Looking sharp! The Cybertruck has taken up more than half of Canberra’s Tesla showroom. Photo: Region.
Keen eyes will have spied a stainless steel Cybertruck in Tesla’s Bunda Street storefront, but if you were preparing to own the edgiest ute at the campsite, put your wallet away.
The polarising EV ute is only on a promotional roadshow around Australia which, unlike most celebrity tours in this country, includes a stop in Canberra (until Tuesday, 18 June).
It’s the more basic of two Cybertruck models that Tesla currently builds at its Texas factory. Called the ‘Foundation’, it’s powered by two motors and boasts an acceleration to 100 km/h of 4.3 seconds. Tesla says it can tow nearly 5 tonnes and cruise on a charge beyond 500 km. Probably enough to ‘save’ the weekend.
The top-spec ‘Cyberbeast’ is the model that keeps making global headlines. Its estimated range is only mildly more than the ‘Foundation’, but with three motors, it’s said to blast to 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds (just pipped by Ferrari’s LaFerrari). With a long waitlist, one recently sold at auction for twice its original price.
There are also plans for a cheaper rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck.
However, there are a couple of reasons why the behemoth in a Civic shop window is the only taste we’ll get of the thing, at least for years.
Despite early refundable deposits showing Aussie buyers were hungry for the electric ute, Tesla pulled online ordering from its Australian site in 2022 and remains close-lipped on whether it will actually develop a right-hand drive version. Febrile talk in motoring circles speculated that the Cybertruck might not pass Australia’s stringent design rules, but Carsguide analysis suggested this was mostly myth.
Additionally, Tesla is struggling to meet its orders in North America, with the Cybertruck sold out until next year there. This means that even if a right-hand-drive version were confirmed tomorrow, deliveries would be years off.
So is Tesla testing enthusiasm down under, or is it just a ploy to get more interest in the brand’s other EVs, sales of which have been flagging?
Motoring expert Mark Holgate from Exhaust Notes Australia told us it’s the latter.
“It’s literally showroom candy,” he said.
“With no confirmation whether it will be available in right-hand drive and a price for the base variant expected to be somewhere north of $120,000, it seems it’s little more than a promotional tour to help build hype.”
And if the stream of gaping public servants wandering into Tesla’s storefront is anything to go by, it’s working.
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