Photo: Tesla
Not that this should come as much of a shock, but Tesla won’t be making the first deliveries of its all-electric pickup truck this year. Or the next. The Cybertruck has officially been delayed to an unspecified timeline in 2023.
Tesla has somewhat of a history of missed deadlines, but longtime supporters were hoping this would not be the case with the Cybertruck. Elon Musk’s statements helped with this, because he’d been saying all along that the Cybertruck, announced in November 2019, would be ready for deliveries in 2021, with scaled production taking place in 2022.
As the deadline neared, reports began circulating about how the Cybertruck wasn’t ready. Tesla no longer has a media department, so it was difficult to confirm them with the carmaker, but it was clear that Tesla simply had too much on its plate. Elon Musk said this much during Wednesday’s fourth-quarter earnings call, when he announced 2023 as the next deadline for the Cybertruck.
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year,” Musk said. “It would not make sense.”
Focusing on new models does not make sense for Tesla right now, because the focus is on ramping up production on existing models, the CEO explained. This and the limited supply of computer chips are responsible for the delay of the Cybertruck. “Frankly,” Musk said, Tesla already has too much on its plate to consider launching new models.
Musk also hinted that keeping the beastly truck within an affordable price range was a challenge, especially given the tech on it.
“There's a lot of new technology in the Cybertruck that will take some time to work through. And there's the question of what's the average cost of Cybertuck and to what degree that is affordable,” he explained, adding that he hopes for a production volume of 250,000 units a year farther down the line. The cheapest model of the Cybertruck is supposed to start at $40,000, according to the 2019 announcement.
As the deadline neared, reports began circulating about how the Cybertruck wasn’t ready. Tesla no longer has a media department, so it was difficult to confirm them with the carmaker, but it was clear that Tesla simply had too much on its plate. Elon Musk said this much during Wednesday’s fourth-quarter earnings call, when he announced 2023 as the next deadline for the Cybertruck.
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year,” Musk said. “It would not make sense.”
Focusing on new models does not make sense for Tesla right now, because the focus is on ramping up production on existing models, the CEO explained. This and the limited supply of computer chips are responsible for the delay of the Cybertruck. “Frankly,” Musk said, Tesla already has too much on its plate to consider launching new models.
Musk also hinted that keeping the beastly truck within an affordable price range was a challenge, especially given the tech on it.
“There's a lot of new technology in the Cybertruck that will take some time to work through. And there's the question of what's the average cost of Cybertuck and to what degree that is affordable,” he explained, adding that he hopes for a production volume of 250,000 units a year farther down the line. The cheapest model of the Cybertruck is supposed to start at $40,000, according to the 2019 announcement.
Google News