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How Long Does It Take to Charge a Tesla Cybertruck? Facts & FAQ
Pete Ortiz
Last updated:
Longer charging time is one unfortunate but unavoidable tradeoff you might anticipate with an all-electric truck that’s a heavy high-powered machine needing equally powerful battery performance to give it a decent range. With its yet-to-be-released Cybertruck, Tesla hopes its 4680 battery cell will let drivers have their cake and eat it too by offering faster charging, more power, and higher capacity.
The brand’s first pickup should charge in as little as 22 minutes at a Tesla 250W supercharger. Final specs have yet to come out, but here are some estimates for how long it will take to charge a Cybertruck.
How Long Does It Take to Charge a Tesla Cybertruck?
As with any EV, the charging method is one crucial factor affecting the charge time. The quickest option is to juice up at one of the 30,000+ Tesla supercharger stations you can find around the globe. These stations can deliver wattage at 150kW–250kW, fast enough to get any Tesla on the road in under an hour.
Public charging stations supply power at a much lower rate, anywhere from 8kW to 22kW, while home chargers run the slowest at around 11kW. The charge time, range, top speed, and several other performance factors will also hinge on which Cybertruck you get. Every model comes equipped with a 250kW charging cable.
Single Motor
Starting at a reasonable $39,900, the single-motor Cybertruck is an RWD option with a top speed of 110 mph and a respectable 0–60 acceleration of 6.5 seconds. It has a 100kWh battery capacity good for 250+ miles of continuous driving.
Fast-charge time at a 250W supercharge station for the single-motor Cybertruck takes approximately 22 minutes. That’s how long it will take to charge from 10% to 80%. Charge speed plummets as it nears 100%, so recharging to 80% and being on your way is generally the best use of your time. At home, the battery charges in 10 hours 45 minutes.
Image Credit: Mike Mareen, Shutterstock
Dual Motor
The AWD dual-motor Cybertruck has a motor for the rear wheels and one for the front wheels. It has a governed max speed of 120 mph, 10 mph more than the single-motor version, and can whip up to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds.
The two-motor design upgrades the battery pack to 120kWh, giving you over 300 miles of range on a single charge. Fast-charge time at a 250W station is modestly more time-consuming than the single-motor version at 27 minutes (10%–80% charge). It takes roughly 13 hours to charge with an 11kW at-home wall connector.
Triple Motor
The triple-motor Cybertruck supplies two rear motors and one front motor for top speeds of 130 mph and an insane 0–60 time of only 2.9 seconds. That would make it the fastest-accelerating pickup truck available, besting the quad-motor Rivian R1 T’s 3.1-second 0–60 time and the Hummer EV’s 3-second time. Even with talk of a quad-motor Cybertruck coming out, it’s hard not to remain awe-struck by the triple-motor version’s performance potential.
Tesla’s three-motor model will lead not only all Cybertrucks but all Teslas in range if it delivers the 500+ miles it claims. The battery likely has at least 200kWh capacity to supply that power. Estimates of its fast-charge time are around 44 minutes (10%–80%), while at-home charging will take almost an entire day at roughly 21 hours 30 minutes.
The Cybertruck’s 4680 Battery
Image Credit: Mike Mareen, Shutterstock
At the center of the Cybertruck’s fast-charge capability is the Panasonic-produced 4680 battery cell. Tesla introduced the new tabless battery during the company’s Battery Day event in 2020.
The massive 46mm x 80mm cell’s structure will allow Teslas equipped with it to charge faster and travel further. A tabless design allows an open flow of electrons, free from bottlenecks that increase resistance, heat build-up, and wasted energy.
The 4680 is an upgrade from Tesla’s 2170 cell. The smaller battery pack is the standard power source for more recent Tesla vehicles, such as the Model 3 and Model Y. But along with the Cybertruck, the latest Model Y crossover built in the Austin Gigafactory features a 4680 battery.
Compared to the 2170 cell, the 4680 boasts 5X the energy capacity by the simple virtue of being larger and having more surface area to store energy. While there would generally be an inverse relationship between energy and power capacity with the same design as the 2170, the 4680’s tabless structure delivers 6X the power output alongside the increased storage.
This more efficient model is why you get 16% more range and up to 500+ miles out of a vehicle that could weigh up to 10,000 pounds. It also helps explain the lightning-fast acceleration that will rival most supercars.
It’s an expected compromise with an EV pickup, especially one as large and powerful as the Cybertruck. When you have a machine that can tow up to 14,000 pounds and travel over 500 miles on a single charge, you can bet it has a lot of battery capacity to fill.
The truck is still deep in development and far from a finished product. With talk of 300kW superchargers on the horizon, there’s hope that the Cybertruck’s battery performance will be better than anyone could have imagined.
Pete has been working in the trades since high school, where he first developed a passion for woodworking. Over the years, he has developed a keen interest in a wide variety of DIY projects around the home. Fascinated by all sort of tools, Pete loves reading and writing about all the latest gadgets and accessories that hit the market. His other interests include astronomy, hiking, and fishing.
As the founder of House Grail, Pete's primary goal is to help consumers make educated decisions about DIY projects at home, in the garage, and in the garden.
