Tesla Cybertruck vs. Roadster: watch the two EVs face off in fan render
Tesla's supercar goes head-to-head with its pickup truck. Who wins?
Two of Tesla's most highly-anticipated electric vehicles have taken on a virtual drag race challenge, pitting their specs in a head-to-head of these futuristic cars.
The Tesla Cybertruck takes the left lane, the pickup truck unveiled in November 2019 with an angular design borne out of its cold-pressed 30X steel exoskeleton. The second-generation Tesla Roadster takes the right lane, the supercar unveiled in November 2017 with a range of over 600 miles and a killer list of specs. While the Cybertruck is expected to start production in late 2021, the Roadster looks like it may miss its originally-announced 2020 launch date.
The face-off, shared on Instagram Wednesday, shows how these two may fare in a drag race. The video was produced by Sydney-based Slav Popovski, whose profile states he is a former avionics engineer that works on computer-generated imagery.
As seen in the video above, it's no contest for the Roadster. What happened? Is Elon Musk's Blade Runner-styled truck not so futuristic after all?
In practice it comes down to specs, and the areas of the market the pair are targeting. The Roadster packs a 200-kilowatt-hour battery, starts at $200,000, and looks like a supercar from the future. The Cybertruck has a cool design, but its $39,900 starting price places it alongside the Model 3 and Model Y as a mass market buy. The Roadster, on the other hand, is more of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink car: it costs several times more, and it features some of Tesla's most exotic features.
This shows in the two vehicles' specs. The Roadster is set to offer 0 to 60 mph acceleration times of 1.9 seconds, 0 to 100 mph in 4.2 seconds, and complete a quarter-mile in 8.8 seconds. Its top speed is over 250 mph. Musk has even talked up the prospect of a SpaceX options package, which would use a composite overwrapped pressure vessel and thrusters placed around the car to boost performance even further.
The Cybertruck is in a whole other league, with a 0 to 60 mph time of less than 6.5 seconds on the single-motor version. This figure drops to less than 2.9 seconds for the tri-motor version. It sports a towing capacity of over 14,000 pounds at the high end, and comes with features desirable in a pickup truck like plug sockets in the rear.
It's not the first time Popovski has pitted the Roadster against its rivals. In January he pitted the car against the Bugatti Chiron, taking into account performance figures for both vehicles.
The Tesla Roadster looks set to become one of Tesla's most intriguing vehicles. But it's also a vehicle that Musk has described as "dessert," that features little in the company's earnings calls, and seems to play a backseat role to more mass market cars like the Cybertruck, Model 3 and Model Y.
But as a demonstration of sheer performance, to show just what an electric car can do, the Roadster looks set to impress.
