Tesla Cybertruck gets 160 miles of range in first towing test

One of the first independent Tesla Cybertruck towing tests shows the electric pickup truck gets roughly 160 miles of range while towing about 6,000 lbs.

In its current version, the Cybertruck gets a lot less range than originally promised when unveiled back in 2019.

The Dual Motor Cybertruck version with 20″ wheels is rated at 320 miles of range.

Tesla is planning a “Range Extender” battery pack that will sit in the bed and boost the range by over 100 miles. It will be very useful for towing, which greatly affects the range of pickup trucks, but it is not available yet.

In the meantime, Cybertrucks owners have to tow with the limited range.

We now get a look at one of the first independent Tesla Cybertruck towing tests:

The owner didn’t share the towing load, but it should be roughly 6,000 lbs. The Model Y is roughly 4,000 lbs, and looking on U-Haul’s website, this trailer looks to be 2,210 lbs.

At the end of the trip, the Cybertruck averaged 749 Wh per mile and consumed 83 kWh over 110 miles.

Extrapolating to a 123 kWh battery pack, it would put the total range under these towing conditions at just over 160 mph.

Now, there’s room for improvement. For example, the owner couldn’t close the tonneau cover because he wanted the temporary tags in the rear window to be visible. It’s hard to say how much it would improve aerodynamic performance and ultimately affect range while towing, but it should a small noticeable improvement.

Tesla also currently only delivers the vehicle on 20″ wheels. 19″ wheels are expected to come and should help efficiency a bit.

Electrek’s Take

While the towing range might sound too short for some people, there are still plenty of use cases for it.

Also, I have always said that range prediction is better at mitigating range anxiety than longer range. The owner is nothing here that Tesla appears to be predicting the range of the Cybertruck quite accurately under tow mode.

He also noted that the driving dynamics while driving were good.

I am curious to see if you could get a towing range over 200 miles at closer to 8,000-10,000 lbs with the Range Extender battery pack.