Electric Cars

About a month before the famed driver and DC Shoes co-founder Ken Block died in a snowmobile accident earlier this year, he filmed another installment of the popular series in Mexico City that you can watch right here.

After racking up over 650 million views on YouTube for the Gymkhana series, this final video combines his trademark precision driving with Audi’s purpose-built EV and some new modifications: simulated gears that program multiple levels of wheel speed controlled by the paddle shifter, opposite-driven wheels for a standing AWD burnout, the ability to go into reverse at any speed, and instant switching from AWD to RWD.

The all-wheel drive version of its Air Pure sedan is going bye-bye, the company announced. Instead, customers will have to settle for AWD version of its Air Touring trim, which is getting a price discount to $85,900 (down from $95,900). The base model Air Pure will now only come in a rear-wheel drive configuration and start at $77,400.

As Elon said during his DealBook interview earlier in the week. A peek at the r/Cybertruck subreddit finds that while some people are excited about the new EV, and are already preparing to drag race Porsche 911s while towing another Porsche 911, the Cybertruck event didn’t go over well with everyone:

You either throw the steel ball or you don’t bring it up at all. There’s no middle ground you just made a 2nd meme.

I wouldn’t mind a rational price increase but underdelivering on every other aspect - especially range…. Hell nah

Used to the awkward presentations, but being so light on the details like not even mentioning bi-directional and kicking the dual and beast up $30k, just totally wtf.

Maybe I’m dramatic, but I’ve been looking forward to this for almost half a decade, and now it’s unobtainable to me in price. I feel like a dream got crushed.

Tesla has a TON of new accessories for its all-new Cybertruck — camp equipment, snow tires, truck stuff, this $55 decal of a broken window — so I was curious how much a top-trim truck (the tri-motor Cyberbeast version) with all the bells and whistles would cost. Because I assume true Tesla fans are going to want to support their favorite struggling billionaire.

The grand total, including all the accessories and Full Self-Driving, comes out to an eye-watering $126,860. That’s even more than the Hummer EV! And about double the average transaction price for a new truck in the US, according to Edmunds. Cyber-gulp!

Tesla’s Cybertruck site is introducing an upcoming “Range Extender” option that claims will give the pickup truck up to 470-plus miles of range. The storage-eating hump it leaves reminds me of early compliance EVs.

The automaker blinked on its 2019 promise of a 500-mile Cybertruck at the delivery event yesterday. Instead, Tesla’s highest range is just 340 miles on the new AWD model.

Somehow, even after the Cybertruck launched, we still don’t know how many wipers it has. But we do know a lot more about it, including how to open the door! We also kinda sorta got some closure on the OpenAI drama, but as always the CEOs are still out here saying some wild stuff on stage and on the internet. Thank goodness we have a podcast where we get to loudly ask the digital gods: why?

Specifically, we’re talking about the $1,500 kids version now on sale following the Cybertruck delivery event yesterday. It has a max speed of 10mph from a 500W motor, with a 5mph limit option. It features adjustable seats to accommodate 6 to 12-year-olds, air-filled rubber tires, and a 22-volt battery.

It’s a decent companion to the (previously recalled) Tesla Cyberquad for kids ATV, although don’t expect to store one on top of the Cybertruck version.

— along with the rest of the truck, too. He’s got a 40-minute video out this morning taking Tesla’s new vehicle for a spin and offering some first impressions.

And yeah, he knows what we’re interested in.

Tesla’s calling it the OMFG Decal and it can be yours for $55, plus $60,990 for a place to stick it.

53 seconds into this Cybertruck walkaround video, Mat from Carwow picks up the wiper. And…it’s so floppy! Looks like one blade but still inconclusive.

Thanks to Tyler for the tip — The Verge is America’s leader Cybertruck wiper news source, and it’s all thanks to readers like you.

The black and white wraps are available as one of many Cybertruck accessories that you can now shop for on Tesla’s website. The company delivered its first Cybertrucks earlier on Thursday.

The company’s lead designer Franz von Holzhausen notoriously smashed the Cybertruck’s window with a metal ball bearing in a botched demonstration of the truck’s armor plated glass back in 2019. Today, he got a chance at redemption. But his throws looked a little weak. And is that a baseball I see??

According to Tesla’s website, the Cybertruck will be Tesla’s first vehicle to feature bi-directional charging, or vehicl-to-load capabilities. That means to can buy two Cybertrucks and use them to charge each other. Like a shiny, triangular snake eating its own tail.

Tesla’s order page just updated to include all the updated prices and range numbers. You can find them all here or in our announcement post that just went up.

As Elon Musk hands off the first production Cybertrucks to owners, he’s had to show almost every single one of them how to open the passenger door. “You just press this button over here,” he keeps saying, pointing to a spot that I think is on the B-pillar, just at the back of the door.

Tesla: lots of interesting ideas about cars, way more weird ideas about how to open them.

In what can only be described as a very anticlimactic ending, Musk just signed off, and now the Cybertruck’s first customers are getting in their trucks and driving off. All told, that was about 25 minutes, one of Tesla’s shortest events ever.

Still no word on updates about price or range.

Some Cybertruck stats from the delivery event: zero to 60mph in 2.6 seconds. A quarter mile in under 11 seconds. Tesla is really getting cocky with these performance figures.

Compared to the specifications set in 2019, the capability sits between the original dual-motor that could haul 10,000 pounds and the triple-motor with 14,000 pounds.

Ford’s F-150 Lightning with an extended battery is rated for 10,000 pounds of towing.

At least according to a truck-pull demo, at which Tesla put its truck up against a Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and the aforementioned diesel truck. So, I guess we now know which trucks Tesla thinks it’s competing against.

Elon showed a clip of bullets exploding on the Cybertruck’s surface to demonstrate the truck’s durability. I’m not sure a Tommy gun is really the best choice for a real-world test. It’s not like Al Capone is going to be lining up as a customer.

Just noting that Franz von Holzhausen weakly threw a baseball at this Cybertruck instead of a rock that broke the windows four years ago.

At Tesla’s delivery event, Elon said they should try the glass durability test they attempted in 2019. If you remember, Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at the window, and it broke. Today, he lightly threw a baseball instead, and it survived.

Elon is standing in the bed of the Cybertruck, talking about how tough his truck is. We’re getting details about the stainless steel alloy that reportedly has been incredibly difficult for the company to manufacture.

Tesla says the future should look like the future, but the first clip it showed was a Cybertruck doing a bunch of traditional stuff: spitting gravel, doing donuts in the dirt, getting loaded up with 2x4s. I kind of expected “Like a Rock” to suddenly kick in.

We’re all waiting on this stream to start, and the music is like standing in the most evil possible version of Starship Earth at Disney World.