"People who use trucks for a living" are a vanishingly small part of the market for trucks, though. And the trucks they buy are the low-margin vehicles, for the most part. Does the actual market want the Cybertruck? Damned if I know either. But the people to ask are precisely the socker moms and mid-life insecure tech nerds you're making fun of.
For people who don’t need the power or durability of a full size truck, the Maverick is significantly more economical as an around town truck to throw your mountain bike in the back of.
Which largely leaves us with people who currently buy for vanity or similar reasons. And I don’t see how the cybertruck is going to find significant market share in a group of people love V8 engines, lift kits, and rolling coal. And it’s not gonna work its way into the generations old argument of which truck is better Ford or Chevy.
The answer is Ford btw, or if you wanna cheat, Toyota.
As for power the cybertruck pulls 11k pounds which puts it at similar towing capacity as an f150. Some f150 engine options come in above, some below. The smallest engine f250 nearly doubles it. The cybertruck only competes in the 1/2 ton range. Everyone who buys 3/4 ton up will be losing significant capability.
The range when towing is the biggest problem as you said. It’s just pitiful. Just the other day there was a report of a cybertruck getting 160 mile range with another 6000lb tesla on a trailer. My 2011 f150 that i bought for $15k in 2015 would more than double that range. What do you suppose the range is on a 8000lb box trailer? What about when you’re headed up I-70 with 2000lb trailer?
Half the trucks out there that people complain about driving around town empty have a snowmobile trailer or a boat or a camper at home. People take those recreational items an hour or two out of town on a regular basis, typically in directions that won’t have a charger.
I aware I’m an outlier but the closest superchargers to me are 90 miles away. Around here more than half the vehicles you see are trucks and a cybertruck is just not a feasible option. I see a couple rivians around town but they’re vanity purchases, used in a capacity that could be served, by a maverick or a subaru. Which is fine. You can buy something that you think is cool. But thats the market. People thinking it’s cool. People who want their truck to do more than take the boat down to the marina 30 miles away twice a year are likely going to look elsewhere.
Really though, the only thing the cybertruck needs to do to be “successful” is to be profitable. If people buy it then it doesn’t really matter what it can or can’t do. I’ve seen number’s thrown around like 200k sales per year for breakeven etc. I don’t know the validity of any of those types of esitmates but it’s hard to imagine tesla constantly selling 30% as many cybertrucks in a year as ford does f150s. But more power to them if it does.
I'm sure you will around Boca Chica, but they probably won't have much of a choice either. That said, it could be a pretty good 'proving ground' if they use them to run 120/240V equipment onsite.
I really wish someone would make this happen.