Tesla Cybertruck vs. Rivian R1T vs. Ford F-150 Lightning! | Electric Pickup Truck Comparison

ALISTAIR WEAVER: Hi, I'm Alistair Weaver for Edmunds with the Tesla Cybertruck, and friends. Today we're going to review the Cybertruck in a very different way to what you might have seen elsewhere. We're not going to kick it. [SCREECH] [SCREAMING] We're not going to shoot it. [GUNSHOTS] We're not going to wave our arms excitedly-- CROWD: Wow! ALISTAIR WEAVER: --and declare it an act of God. [CELESTIAL MUSIC] Instead, radically, we're going to find out what it's like as a vehicle. Is it really a

seismic breakthrough, a Tesla Model 3 moment for the electric truck market? Or is it just a fancy expensive toy for Kim Kardashian? To do that, we're going to compare it to two other electric trucks that cost similar money, the Rivian R1T and the Ford F-150 Lightning-- both of which we bought with our hard-earned cash. We're going to analyze the beds. We're going to sit in the back. [CRICKETS CHIRPING] And we're going to subject all three trucks to the world famous Edmunds EV range and efficien

cy test. It's going to be great. Let's get on with it. ELON MUSK: Welcome to the Cybertruck unveil. [CHEERING] ALISTAIR WEAVER: Back in the fall of 2019, I was at SpaceX when the Cybertruck was unveiled. And honestly, it was one of the most surreal evenings of my life. Elon Musk appeared on stage and waxed lyrical about how this new electric truck was going to revolutionize the market, taking on the likes of Ram, Ford, and Chevrolet. To my mind, it conjures images of a Tesla Model Y made truck,

maybe something a bit like the Rivian. But then the Cybertruck appeared. [DRUMLINE] Honestly, even when Elon eventually wandered off stage, I was still waiting for something to happen and the real truck appear, but it never did. And here, five years later, is the production version. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is remarkably faithful to the truck that I rode in that night. It's still stainless steel. It's wide and low, and it's hard to find a Tesla badge anywhere. It is extraordinary and hugely polarizi

ng. You can't be an introvert and buy this truck. But for what it's worth, I love the way that it looks. I was born in the late 1970s and grew up lusting after waist-shaped exotica like a Lotus Esprit and Lamborghini Countach. I'm glad someone had the guts to build something this bold. It makes the world a more interesting place, but it doesn't necessarily make it a good truck, which is a neat segue into the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T. The F-150 Lightning is all about future-proofin

g Ford by seeking to prove that a full-size pickup truck can still function in the EV era. If the Tesla is led by its form, the Ford is led by its function. We named it Edmunds top-rated electric truck in both 2023 and 2024, noting that the Lightning Winds have been less like an electric truck and more like a truck that just so happens to be electric. Prices start around 50 grand, but we paid about $80,000 for ours. The R1T is smaller and self-consciously more of a lifestyle adventure vehicle--

a Patagonia fleece on wheels. It might be the smallest truck, but it's also the heaviest. Prices start at $70,000, but this particular spec will set you back 90. Ours is a quad motor version and the most powerful truck here today. The Cybertruck is the lowest and widest of our trio and sits somewhere in the middle in terms of overall length. And when we put it on our scales, it actually proved the lightest truck here, but you weren't expecting that. At least until the promised single-motor versi

on arrives to the Cybertruck sometime in the future, the entry level price is $80,000, making it the most expensive of our trio here today. This is actually the foundation model. And if you can get your hands on one of these, it's going to set you back $100,000. [MUSIC PLAYING] In this film, we're giving you the overview. But if you'd like to read our in-depth tests of each truck and find out what the Rivian and Ford have been like to live with, head over to Edmunds.com, where you'll also find a

ll your car-shopping needs. So pretty much the first thing that you notice when you get into the Cybertruck is just how far the base of the windshield is from the steering wheel, or the squircle-- or a squirrel, or something like that. Anyway, to demonstrate the distance, I brought along a 1980s psychedelic boogie board. So take a look at this. It's extraordinary. The overall vibe, of course, is typical Tesla minimalism, with everything focusing on the single screen here in the center. There's l

ots of storage space, decent door pockets, another bin here in the center, two cup holders. Couple of wireless charging bays for your cell phone, another big storage area here between the front seats for handbags or whatever else you happen to be carrying. The other thing we should call out is the build quality. Edmunds has owned pretty much every Tesla since the original Model S, and some of those early cars were extremely iffy when it came to fit and finish. This, however, feels extremely soli

