Is this really happening? The pickup truck that customers have been waiting for four years is finally on its way. Tesla announced that the delivery of the Cybertruck starts on November 30. Everything is official, so we can finally ditch the 'you have to see it to believe it' kind of approach.
It was November 19, 2019, when Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck during an odd show, when the bulletproof windows of the vehicle were smashed to pieces by blows with a metal ball and a baseball bat. That sparked a gazillion memes. It was only the beginning. Still, around two million potential buyers piled up over these past few years, paying the $100 deposit, with the possibility of getting their money back anytime if they change their minds.
At first, the Cyertruck started at $39,900. It was the price of the entry-level version, powered by a single motor, integrated in a rear-wheel drive setup. At the opposite end of the lineup, there would be the top-of-the-line performance-oriented quad-motor variant, which was supposed to start at $69,000. But after several delays in production, those prices vanished from the official order website, and there is no word on pricing anymore.
Four years, a pandemic, and a chip shortage crisis later, those figures seem very far-fetched today. The Ford F-150 Lighting starts at $49,995, so Elon Musk and his team must find a way to stay within that price range to be competitive. So far, so good, considering the price war that they started with Ford.
Photo: Tesla
Back then, Elon Musk said that the Cybertruck would go into production in late 2020. In late 2020, in pure Elon style, the production start date was pushed back to 2021. 2021 came and so did delays, explanations, and excuses. It is 2023, and it seems that it is finally happening. Four whole years after the official unveiling, the first production unit was built at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. But in the photo Tesla posted on the X platform, the vehicle showed up surrounded by employees, and nobody could see if it really was completed just be looking at that image.
Tesla claims that Giga Texas will build 125,000 trucks per year and informs that the "pilot production" of the Cybertruck has begun. The model remains "on track for initial deliveries this year, with deliveries scheduled for November 30th at Giga Texas," according to a post on the former Twitter/current X platform.
The platform is also full of photos and videos that show trailer trucks loaded with Cybertrucks or show the pickup truck in traffic, a sign that the delivery date is inching closer. The first 2024 Cybertruck was reportedly already auctioned off for charity for $400,000 at the Petersen Gala at the beginning of October.
It is obviously one of the first built in Austin, Texas. The very first rolled off the assembly line on July 15. The center kicked off low-volume production, with mass production to start in 2024. Tesla must ramp up production to shorten the huge waiting time that buyers are supposed to endure. They have already been waiting since 2019.
If everything goes according to plan this time, we will get to see the first customers taking delivery of the vehicle at the end of next month. But we will take this with a grain of salt since we have heard deadlines before. The previous deadline was the Q3. But the Q3 ended last month, and there was still no sign of the Cybertruck. Until now when Tesla comes up with the new delivery deadline: November 30. And it seems that this finally is it!
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