The most-delayed new car model in recent years may be finally getting close to production. Over the weekend, Tesla showed off the first pre-production model of its upcoming Cybertruck electric pickup.
The model appeared in a post on Twitter, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
First Cybertruck built at Giga Texas! 🤠 pic.twitter.com/ODRhHVsd0t
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 15, 2023
Making out the truck in the photo is challenging, as it is surrounded by hundreds of factory workers in high-visibility vests and white hard hats. Text in the tweet announces, “First Cybertruck built at Giga Texas!” Giga is the nickname Tesla uses for its “gigafactories,” which are… factories.
What Is the Cybertruck?
The Cybertruck is an astoundingly unique pickup with several new technologies that make manufacturing challenging. It resembles no other production truck we’re aware of.
The Cybertruck is a squat pentagon of brutalist lines and bare, unpainted sheet metal. Musk has said the truck takes inspiration from the movie “Blade Runner,” not from what works for Ford or Chevrolet.
The company has boasted of impressive performance — up to 14,000 pounds of towing capacity and a zero-to-60 time of under 3 seconds. Those figures presumably apply to the 3-motor version. Single- and dual-motor editions are also planned.
The company initially promised a starting price under $40,000. But several years of brutal inflation numbers have hit since. Musk has since admitted that that price won’t be possible. But that’s not surprising – rival Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric truck briefly carried a similar price tag but costs nearly $10,000 more at the moment, even after a big price cut that takes effect today.
Does This Mean They’re Coming Soon?
The truck is likely not a final production model headed for a customer’s driveway. Musk promised truck deliveries sometime in 2024 in his most recent timing update.
Instead, it’s probably a pre-production model. Pre-production cars are used to test the planned assembly process and for final testing and tuning before a factory begins series production for customers. That process can take less than a year.
But the Cybetruck’s unique build process means it’s hard to estimate how long it will take for Tesla to go from one pre-production model to dozens of production models per day. The truck’s stainless steel body is a structural “exoskeleton” – a design process not used on any current car. So Tesla is pioneering new factory techniques with this one, making it hard to pin down a start date for production.
