Quick Comparison: Tesla Cybertruck vs Ford F-150 Electric vs Rivian's R1T

author: Manish Kharinta   

The highly anticipated Tesla Cybertruck recently made its global debut and the overall look of it is uncanny, to say the least. Everything about Tesla's pickup truck has a love or hate appeal to it, depending on who you talk to. 

The fact that the electric pickup's window broke during a demonstration of just how indestructible they are, did not win Cybertruck any points with critics.

Nevertheless, even with its otherworldly design, Tesla's electric pickup has quite a few things going for it which is why it has already received over 200,000 orders so far.

We have decided to compare Tesla's electric pickup against its closest competitors in the segment, the Ford F-150 Electric, and R1T from electric truck startup Rivian.

Utility

Based on Ford's newly released promotional video for the F-150 Electric, we expect that Ford's electric pickup truck and Tesla's Cybertruck will measure at around 231 inches in length, making Rivian R1T the shortest offering, coming in at 217.1 inches. At around 79 inches, the width of all three electric pickup trucks is more or less the same.

Tesla's Cybertruck is available in 3 different versions. The base, rear-wheel-drive variant can tow around 7,500 lbs, followed by the dual-motor version, which can tow about 10,000 lbs. The more powerful the tri-motor model will be capable of towing over 14,000 lbs, according to Tesla. Cybertruck can also carry 3,500 lbs of maximum payload.

In Ford's promotional video, the automaker showed the electric F-150 pickup towing a 1 million pound train. The video, however, featured rail cars placed on steel track, which makes it a lot easier for them to be moved as the rolling resistance is substantially lower. 

In reality, we expect Ford's electric pickup to have a maximum towing capacity between 11,000 lbs and 14,000 lbs, which is still quite impressive for any pickup.

Since Ford is also one of Rivian's investors along with Amazon, the lower limit estimation for F-150 Electric's towing capacity is based on the maximum towing capacity of Rivian R1T which is also 11,000 lbs. However, Ford might want to match Tesla's towing capacity and improve its offering before launch.

Range and Acceleration

The entry-level Cybertruck will be offered with a 250-mile range, followed by the dual-motor variant, which will deliver around 300 miles of range. The tri-motor with have over 500 miles of range.

We expect both the Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Electric to offer around 400 miles of driving range and similar 0-60 mph acceleration times which currently stand at 3.0 seconds for the R1T. These performance figures might also be further improved ahead of launch.

Tesla claims that its top-of-the-range tri-motor Cybertruck will be capable of sprinting from 0 to 60 mph in under 2.9 seconds.

Price

In this particular category, Tesla's Cybertruck is shockingly impressive. Prices for the single motor rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck variant will start at just $39,900, followed by dual-motor, all-wheel-drive model at $49,900. The dual-motor AWD version will likely be the most popular with truck buyers. Pricing for the tri-motor, all-wheel-drive variant with prices starts at $69,900. Prices for Rivian R1T will also start at $69,000.

We expect that the Ford F-150 electric will also get a price tag well below $100,000. However, it's unclear whether Ford will try and undercut Tesla's competitive pricing at some point.

Manish Kharinta

Manish Kharinta is a automotive writer based in the Los Angeles area. He has worked for automotive industry websites TheSmokingClutch.com, CarDekho.com and CarBikeindia.com. His experience ranges from covering auto shows, to car reviews and breaking automotive news. Manish aims to bring forth his unique perspective on automotive design and technological innovations in the automotive industry.