d. Not only the touch and feel here in the cabin, but when you're out on the road, there are no squeaks and rattles. It feels like Tesla, at long last, has really learned how to build a car right from the get-go. Impressive stuff. What are we less convinced about? Well, these seats are comfortable enough. But if you're tall like me, you'll lack under-thigh support, and then we can kind of get into some of the ergonomics. The challenge-- this has always been a challenge for Tesla-- is putting eve

rything into one touchscreen. It means that some of the basic controls can take a bit of finding. If you want the wipers, for example, you have to go into this menu here, pick out wipers, and then press the button to turn them on. Now, things are getting better because the voice recognition is improving. So you say, "Switch on wipers." Switch on wipers. Command not understood. Try again. Switch on the wipers, please. [SQUEAKS] There we go. Tesla voice command getting there, but maybe not all the

way yet. No column stalks. Everything is here on the steering wheel. Your indicators are here. Your lights are here. Tesla, wipers off, please. [SQUEAKING] [BEEP] Switch off the wipers, please. [SQUEAKING] [LAUGHS] The other thing they seem to have nailed over the years is how to do in-car audio. Frankly, the system in the Cybertruck sounds sensational although, to be fair, it's also pretty good in both the Ford and the Rivian. Let's talk more about the screen, which is bespoke to the Cybertruc

k. They've even changed the fonts to make it more angular and in sync with the rest of the vehicle. I love details like that. It's very responsive. It looks terrific. You've got all the controls, the tonneau covers. You can adjust the ride height up and down if you're going off road. And of course, there's the usual entertainment gadgets. You can watch Netflix, YouTube, et cetera, et cetera. And the piéce de résistance, of course, the Tesla fart machine. Still funny after all these years. [FART

NOISE] The Ford also has a big screen, supplemented by another smaller display in front of the driver, and plenty of old-school buttons. It's generally intuitive to use, and it's the only truck here to offer Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. Ford really understands truck buyers. There's loads of storage. We love the foldout table, and the seats recline to form a makeshift bed, good for a nap or a date night. Rivian's software has got better and better the longer we've owned

the truck. The overall quality inside is good, and there's some novel thinking, such as the integrated torch and Bluetooth speaker. As you can see, pretty good accommodation and amenities here in the back of the Cybertruck. This seat is set up for me. I'm 6'4. And as you can see, there's plenty of knee room, and it's nice to be able to shove your feet under the seat in front. Headroom might look like a problem given the angle of the roof. But as you can see, it's actually OK. You'd have to be si

gnificantly longer in the trunk than me before you started whacking your head against the glass roof. Like the Tesla Model 3 Highland, you can have a central screen here in the middle for controlling things like the airflow and for sharing your favorite YouTube channel, Edmunds Cars. And if you haven't, be sure to like and subscribe. The only weird thing for me is-- ergonomically, it's a bit odd to watch TV here down by your right knee. What else do we like about the Tesla? Well, you can fold th

ese seats up, which gives you extra storage, putting in big items like a TV. You can fold down this center armrest to give you a couple of cup holders. And Tesla wins an extra point for having a proper anchor point for a child seat instead of the crappy little cables that you have to contend with in an F-150. The F-150 has the roomiest rear by far, but the seats themselves are flat and not particularly supportive. There's tons of storage though, including a bin under the seats. The Rivian has, b

y far, the most stylish rear quarters and the most comfortable rear seats, and it does most of the tricks that the other two do too. But as you can see, its diminutive dimensions do compromise it in terms of space. Put simply, there just isn't as much knee room as there was in the other two trucks. And it's not as wide if you want to sit three across the back or carry a huge TV. On paper, the Cybertruck has the longest bed here. But as you can see, only if your item is under 4 inches high. Allow

me to demonstrate here-- is a box I made earlier. You have a significant angle here on the rear, which ultimately steals a bunch of space. And then if you build your boxes up, the problem becomes more and more acute. And of course, you have the additional issue that you have to squat thrust them over the side of the truck. Now, I'm 6'4 with gargantuan arms. And so for me, it's not too much of a drama. But if you're a bit shorter and a bit more in proportion, this is going to be a significant ch

allenge. The Tesla doesn't have the Ford's elegant step solution. So getting in requires a bit of strength and dexterity, particularly if you have the air suspension in its race settings, which it isn't right now. You do have a useful cubby under the floor here for storing valuable items or perhaps some charging equipment, but there is no space for a spare tire. If you want to take a spare tire-- if you're going off road-- then you have to chuck it into the load bay. These adjustable anchor poin

