Sam Krahn 
It’s been seven months since the Tesla Cybertruck was revealed, and Twitter aficionado Elon Musk has been giving us a slow trickle of facts in tweets regarding his bold new vehicle on. The truck revealed last November is a representation of what the vehicle could look like, and the final product is morphing behind the scenes, and right in front of us. Musk frequently gives his fans updates about current or future products to continue the hype, and the latest chunk of information is regarding the size of the truck.
Musk has been making conflicting claims about the size of the Tesla Cybertruck. Back in April, we reported on a flurry of Cybertruck Tweets. In one of those, Musk said the truck will have, “reduced size by ~3%,” leading many to believe the vehicle will shrink overall.
Then, on May 23, CNBC released a clip from an upcoming Jay Leno’s Garage episode where Leno drives Musk around in the Cybertruck show car. In the video, which you can watch here, Leno asks what will be changed on the production car, and Musk says the overall proportions and size will be reduced by five percent.
“It’s gotta fit in a normal garage,” said Musk.
But now, Musk is going back on those previous claims. On May 23, he tweeted that even a 3 percent size decrease is too small, and the vehicle will stay true to the dimensions of the show car.
Reviewed design with Franz last night. Even 3% smaller is too small. Will be pretty much this size. We’ll probably do a smaller, tight world truck at some point.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2020
The Tesla Cybertruck show car measured 231.7 in long x 82 in wide x 75 inches tall. For comparison, a Ford F-150 is 209-251 inches long depending on bed and cab configuration, is 80 inches wide, and 75-79 inches tall depending on model. This makes it a similar size to an F-150, but slightly wider. No one ever said full size pickups are small and maneuverable, but the truck isn’t dramatically larger than the current crop. It makes sense for Tesla to want to hold true to the original dimensions if they match what the competition offers. Still, rear visibility can’t be great out of the cheese wedge, so a smaller size would be welcome.
Also in the tweet, Musk hinted at a, “smaller, tight world truck at some point.” While we aren’t sure what a tight world truck is, Tesla may be cooking up a baby brother mid-size pickup in the future. But if their current track record is anything to go by, that could be in the very distant future.
The decision to maintain the girthy dimensions of the Tesla Cybertruck may be based on the vehicle’s footprint and gross combined weight rating. Currently, it’s expected that the electric pickup truck will be sold as a Class 2b vehicle. In effect, the Cybertruck circumvents federal crash safety testing, the mandate for airbags, and fuel economy/range testing. All of these regulations add massive amounts of cost to a vehicle, which the customer ultimately ends up paying for. A Class 2b categorization would contribute to Tesla’s pricing promises for the Cybertruck. The base model is expected to start at $39,000, should it ever come to market.
