Watch: Tesla’s Cybertruck beats a Porsche 911, while towing a Porsche 911

Tesla finally launched the Cybertruck last week, meaning Elon Musk’s bizzare polygonal electric truck is now in the hands of reviewers in the United States. Unfortunately, without any confirmation of a local launch – and the chances of one being relatively slim owing to that body shape and required safety testing – we’re still here in muggy old Auckland.

But that hasn’t stopped us spending about five hours watching various Youtube videos and reading first impressions, and it seems that despite all the hubbub surrounding the development, the Cybertruck is serious about its intentions.

One of the first videos posted came from Tesla itself, showing the Cybertruck beating a Porsche 911 in a drag race. If you remember, one of Musk’s original claims about the electric truck was that it would be faster than a 911… without giving any further metrics of course.

It seems the video pits the top-spec ‘Cyberbeast’ against a base 911, but the great equaliser is that the Cybertruck is towing another entire 911 behind it. On all-terrain tyres. And it still wins by a car length. As impressive as that is, we’d still put our money on the Porsche to win when corners are thrown in.

Tesla’s creation is faster than other electric trucks too, including the 745kW GMC Hummer EV. By quite a bit too, as Hagerty’s Jason Cammisa found out. The Cybertruck finished a quarter-mile sprint in 11 seconds flat while the Hummer took 11.9 seconds. It was largely the same result for Carwow’s Mat Watson. For the record, hitting 100kph takes comfortably under three seconds in the 630kW tri-motor Cyberbeast when it’s not towing anything.

Cammisa also took the Cybertruck through a safety test demonstration – no doubt one of the diciest parts of the Cybertruck’s existence – and the results are pretty amazing. He reiterates that all of Tesla’s previous models have aced American safety tests in the past, and the Cybertruck doesn’t disappoint.

It takes a 35mph (56kph) side impact test incredibly well, denting both doors and setting off the airbags but without much else. Other vehicles would have been totaled.

Helping on that front is the stainless steel construction, which apparently helps achieve more torsional rigidity than a McLaren P1. According to Musk, the Cybertruck does struggle in rollover tests… because it struggles to actually roll over.

While these safety credentials are undeniably impressive, they skirt around the whole pedestrian part of the equation. Currently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not test how well people on the outside of a vehicle fare in a crash, while EuroNCAP and ANCAP do. This is the biggest reason the Cybertruck is a question mark for the New Zealand market.

But Cammisa and other reviewers point out that while the Cybertruck’s sharp edges and flat faces are hardly good for pedestrians, the blunt, tall noses of other pick-up trucks aren’t that much better.

We’ve yet to seen a comprehensive braking test for the Cybertruck – the Hummer EV in Carwow’s race out-braked it by a small margin but both weigh in at over three tonnes each, so it would be interesting to see how the Tesla performs versus a traditional pick-up like a Ford F-150.

We’d also love to see how the Cybertruck really handles around a track. Obviously that’s not its natural habitat but Musk was bullish on his claims of the Cybertruck being faster than a sports car, so it should really be tested. Some, like Top Gear, said the steering was a bit strange, particularly at low speeds, but it is still stiff, composed, and brutally fast. Maybe that ‘faster than a 911’ goal will be achieved after all…

We’re also unsure of the build quality at the moment. It seems most of the issues aren’t as bad as they once were but Musk went on record before the reveal saying the Cybertruck is already “a production nightmare” so we’ll wait and see to be sure. Production is expected to ramp up next year but won’t hit full capacity until 2025.