm Musk’s net worth in one day. Even so,

more than 250 000 pre-orders for the
Cybertruck were logged in the space
TOWING CAPACITY 6 350 kg of five days, so Elon shouldn’t find
himself on the breadline.

CARmag.co.za CAR FEBRUARY 2020 13