It’s been a month since the first deliveries of the Cyertruck and we’re still finding out new things about Tesla’s latest EV.
After discovering a “Wade Mode” in its off-roading settings and digging up specs for the 15-speaker audio system, we’re now trying to uncover details about how fast the Cybertruck currently charges. As seen in a timelapse video from Our Cyber Life, the Cybertruck charges from 20 to 80 percent in about 40 minutes on a Supercharger with an almost immediate drop in peak charging rate.
We were expecting much faster charging speeds considering the Cybertruck’s 800-volt architecture and larger battery pack. Even the entry-level Model 3 gets from 20 to 80 percent in about 20 minutes on the same charger. It may not feel like a major difference, but you’re basically stuck at a Tesla Supercharger station for longer with the Cybertruck.
Slower Charge Times Than Model 3
According to Tesla, the Cybertruck can recover up to 136 miles with 15 minutes of charging. Comparatively, the Model 3 gets up to 175 miles with the same charge time. The Cybertruck getting less mileage could be attributed to that rapid drop in peak charge rate, as seen in Our Cyber Life’s video.
While the Cybertruck in question was charging at around 250 kW when at 20 percent, it quickly dropped to about 150 kW when at 40 percent charge before eventually going below 100 kW towards 80 percent. Even though the Cybertruck takes advantage of the peak 250 kW charge rate, it’s not for very long as you can see in the video. All that adds up to longer wait times at Supercharger stations.
It’s worth noting that Tesla may still be experimenting with the Cybertruck’s battery performance and therefore limiting the exposure to peak charging. In this case, we could see Tesla updating how long the Cybertruck stays charging at peak rates in a future software update.
On top of that, we’re not sure how busy the Supercharger station was in the video. If it was extremely busy, we could be seeing limited charging performance, especially since Tesla has been trying to disincentivize people from charging to 100 percent with congestion fees.
Improved Charging Speeds with V4 Superchargers
Even with video evidence of a full charge cycle on the Cybertruck, there are still plenty of questions. We don’t expect Tesla to address this confusion regarding the steep drop in peak charging rate, but it’s very likely the EV maker will update this through software down the line. Rivian did something similar with its R1T back in 2022.
On the infrastructure side, Tesla has been working on rolling out more V4 Supercharger stations that can support up to 350 kW of peak charging rates. We haven’t seen any Cybertrucks charging at a V4 Supercharger yet, so we could see improved charging times once these are more readily available. For now, we’re left to our own devices to figure out how fast the Cybertruck actually charges.
