Shaq Ditched His Tesla Cybertrucks For This New EV — And Why

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To those of us who grew up in the ’90s, Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) is an iconic name. He’s LARGE and was a dominant force in the NBA, and his personality and vibes were often quite entertaining. He dabbled in rap, acting, and just the spotlight overall.

So, it’s been good to see the still popular personality EVangelizing a bit — that is, being an early EV adopter and spreading the good word of how much nicer electric vehicles are. That, no doubt, stimulates more interest in EVs and eventually sales.

So, when I saw a headline about Shaq getting rid of his Cybertrucks for some reason, I had to click and find out what was going on.

He shared the news on The Big Podcast. Apparently, his issue is the range. The Cybertruck just doesn’t get enough range on a full charge. “I was into the Cybertrucks, but they don’t get enough, what’s the word, electric mileage? Charger mileage?” I have to take a break here to laugh of how disconnected he must be from the EV media world, because “range” has got to be one of the most common terms!

My next thought was, “How much range does he actually need — does he go on a lot of long road trips or something?” Apparently, it’s not that — it’s due to how long of a commute he has in Atlanta! “Shaq goes on to say that if he took the Cybertruck downtown to work and came back, the EV would be struggling to get back home,” MSN writes. Interesting…. He also said it wouldn’t get the range stated — the car’s range estimate was overly optimistic.

Now, to the good news. He’s still an electric head! He’s switched from Cybertrucks to the new Cadillac Escalade IQ. The Escalade IQ is now Cadillac’s top-of-the-line model. With a giant battery and reportedly top-of-market aerodynamics for a large SUV, the Escalade IQ offers him 465 miles of range on a full charge.

“I was in Vegas, I didn’t have to charge up for four days,” Shaq noted regarding his positive initial experiences with the IQ.

Of course, you have to have more than $150,000 to buy a Cadillac Escalade IQ, which is about 50% more than a Tesla Cyberbeast, but I imagine that’s not an issue Shaq thinks much about.

Cadillac is crushing it. There’s only one auto brand that has a higher percentage of its sales being EV sales in the US at the moment. (That’s not including full-electric brands like Tesla and Rivian, of course.) In the first quarter, 19.1% of Cadillac’s sales were EV sales in the States. That was only bested by Porsche, at 23.1%, and it was notably above #3 Acura (15.6%) and every other auto brand. In fact, Cadillac’s quick electrification — and just the fact that most of the Cadillacs I see now seem to be electric ones, primarily the LYRIQ — it got me wondering how long it would take for the brand to get to 50% EV sales.

I’m sure the brand will appreciate a boost from multi-decade celebrity and influencer Shaquille O’Neal, especially when it comes to a comparison with the Tesla Cybertruck that puts the Cadillac Escalade IQ in winning light.