Photo: Tesla
Last Saturday, Elon Musk took to Twitter to congratulate his Ford counterpart, Jim Farley, for the 44,500 reservations the F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck received during the first 48 hours since its reveal.
Musk's reply read a very dry "Congrats!" leaving any interpretation up for debate. Some will say he was honest, others he was sarcastic, while most people will simply consider it as the sort of professional courtesy we should really see more of in the industry. After all, these companies are competitors, rivals, not enemies.
Knowing what we know now, Musk's gesture starts to resemble the kind of petting on your head you got from your parents when you first learned to tie your laces by yourself. That's because according to a crowdfunded reservations tracker for the Tesla Cybertruck, Musk's company might be sitting on over one million reservations for its all-electric pickup truck made of steel.
The online spreadsheet uses all the information made available by Tesla ever since the Cybertruck was first shown to the public in November 2019 and reservations were open. Still, it's by no means entirely scientific and failproof. They do factor in cancellation rates and other variables that might affect the number of people that might go through with their registrations. Yet, at the end of the day, it's something nobody can actually predict.
The document also tracks the reservations by trim level, meaning it can offer an average cost for all the Cybertruck deposits made so far. That figure is $58,053, and if you multiply that by the total number of reservations, you get a revenue figure of nearly $63 billion, all money potentially going into Tesla's coffers.
However, before getting too excited for Tesla, there are a few things worth considering. Many people have made several reservations (at least one made even hundreds of them) because it's just a $100 fully refundable deposit, so why not? By making one, you are essentially locking the price at the level it was at the time of the reservation, and while that might not seem like much, just look at Tesla's one-way yo-yoing with the price of the Model 3 and Model Y.
Besides, many potential customers also opted for the Full Self Driving (FSD) package, also acquired at a lower price than what it costs now—and even lower than what it might end up costing in the future. Finally, making a reservation meant you secured your place in line for what will most likely become a very hot commodity. Can you see the first Cybertrucks selling for more to people further down the line? We sure can.
Knowing what we know now, Musk's gesture starts to resemble the kind of petting on your head you got from your parents when you first learned to tie your laces by yourself. That's because according to a crowdfunded reservations tracker for the Tesla Cybertruck, Musk's company might be sitting on over one million reservations for its all-electric pickup truck made of steel.
The online spreadsheet uses all the information made available by Tesla ever since the Cybertruck was first shown to the public in November 2019 and reservations were open. Still, it's by no means entirely scientific and failproof. They do factor in cancellation rates and other variables that might affect the number of people that might go through with their registrations. Yet, at the end of the day, it's something nobody can actually predict.
The document also tracks the reservations by trim level, meaning it can offer an average cost for all the Cybertruck deposits made so far. That figure is $58,053, and if you multiply that by the total number of reservations, you get a revenue figure of nearly $63 billion, all money potentially going into Tesla's coffers.
However, before getting too excited for Tesla, there are a few things worth considering. Many people have made several reservations (at least one made even hundreds of them) because it's just a $100 fully refundable deposit, so why not? By making one, you are essentially locking the price at the level it was at the time of the reservation, and while that might not seem like much, just look at Tesla's one-way yo-yoing with the price of the Model 3 and Model Y.
Besides, many potential customers also opted for the Full Self Driving (FSD) package, also acquired at a lower price than what it costs now—and even lower than what it might end up costing in the future. Finally, making a reservation meant you secured your place in line for what will most likely become a very hot commodity. Can you see the first Cybertrucks selling for more to people further down the line? We sure can.
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