Tesla Cybertruck Test Drives Now Available
The drives are being offered at Tesla’s Service and Leasing center in New Milford. This is the Tesla page to book a test drive for any of their models.
This follows the first Cybertruck test drives offered in the state at our NorthEast Electric Vehicle Symposium last month. As the 75 or so people who drove the CT that day can attest, the handling is amazingly nimble for a vehicle of this size.
More EV Pickups Being Introduced
It is a category that has seen an increasing number of entrants from the likes of Rivian, Ford, Chevrolet and GMC. Numerous sources have reported that Cybertruck has overtaken the Ford F150 Lightning as the best selling electric pickup in second quarter. It is hard to tell exactly what the sales are because Tesla does not break out individual models. Their “other vehicles” category, which includes the Model S and X, accounted for 21,551 sales according to Inside EVs, which speculates, using indirect data such as recalls, that Tesla produced roughly 12,000 trucks, compared to 7902 for the Lightning. There are other reasons why the comparison is rough. For one thing, a sale for Ford is when the dealership takes title to the vehicle, whereas with Tesla, it is when the consumer receives it. Most of these pickup models are quite new and some have been supply-constrained.
Configurations
Tesla has stopped taking orders for the Foundation series and the configurator shows the All-Wheel Drive ($79,990) and Cyberbeast ($103,490).
The AWD starts at a low enough price that it squeaks by for the federal incentive if no options are ordered. The incentive MSRP cap is $80,000 for a pickup. There is also an income limitation of $300,000 for joint filers, which may be an issue for someone who can afford $80K for a vehicle. Anyway, that is moot for the time being. The configurator does not indicate that the vehicle qualifies. Tesla is usually very good at maximizing incentives, so it wouldn’t surprise us if things will change; we just don’t know when.
Leases and commercial transactions do qualify for the federal $7500 incentive as those are not subject to the rules for consumer purchases.