Shaquille O’Neal Explains Why He Dumped Elon Musk’s Cybertrucks for a New $150,000 Car

Shaquille O’Neal likes to live it up and has a ‘BIG’ lifestyle. The Lakers legend had humble beginnings and has worked hard to become one of the most successful players turned businessmen. O’Neal believes in working hard and playing even harder, and follows that motto even till date. One of the things on which he loves to indulge is cars. From custom Ferraris to supersized Cybertrucks, we’ve seen everything in Shaq’s garage.

In the last few months, we had seen Shaquille O’Neal get obsessed with Tesla’s 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 $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 an homage to his Hellcat, or ShaqCat.

After enthusiastically getting three Cybertrucks in a span of months, it seems like the big man is done with them. Shaq had comedian Karlous Miller on his podcast, where they were discussing their 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.”

According to the sources online, an Escalade IQ claims to have a 460-mile range on a full charge. At the same time, a Cybertruck barely has a 320-mile range, which would’ve further gone down with the modifications Shaq had gotten. It would be interesting to see how long the IQs hold O’Neal’s attention, before he moves on and picks his next vehicle.

This isn’t the first time Shaq has had a problem with Tesla

Shaquille O’Neal is not your average-sized human. Standing at a 7’1″ frame, weighing nearly 325 pounds, it is hard for Shaq to find cars that he can fit in easily. Back in 2020, one of his friends recorded and posted a clip online of him trying to struggle to fit in a Tesla.

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 got all A’s, I was like, ‘Man, go pick what you want.’ So he come back with a Tesla. I said, ‘You better take yo’ ass across the street to the Chargers. Better get you a Charger. You ain’t getting no motherf–king Telsa. 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 if they pay heed to Shaq’s concerns and come up with an SUV/truck that has a better range.