We finally have a clear shot of the Tesla Cybertruck with frunk open
Tesla is currently testing the dual-motor Cybertruck, of which we’ve been getting a lot of pictures, and now we have the best look yet at its wide-but-shallow frunk.
We’ve seen photos of the Cybertruck’s massive frunk opening before, but they’ve always been taken from a distance or the side – never a great look at the actual opening and how much space there might be for cargo. Last month, we got a blurry side video of the frunk with the liner open, which gave a pretty good idea of what the opening looks like, but that was still at a poor angle.
This morning, we got more photos of the hood open, but there was no frunk liner installed, instead giving us a view of the car’s internals – or at least, the internals of an engineering test unit.
But now we have a full photo of the actual frunk open with lining installed, showing us just how much cargo space it will have and how usable that cargo space might be. Plus, despite the low resolution of the photo, if you look closely, you can see what looks like the Cybertruck logo embossed into the lining:
The photo was posted on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum by forum user Old Spice, aka Ben. It was taken today, but that’s all the information we have.
As shown in the last video, the opening is indeed rather shallow. It’s smaller than some other frunks we’ve seen lately – smaller than the F-150 Lightning’s huge opening, not as long as the Escalade IQ’s, and it may be less deep than the Rivian’s (though this is harder to tell from the photo).
Here are photos of the frunks on each of those three vehicles to get a sense of what we’re comparing with here:
F-150 Lightning frunk
But the thing the Cybertruck has over all three of those frunks is width and ease of access. The Rivian is deep, but there’s a big lift-over ledge, which makes it more awkward to get heavy stuff inside. The Lightning has a bit of a lip, too, though it’s relatively low. The Escalade does well in this respect, with almost no lip, making it easy to slide objects in and out, but its frunk is narrower than the Cybertruck’s wide opening.
The Cybertruck’s frunk seems almost completely flat. There’s a small ridge there, but it’s not high enough to restrict sliding things in and out of it. So if you’ve got something heavy that you don’t want to lift in and out of the trunk, and would rather slide it in – like a cooler full of ice, for example – the design of the Cybertruck’s frunk will be good for that application.
Additionally, there’s very little bumper in front of it, and nothing is painted, so you don’t have to worry about scratching the paint or getting dirty stuff on the uncarpeted plastic interior. It even looks like it could serve as an impromptu bench for “frunk-gating,” but perhaps the trunk lid is a little too low for those purposes.
The ease of access does have a downside, however. Cargo (such as groceries) could shift around while driving and might end up leaning against the trunk opening, ready to spill out when opened. A net could solve this for owners who use their frunk for those purposes, though we don’t see any included mounting points for one in the photo.
And, while the frunk is a little shallow, Tesla claims the Cybertruck will be the first sub-19-foot pickup with four doors and a 6+ foot bed (though that record might not last long if the TELO truck makes it to production). Something had to give, and frankly, more trunk space is probably more usable than more frunk space. So it’s understandable that this choice was made.
What do you think of the Tesla Cybertruck’s frunk now that we’ve gotten a better look at it? Is it what you expected? What are you planning to carry around in it? Let us know in the comments.
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Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Perplexity is extending its bet on chat-powered shopping, aiming to stand out in the crowded generative artificial intelligence market against OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
The company said on Wednesday that it’s partnering with PayPal to let users make purchases directly in chat. U.S. customers will soon be able to book travel, buy products, and secure concert tickets without leaving the platform.
Payments will be completed in the chat with PayPal or Venmo, and PayPal will handle processing, shipping, tracking, and invoicing. Purchases will be completed with one click, with the help of the payment company’s passkey checkout.
“Perplexity wants to be wherever users are asking questions and making decisions,” said Ryan Foutty, Perplexity’s vice president of business. “Our vision for assistive AI is that everything just gets better and easier for people — wherever they are and however they prefer to make decisions.”
Perplexity jumped into e-commerce last year, adding a shopping feature for paid U.S. users and integrating with sellers using services like Shopify. Now Perplexity is allowing users to complete transactions within a chat, a feature that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has yet to roll out.
PayPal is competing for AI deals against companies including Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard.
PayPal technology chief Srini Venkatesan said PayPal’s system can directly connect to the merchants, handling payments, shipping, and billing information without requiring users to re-enter details. The company also manages support.
“The next generation of commerce is happening on the agentic side. People are starting to research and shop online through agents,” Venkatesan said, referring to AI-driven systems that can complete tasks without human intervention. “Agentic commerce is not only the searching but making it all the way to the purchase — paying for it and then buying it from that merchant. So that’s what PayPal has been leading, and we’ve been trying to get the agentic commerce piece right.”
Venkatesan said PayPal’s edge in this space comes from its ability to securely verify both buyers and sellers. PayPal authenticates users through their wallet and automatically fills in billing and shipping information, aiming to reduce friction.
“We provide the trust that the business is legitimate on one side, and then the customer is legitimate on the other side,” he said.
The partnership comes as Perplexity is finalizing a $500 million funding round at a $14 billion valuation, down from an initial target of $18 billion.
The use of AI-driven chat services for buying decisions has jumped 42% in the past year, according to Salesforce data, based on 1.6 trillion page views on its platform. Global sales influenced by AI climbed to $229 billion between November and December, up from $199 billion during the same period a year earlier.
ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s AI Overviews have climbed ahead in search, building powerful real-time results and AI-enhanced answers. OpenAI launched its ChatGPT search feature last year, positioning it to compete directly with Perplexity, while Google’s AI Overviews brought real-time insights to search.
WATCH: Perplexity CEO on AI race
More than 1 in 4 cars sold around the world in 2025 are expected to be EVs, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). And if EVs stay on track, they could make up over 40% of global car sales by 2030.
The IEA’s Global EV Outlook 2025 report, released today, shows the electric car market is still charging ahead, even with some bumps in the road. Despite economic pressures on the auto sector, EV sales hit a record 17 million in 2024, pushing their global market share past 20% for the first time. That momentum carried into early 2025, with EV sales jumping 35% in Q1 year-over-year. All major markets saw record-breaking Q1 numbers.
China continues to lead the EV race by a wide margin. Nearly half the cars sold there in 2024 were electric. That’s over 11 million EVs – more than the entire world sold just two years earlier. EV adoption is also booming in emerging markets across Asia and Latin America, where sales shot up by more than 60% last year.
In the US, EV sales grew about 10% year over year, with electric vehicles now making up over 10% of all new car sales. Meanwhile, Europe’s EV sales hit a plateau. As government incentives started to taper off, the continent’s market share held steady at around 20%.
“Our data shows that, despite significant uncertainties, electric cars remain on a strong growth trajectory globally,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “Sales continue to set new records, with major implications for the international auto industry.”
One of the main drivers is lower prices. The average cost of a battery electric car dropped in 2024, thanks to increased competition and falling battery prices. In China, two-thirds of EVs sold last year were cheaper than their gas-powered counterparts, and that’s without subsidies. But in markets like the US and Germany, EVs are still pricier up front: around 30% more in the US, and 20% more in Germany.
Still, EVs win when it comes to operating costs. Even if oil drops to $40 per barrel, it’s still about half as expensive to charge and run an EV at home in Europe than to drive a gas car.
The report also notes the growing role of Chinese EV exports. About 20% of all EVs sold globally last year were imported. China, which produces over 70% of the world’s EVs, exported 1.25 million of them in 2024. These exports have helped push down prices in emerging markets.
And it’s not just electric cars that are on the rise. Electric truck sales jumped 80% globally last year, now making up nearly 2% of the truck market. Most of that growth came from China, where some heavy-duty electric trucks are already cheaper to run than diesel, even if the upfront cost is higher.
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Global research firm Rho Motion has shared its monthly global EV sales report for April, which details continued long-term growth. While global EV sales are down compared to March 2025, the year-over-year tally remains strong, despite uncertainty amid the threat of tariffs and trade wars.
Since merging with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence last June, Rho Motion has become one of the go-to platforms for data surrounding critical mineral and energy transition supply chains. Its monthly updates on market intelligence, including prices and sales data, are must-see research every time they’re published.
This month’s report is no different.
In March 2025, we reported that EV sales worldwide had surged to 1.7 million units, bringing the total to 4.1 million units for Q1. March marked a 40% increase compared to February 2025, and a 29% increase year-over-year.
For April 2025, Global EV sales stumbled slightly compared to the prior month, but held steady in YoY growth.
April global EV sales fall MoM but rise YoY
According to Rho Motion’s latest report, global EV sales for April 2025 were 1.5 million units, bringing the year-to-date tally to 5.6 million NEVs (BEVs, PHEVs, and LDVs). April sales fell 12% compared to March 2025, but matched the previous month’s year-over-year growth at 29%.
Here’s how those 2025 global EV sales breakdown by region, compared to January to April 2024:
- Global: 5.6 million, +29%
- China: 3.3 million, +35%
- Europe: 1.2 million, +25%
- North America: 0.6 million, +5%
- Rest of World: 0.5 million, +37%
As has been the case with every Rho Motion report we cover, China continues to lead the world in EV adoption despite sales dropping 9% month-over-month. Having recently visited the Shanghai Auto Show alongside some OEM visits in Hangzhou, I can see why adoption is moving more quickly. The number of available makes and models at affordable prices is incredible, and the technology you get for your money is downright staggering.
Even amongst ongoing talks of tariffs between global superpowers, including EV powerhouse China, EV sales continue to grow. Per Rho Motion data manager, Charles Lester:
Ongoing tariff negotiations are dominating talk in the electric vehicle industry but quietly, domestic manufacturers in China and the EU continue to perform well and grow market share. The EU is certainly the success story for EV sales in 2025 so far, with emissions targets lighting a fire under the industry to accelerate the switch to electric, they have grown the market by a quarter in the first third of the year. In China, that year on year sales increase is even greater at 35%, spurred on by the vehicle trade in scheme.
Europe, whose adoption numbers stumbled in 2024, has seen steady growth in EV adoption in 2025, landing second to China in sales growth last month (a 25% increase). This increase has been fueled by the increasing number of BEV and PHEV imports to the region from China from brands like BYD, ZEEKR, NIO, and XPeng.
North American sales have only grown by 5% in 2025, with Mexico leading the pack. The rest of the global EV market saw a 37% increase in sales, but those numbers only accounted for about half a million units.
Next time anyone tells you EV adoption is slowing down, you can just send them this data, because it is quite the contrary. Global EV sales continued to grow in April, and that trend should continue through 2025 and beyond.
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