ts are a nice touch for helping you strap down larger items. And there are additional points in each of the corners although some of those might be hard to access if you're full of stuff. Now, you might think that the bed would be the Ford's trump card. But honestly, you'd be kind of wrong. We've actually fitted the same number of boxes in here as we did in the Cybertruck, and there's a little bit of extra space to stuff things around these wheel arches. Honestly, it's pretty marginal. And becau

se you can't lower the vehicle like you can with the Tesla, although you've got slightly better access and a slightly more sensible shape, again, it's pretty marginal. So to the final truck of our trio, the Rivian, which has, like the Ford, more of a conventional shaped bed. At least it would do if our electric tonneau cover wasn't broken. This is a known problem that will be fixed under warranty soon, we hope. Now, the Rivian, of course, is smaller, and we've only managed to get 5 boxes here in

stead of the six that we managed in both the Tesla and the F-150 Lightning. And if you want to run with the tailgate up, that is reduced to just three rather than four in the others. However, the Rivian does have a little trick up its sleeve. Follow me. This is the famous Rivian gear tunnel, suitable for golf clubs, all three of these exceptionally heavy boxes. One, two, and three. So now we're only one shy of the Tesla and the Ford. There's a lovely little seat that I can sit on and pontificate

about each of these vehicles' frunks. That's front trunk, the bit where the engine used to be. The Rivian has a good shape frunk that can hold three boxes, the same number as the Ford. But the Tesla has a glorified glove box that can hold just two boxes. So where does that leave us at the end of our slightly less than scientific box test? Well, the Rivian and the Tesla both managed to carry 26 boxes. And the Ford, while surprisingly, only one more. So as you can see, in terms of ultimate carryi

ng capacity, not that much in it. [MUSIC PLAYING] So the first time you drive a Cybertruck, I'd encourage you not to be too close to a wall because you will almost certainly over-steer, and that's because this is the first consumer vehicle with drive-by-wire steering. It doesn't have any form of mechanical redundancy. If that freaks you out, then frankly, it shouldn't because let's face it, airplanes have had drive-by-wire controls for a long time now. And what it's allowed Tesla to do is introd

uce a pretty exaggerated form of variable-ratio steering. So when I'm at a standstill, that to that is full lock to full lock. And of course, it's got four-wheel steering, so it's impacting both the front and the rear wheels. And if it feels counterintuitive, then actually, your brain quickly adjusts because on the highway, the ratio changes. So if you're at speed, then the same amount of steering input actually has a much lesser impact. And I found that within a couple of miles, it all felt ver

y natural. Ironically, this technology would make the infamous Tesla yoke, that we found so spectacularly useless in the Model S Plaid, just about bearable. But Tesla clearly bottled it. As you can see, the yoke makes absolutely no sense when you're trying to apply lots of corrective steering. The real point of four-wheel steering, of course, is to improve the truck's agility, so we thought we'd set up a little test here in our parking structure to find out if it really works. According to each

manufacturer's claims, the Tesla should have the tightest turning circle here. But in our vaguely scientific test, the difference proved marginal at best. Tesla says a future software update will tighten the turning circle further, so stand by for a repeat. It's time to do some driving. So once your brain has computed all the intricacies of the steering, what does this Cybertruck actually feel like out on the road? And the answer is, very good, indeed. Others have said that it feels car-like, bu

t that is frankly rubbish. You never really escape the impression that this is a big heavy truck riding on 35-inch tires. It's always a truck, but it is more car-like than both the Rivian and the Ford, and there are several reasons for that. The structure is extremely stiff, and that helps provide an exceptionally smooth ride quality when chugging around LA-- on some frankly pretty pockmarked roads-- and the ride quality really is excellent, almost a level of a luxury car. And they've also set i

t up to feel like a Tesla. You get that same sort of instantaneous throttle response that you do in a Model 3 or a Model Y. It's all part of the Tesla experience and makes every car feel even faster than they actually are. And it even sounds like a Tesla when you put your foot down. Now, we borrowed this vehicle, so unfortunately, we weren't able to take it to the Edmunds test track and put it through the full instrumented test. But let's just say that this truck, and both the Rivian and the For

d, are way faster than any 6,000-pound truck ever needs to be. There's ample performance and then some. The other nice thing about this Cybertruck-- and maybe you can even pick this up on the microphone-- is how quiet and refined it is in here. And when you look at the shape, you might think there's a lot of wind noise, but that's also been really well-suppressed. It all feels very well-sorted and very luxurious. I can imagine going a long way in this vehicle in considerable comfort. It would, i

f you can live with the size, make a great family car. As you'd expect, one-pedal driving is present correct. So as you ease off the throttle, it uses the car's momentum to slow the vehicle and recharge the battery. So most of the time, you never actually end up pressing the brake pedal. Again, very familiar to drivers of other Teslas. Let's talk visibility. Now you might imagine, given the exaggerated triangular shape, that it would be abysmal. But actually, it's not as bad as you might think.

