At 7’1″ and weighing in at 325 pounds, Shaquille O’Neal is a very big man. With an equally big lifestyle, which nobody will grudge him. The Lakers legend had humble beginnings and has put in the hard yards to earn his millions as one of the most successful sportsmen-turned-businessmen.
Advertisement
O’Neal believes in working hard and playing even harder — a motto he has religiously followed till date. And like everything in his life, whatever he goes for, he goes for in a big way.
Like cars for example. With 40 cars — give or take — in his garage at any ti me, Shaq sometimes forgets he’s bought another one, till it arrives at his doorstep! From custom Ferraris to Lamborghinis to luxury Bentleys, we’ve seen everything in Shaq’s garage.
But his favorite by far was clearly the Dodge Hellcat Charger, of which he had nine or ten at one point. Till recently, that is. In the last few months, though, he appeared to have gotten obsessed with the Tesla Cybertruck. It all started in June 2024, when Shaq was seen commenting on a post put forth by Effortless Motors on Instagram. Shaq commented “need that” on a post they’d made about a modified $189,998 Cybertruck.
From there on, Shaq went on to collect not one, not two, but three Cybertrucks. His second one was a one-of-a-kind wide-body Cybertruck, which drew a response from Elon Musk as well. The third one was a homage to his favorite Hellcat, or ShaqCat as he calls it.
Since he snapped up three Cybertrucks in a span of months, it seemed like the EV may have ousted the Hellcat as his favored whip. But, as quickly as his enthusiasm built up, it appears to have waned. The big man is now done with them.
Shaq had comedian Karlous Miller on his podcast recently, where they were discussing their respective car collections. O’Neal shared how he had nearly 10 Hellcats at one time, but is down to just one now.
O’Neal then spoke about Cybertrucks. “I was into the Cybertrucks, but they don’t get enough, I want to say, what’s the word I’m looking for? Electric mileage.” Further elaborating on his problem, O’Neal explained, “My Cybertruck here, if I go downtown to work tonight and come back, my car’s going to be struggling to get back.”
Having explained his problem with Elon Musk’s Cybertruck, O’Neal revealed the new car that has his attention. He recently got the 2025 Escalade IQ, which retails for $150,000. As expected, he got his friends over at Effortless Motors to jazz it up. Not only does the car look good, but it also has a great range.
Shaq spoke highly of the IQ, sharing, “And then I just got one of those IQs, some Escalades. I was in Vegas. I didn’t have to charge it for four days.”
An Escalade IQ has a claimed range of 460-miles on a full charge. This is significantly better that the Cybertruck, which has a 320-mile range, which would’ve further reduced with the modifications Shaq had gotten done on the vehicles. It would be interesting to see how long the IQs hold O’Neal’s attention before he moves on and picks his next vehicular object of desire.
This isn’t the first time Shaq has had a problem with Tesla
Shaquille O’Neal is not your average-sized human, so it is hard for him to find cars that he can fit in to easily. Back in 2020, one of his friends recorded and posted a clip online of him struggling to fit into a Tesla.
“Elon, you wanna make a big boy Tesla?” @SHAQ
Shaq struggling to hop in the whip
(via @BlackAssChi) pic.twitter.com/Zv0WRYsxsk
— Overtime (@overtime) August 28, 2020
Back in 2021, O’Neal was giving an interview, where he recalled the time when his son wanted a car for Christmas. Shaq put forth a condition that he would need to get all As, which he did. O’Neal said,
“For Christmas one of my son[s] got all A’s, I was like, ‘Man, go pick what you want.’ So he come[s] back with a Tesla. I said, ‘You better take yo’ a** across the street to the Chargers. Better get you a Charger. You ain’t getting no motherf–king Tesla. You better get you a Charger, a V-6 at that.’”
From not allowing his son to get a Tesla to owning three Cybertrucks, Shaq has come a long way. However, as long as Tesla can’t figure out the range issue, it seems unlikely that O’Neal would be turning back to Elon Musk’s cars. We’ll have to wait and see.
