James May Gives His Thoughts On The Cybertruck

Thought James May was done reviewing cars now his time on The Grand Tour is coming to an end? Guess again.

May was recently over in California to promote his brand of gin, and while there, he managed to get hold of a vehicle that’s eluded most European road testers by being far too angular to be legally sold here – the Tesla Cybertruck.

There are generally two schools of thought around this block of stainless steel cheddar cheese on wheels – blind evangelism, or seething disdain. May, though, as a relatively early EV adopter and multiple-time Tesla owner, approaches it with cautious, open-minded optimism.

As ever, his review style is on the less conventional side. It involves a steel ruler – which throws up some interesting revelations about the Cybertruck’s superficially flat body panels – and, because this is essentially a 14-minute gin advert, a bottle of his spirit which is used in an unusual fashion to compare the truck to a pinball machine.

Elsewhere, though, it’s a fairly conventional road test of the sort we might have seen May do on Top Gear. We hear about the Cybertruck’s unusual steer-by-wire system, get a look at its cargo space (naturally, in the context of how many bottles of gin it could theoretically fit), and the build quality quirks caused by its resolutely geometric design.

Overall, it’s a balanced look at a vehicle that’s generally viewed as either the single most momentous thing to happen in the history of the car or a badly built, poorly designed monument to its creator’s wildly unchecked ego (guess which camp I’m in?).

Anyway, whatever you think, it’s nice to see May still getting hands-on with some car reviews – even if it is a neat way of getting people to buy a delicious intoxicating spirit. Maybe soon, we’ll see Jeremy Clarkson finding out how much Hawkstone you can fit in the back of a Rivian R1T.