You do have a pretty thick pillar here in front of me, but there's also a little triangular window here that you tend to peep through at junctions, which works pretty well. And of course, there's also a plethora of cameras to help you out. And that's particularly important, A, for judging where the nose is because you can't see it. And also, if you have the tonneau shut behind me, then you're solely reliant on the rear view camera to see what's happening behind. Now, there is something that I fi

nd particularly irritating, and that concerns this central screen. Now, ever since the Model 3 and the Model Y came out, we've been criticizing the fact that you have to take your eyes off the straight ahead to see the speedo, which in the Cybertruck, resides here. But in this car, it's exaggerated because when you turn left, as we are about to do, your natural inclination is to look over here. But if you want to check your blind spots on the camera, you then have to turn your head to the right

to look at the screen over here, which is completely counterintuitive. For me, it would be far simpler to have an additional screen right here in front of your eyes, which would handle both the rear view and the blind spots for left and right. It's almost like Tesla have dug into the fact that we can do everything through one simple giant iPad. The Lightning drives a lot like a traditional F-150, which is no great surprise given it shares so much of the hardware. With its ladder frame chassis, i

t feels the most truck-like on the road, but it is refined and a comfortable long-distance tool. It's also brutally rapid. We recorded 0 to 60 in four seconds at our test track. In quad motor trim, the Rivian proved even faster, sprinting from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds, which is supercar fast. It steers nicely, and the air suspension does a pretty good job of disguising its extraordinary 7,150 pounds mass. It's capable and reasonably comfortable, even if the ride quality isn't nearly as smooth as t

he Tesla's. We've now had the opportunity to put all three of these trucks through the world famous Edmunds EV range and efficiency tests. Put simply, this is the most rigorous independent test of how far you'll go on a single charge and how much electricity you'll use getting there. The Tesla is the only truck on all-terrain tires that will compromise the range a little. But the Cybertruck still managed 334 miles, beating Tesla's own estimate of 318. The Ford managed 345 miles, with the Rivian

hitting 321 in quad motor guides, or a hugely impressive 390 miles in the new dual motor trim. As you might expect, all three of these trucks are thirsty, drinking roughly twice as many electrons per mile as a Tesla Model 3. Let's get to our conclusion. The Cybertruck will not do to the electric truck market what the Model 3 did to the electric car. It's not clever enough. It's not versatile enough. And most importantly, it's way too expensive to have that kind of impact. Ultimately, it's a pass

ion play. They built it because they wanted to, and it's hard not to salute that. We still have reservations about how the stainless steel will age, and there are times when form has definitely been allowed to transcend function. But it actually works far better as a truck than perhaps we imagined it would five years ago. It really is quite usable, and it's great to drive. Honestly, my kids loved it. And ultimately, so did I. If the Cybertruck is more of a lifestyle choice than a proper working

truck, then the Rivian R1T becomes its most obvious rival. Its less spacious overall, less eccentric too, but it is also easier to live with. And we've really enjoyed the time we've spent with ours. The Ford remains more of a truck for truckers, and its real rivals should finally emerge this year from Chevy and Ram. If you can live with the charging infrastructure and the range that it offers, then it's ultimately a better version of a Ford F-150, and that's why it continues to deserve our Edmun

ds Top-Rated EV Truck Awards. The conclusion to the conclusion, if you want a working truck, buy the Ford. If you want a versatile, fun electric truck to support an active lifestyle, buy the Rivian. And if you want a Cybertruck, buy a Cybertruck. Do you know what that was? Solid consumer advice. Thanks for watching. See you next time. Hi, I'm Alistair Weaver from Edmunds with a tie-- with what? World famous Edmi-- what's wrong with me? It's getting really hot. Switch off the wipers, please. [SQU

EAKING] Done. Should we keep some of that in? SPEAKER: Yeah. ALISTAIR WEAVER: OK.