Australia third biggest market for Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck is coming to the land Down Under -- one day -- and new research suggests Australia could be the largest global market for the sharp-edged electric pick-up outside of USA and Canada.

The Tesla Cybertruck is a large five-seat dual-cab ute roughly the same size as a Ford F-150 (it's big!) and has officially accumulated more than a quarter of a million paid reservations, which cost erstwhile buyers $US100 ($A150) a pop.

Tesla doesn't reveal specific numbers when it comes to the locations of paid reservations on vehicles such as the Cybertruck, but according to new info Australians are going gangbusters for the futuristic dual-cab ute.

After crowdsourcing responses from about 1800 members of its Tesla community, CybertruckTalk.com revealed the USA and Canada had the most Cybertruck reservations, followed by Australia at just over three per cent. Here's the full list:

United States (76.25%)
Canada (10.43%)
Australia (3.16%)
United Kingdom (1.39%)
Norway (1.11%)
Germany (1.05%)
Sweden (0.83%)
Netherlands (0.67%)
France (0.44%)
Iceland (0.44%)

While the that may sound like a small amount, it could result in 15,000 orders for the Tesla EV ute in Australia.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk stated back in November 2019 that paid reservations exceeded 250,000 within a week of its unveiling. Reports suggest that number could have grown to 500,000 by now; three per cent equals about 15,000 vehicles – assuming none of the refundable deposits are withdrawn.

Utes and pick-up trucks are hugely popular in Australia, with official sales stats showing that around one in every five new vehicles purchased is a ute.

Last year the Ford Ranger 4x4 found more than 37,000 Australian homes, followed by the Toyota HiLux 4x4 (36,325), Mitsubishi Triton 4x4 (22,681) and the soon-to-be-axed Holden Colorado 4x4 (15,650), so the Tesla pick-up truck could become one of the nation's most popular utes, or at least the US brand's top-selling models here.

The burning question for Australians with Cybertruck reservations will be around timing. US deliveries are not expected to commence before late 2021 or early 2022, and local deliveries could be years after that, if the Model 3 was any guide.

"We don’t want to wait three years," said Mark Tipping, president of Tesla owners club of Australia. He explained that interest for the new Cybertruck in Australia is huge, especially for off-road enthusiasts, but that past experiences will make the wait challenging.

"That's the big one; people want it now. After the [Tesla] Model 3 experience of waiting umpteen years, bring it here today please!"

The Tesla Cybertruck will be offered Down Under in single, double and triple motor variants according to the pre-order page on the official Tesla website. While a launch date or price point hasn't been set, Musk previously confirmed production is set to commence in late 2021 at a yet-to-be-built factory in the USA.

Most orders have been for the 4x4 double and triple motor Cybertruck, at about 40 per cent each. They are expected to be priced at between $US50,000 and $US70,000 in North America – about $A81,000 and $A113,000 at the time of writing.

There is also a cheapo model, the single-motor, rear-drive Cybertruck, which costs under $US40,000 ($A65,000) but this model-grade has attracted less than 20 per cent of pre-orders.

According to Tesla, the electric ute's cruising range is between 400 and 800km and towing capacities range between 3400kg and 6350kg for the single motor and triple motor models respectively.

Musk says the Cybertruck will revolutionise towing by not only offering high torque levels (rumoured to be up to 600kW/1300Nm) but also by way of a towing calculator.

"Yes, will also show real-time changes to max acceleration, braking, cornering, speed on gradient & range, latter factoring in route elevation changes & cargo or tow mass & drag impact," said Musk in one of his ubiquitous Tweets.

While several brands are developing hybrid utes, including the next-generation Toyota HiLux, other US-built all-electric pick-up trucks are in development, including the Rivian R1T and Fisker ute, both of which are eventually also destined for Australia.

It's not yet clear if the Nikola Badger, Ford F-150 EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV are coming to Australia, but here's a full list of EV utes potentially coming to Oz if you want to check it out.