Cybertruck battery pack found "half empty" in teardown - Tesla lead engineer slyly hints 500-mile range still possible

Now that more Cybertrucks are getting out onto the streets, technically minded individuals have started getting their hands on the EVs in order to dissect them and see what's going on under the stainless steel bodywork. One such individual, Sandy Munro, who goes by Munro Live on YouTube, recently published a sneak peek at the battery portion of his channel's Cybertruck teardown, revealing that there is a surprising amount of empty space in the Cybertruck's battery pack.

Now, while that in itself is interesting, it can easily be chalked up to a decision by Tesla to keep the pack small in order to save production resources - Tesla's shortage of 4680 cell production is well-documented already - it raises an interesting question. Can Tesla increase the Cybertruck's range?

Tesla's lead Cybertruck engineer, Wes Morrill, responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the pack being "half empty" commented that "I'd say it's half full..." implying that there may be a future version of the Cybertruck with a full battery pack.

Either that, or it's simply a play on the glass-half-full idiom with no deeper meaning. Regardless, the quote has Tesla-centric corners of the internet rife with speculation about a Cybertruck with a full battery pack achieving that mystical promised 500-mile range.

Other battery experts have even chimed in, with Antonio DiNunno from CATL suggesting on X that the extra space is simply venting.

Whatever the case may be, there's quite a lot of discussion about what exactly Tesla is doing with the cells of the Cybertruck and whether or not the company could augment range without the comical Range Extender that adds 130 miles to the Cybertruck's range.

There are two main hurdles likely holding Tesla back from making a Cybertruck with a full pack - cost and production capacity. As stated earlier, the cells Tesla uses to fill the Cybertruck's battery pack are in short supply and seemingly one of the limiting factors for Tesla's slow Cybertruck production ramp.

The other issue, cost, is more complex. If Tesla produces more 4680 cells to meet demand, the price will likely come down, but, until then, it might become difficult for Cybertruck buyers to justify spending thousands of dollars more for more range, especially when the Cybertruck already costs in the neighborhood of $100,000 and is barely available right now.

Read about the development of Tesla's EVs in Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, available on Amazon, or grab a Peak Design car vent phone mount on Amazon.