At this point, it should be evident that the Cybertruck, Roadster, Semi, and the German and Texan Model Y are intrinsically connected to the 4680 cells. Without the new battery, none of these products will see the light of day. If they do, they will require an expensive reengineering. If you check the now official delay of the Cybertruck for 2022, it is even more obvious.
Tesla’s page states that the deposits for it are “fully refundable” and that “you will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in 2022.” Although some reports state that would mean the end of 2022, nothing official confirms that.
We just need to remember what Elon Musk said about the development of the 4680 cells to see how it fits the new deadline for the Cybertruck. According to the Tesla CEO, the company was “not quite yet at the point where we think the cells are reliable enough to be shipped in cars.”
At the Q1 2021 earnings call on April 26, 2021, he also said that Tesla was “about 12 – probably not more than 18 months away from volume production of the 4680.” That meant that the company would have these batteries ready by April 2022 in the best-case scenario or by October 2022 in the worst.
Out of curiosity, we tried to check the reservation pages for the Semi and the Roadster to see if they had any expected delivery date. Both return the 404 error. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, we could see old screenshots to understand how their reservation process works.
The Semi demands a $5,000 credit card deposit and a later wire transfer of $15,000 in ten days to complete the pre-order. A second truck would require a $20,000 wire transfer. The Roadster reservation needs the same $5,000 credit card deposit and a $45,000 wire transfer within the same deadline.
The website gives us the impression that only the $5,000 deposit is “fully refundable.” Still, both reservation agreements ensure that “you will receive a full refund of your Reservation Payment” if you cancel it before the Purchase Agreement at any time. Depending on how much it takes for the cars to be ready for delivery and how many reservations they already have, that’s quite a loan with no interest that customers are giving Tesla.
None of these other products will arrive before the Cybertruck does. Tesla has to rush with its electric pickup truck not to be among the last ones to get to the market. Rivian should start delivering the R1T by September if it does not delay that (again). Ford wants to begin selling the F-150 Lightning by spring 2022.
If the 4680 cells are ready by April, vehicles with them should still go through proper testing before reaching their customers. For Tesla, Musk established the “deliver now, fix later” policy. Just like with beta software, it preaches that any issues could be fixed after clients discover them while performing these tests themselves. We’d hope Tesla changed that already but the Model Y only confirmed that this is still not the case.
We just need to remember what Elon Musk said about the development of the 4680 cells to see how it fits the new deadline for the Cybertruck. According to the Tesla CEO, the company was “not quite yet at the point where we think the cells are reliable enough to be shipped in cars.”
At the Q1 2021 earnings call on April 26, 2021, he also said that Tesla was “about 12 – probably not more than 18 months away from volume production of the 4680.” That meant that the company would have these batteries ready by April 2022 in the best-case scenario or by October 2022 in the worst.
Out of curiosity, we tried to check the reservation pages for the Semi and the Roadster to see if they had any expected delivery date. Both return the 404 error. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, we could see old screenshots to understand how their reservation process works.
The Semi demands a $5,000 credit card deposit and a later wire transfer of $15,000 in ten days to complete the pre-order. A second truck would require a $20,000 wire transfer. The Roadster reservation needs the same $5,000 credit card deposit and a $45,000 wire transfer within the same deadline.
The website gives us the impression that only the $5,000 deposit is “fully refundable.” Still, both reservation agreements ensure that “you will receive a full refund of your Reservation Payment” if you cancel it before the Purchase Agreement at any time. Depending on how much it takes for the cars to be ready for delivery and how many reservations they already have, that’s quite a loan with no interest that customers are giving Tesla.
None of these other products will arrive before the Cybertruck does. Tesla has to rush with its electric pickup truck not to be among the last ones to get to the market. Rivian should start delivering the R1T by September if it does not delay that (again). Ford wants to begin selling the F-150 Lightning by spring 2022.
If the 4680 cells are ready by April, vehicles with them should still go through proper testing before reaching their customers. For Tesla, Musk established the “deliver now, fix later” policy. Just like with beta software, it preaches that any issues could be fixed after clients discover them while performing these tests themselves. We’d hope Tesla changed that already but the Model Y only confirmed that this is still not the case.
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