Shaquille O’Neal has forgotten more cars than most people will ever own, and he means that almost literally. He’s admitted to buying vehicles on impulse and later losing track of them, which usually makes for a fun garage story and not much else. His exit from Tesla’s Cybertruck is different. He didn’t ditch it because he outgrew it, misplaced it, or moved on to some other passing whim. He replaced it because the range numbers didn’t work for him, and that’s a far more useful story than another celebrity car swap.
O’Neal is 7’1″ and built like, well, a Hall of Fame center, which means most of his fleet needs to be surgically altered before he can even close the door. Rolls-Royces, a Lucid Air, and a heavily reworked Ferrari he calls his FrankenFerrari all got modified to fit him. The Cybertruck’s oversized, slab-sided cabin was one of the rare vehicles that didn’t need a single change. He fit as-is. So this wasn’t a comfort problem.
On his own show, The Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal laid out the actual reasoning in one line: “I was into Cybertrucks but they don’t give enough charge mileage”. His fix was simple. He picked up an electric Cadillac Escalade instead.
The spec sheet explains the swap
Look at the numbers Tesla and Cadillac publish themselves, and O’Neal’s complaint checks out. Tesla currently rates the Cybertruck’s all-wheel-drive trims at 325 miles of EPA-estimated range, with the tri-motor Cyberbeast landing at 320 miles. Cadillac’s 2026 Escalade IQ carries a Cadillac-estimated range of up to 465 miles, which the brand markets as the longest range of any EV SUV on sale. That’s roughly 140 additional miles on a full charge, a jump of more than 40 percent, in a vehicle that’s arguably just as much of a land yacht as the truck it replaced.
Charging speed tells a similar story. Tesla’s Supercharger network can add up to 135 miles of range in 15 minutes on Cybertruck. Cadillac says its 350 kW DC fast charging can add up to 117 miles in about 10 minutes on the Escalade IQ. Neither is instant next to a gas pump, but per minute, the Cadillac has a slight edge, and it’s working from a much bigger cushion of total range to begin with.
Why a boxy EV truck loses this fight
Part of this comes down to basic packaging. The Cybertruck’s stainless-steel panels and sharp-angled shape make for a memorable silhouette, but slab sides and a nearly vertical windshield aren’t doing the truck any aerodynamic favors at highway speed, where drag is the single biggest drain on any EV’s range. Cadillac built the Escalade IQ from the ground up as a dedicated electric platform rather than retrofitting an existing shape, and it shows in the range column.
It’s not O’Neal’s first time comparing the two trucks up close, either. Effortless Motors, the Las Vegas shop that recently stretched a Corvette Z06 to fit him, had already customized his Escalade IQ and his Cybertruck before this swap, so he’s had plenty of seat time in both to notice the gap.
The bigger picture for EV shoppers
O’Neal’s math applies to anyone shopping electric trucks and SUVs right now, rich or not. Range anxiety doesn’t disappear once you can afford basically any car on the lot, it just becomes a different kind of inconvenience, whether that means cutting a trip short or rerouting around a charger. He’s not even the only marquee-name athlete parked in an electric Escalade. Lionel Messi’s garage has one too, mostly for hauling family instead of chasing 0-60 times.
Automakers are hedging on the same range and demand questions. Cadillac just resurrected the gas-powered XT6 and CT5 nameplates after GM’s own leadership pointed to slower-than-expected EV demand on a recent earnings call, even while Cadillac keeps pushing the Escalade IQ’s range advantage as a selling point. The range conversation is playing out at every level of the market, from garages like O’Neal’s to boardrooms in Detroit.
For O’Neal personally, the swap is just the latest entry in a fleet that turns over faster than most dealership inventories. Between the Escalade IQ, a stretched Corvette Z06, a Range Rover that was stolen mid-transport, and a Mercedes he bought his son, keeping track of what’s actually in his driveway this month might be the hardest job in the whole operation. The Cybertruck, at least for now, has plenty of other owners keeping it in headlines without him, including one whose customized truck led police on a chase that ended with a rapper’s son in handcuffs.
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