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The Tesla Cybertruck may have fallen short of some of Elon Musk’s original promises, but it’s still an impressive machine on paper. Then again, cars don’t exist on paper – they exist in the real world, where pickup trucks are expected to do pickup truck things, like towing a trailer or a camper. We now have real-world performance information for the Cybertruck when towing a camper, courtesy of Bowlus, manufacturer of six-figure retro-styled camper caravans. Company founder and CEO Geneva Long took to her LinkedIn profile to share the range test results of the Cybertruck towing the Bowlus Volterra electric camper, with the Cybertruck only managing 160 miles of range, less than half its claimed unladen range and well below the performance of the Tesla Model X when towing the same trailer.

Significant Losses When Towing With Cybertruck

The Cybertruck used was a dual-motor Foundation Series trim, which is supposed to have an EPA-rated driving range of 340 miles in standard form and over 470 miles with the optional range extender. It didn’t even reach 50% of that, clocking its 160 miles over a mix of 65% highway and 35% rural driving. Worse still, nine years ago, the much older Tesla Model X managed to beat it handsomely when it towed the same Volterra trailer for 235 miles, only 95 miles short of its claimed range of 330 miles.

While it is known that towing has a massive impact on the driving range of an electric pickup truck, with Ford F-150 Lightning owners reporting almost 50% losses when towing, too, one would think Tesla would be able to do better with a pickup truck than with the Model X, which is much older and doesn’t have the benefit of all the new motor and battery technology the Cybertruck has.

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Electric Pickups Should Do Better

While the aforementioned F-150 Lightning owner was towing a trailer weighing 6,000 lbs, the Bowlus Volterra hitched to the Cybertruck weighs just 3,250 lbs in stock form with a GVWR of 4,000 lbs. Even the latter is still 7,000 lbs shy of the Cybertruck’s maximum claimed tow rating. Worse still is that the Volterra is an EV-specific camper with its own solar panels and the ability to give an emergency boost to an EV to the tune of approximately 65 miles in a pinch.

We’ve reached out to Bowlus to find out more information about the processes used for the test, including SOC levels, weights, environmental factors, speeds, and more, and will update this article accordingly when we receive feedback. However, as it stands, the Cybertruck seems to struggle at one of the most important things any truck is supposed to do.