Tesla will sell its much-awaited cyber truck next year, says Elon Musk
Tesla will begin production of Cybertruck’s much-delayed electric pickup next year, along with several other new products, car manufacturer chief executive Elon Musk said late Thursday.
The truck, with its angular design and stainless-steel skin that sets it apart from traditional pickups, was delayed until after an ominous unveiling in 2019, when a designer placed a metal ball on a window that should have been demonstrated. Vehicle rigidity.
Instead, the window cracked.
“We’re going to break the window again,” Mr Musk joked as the cyber truck drove around the stage at a grand “cyber rodeo” held by Tesla in Austin, Texas, to show off his newly built factory near the state capital.
“We can’t wait to build it here,” Mr. Musk, wearing a black cowboy hat, said of the truck. “I’m sorry to be late. But you’ll get it next year, and it’ll be really nice.”
Tesla’s C.E.O. There is a long history of promising products that may or may not have been realized later, but his timeline for CyberTruck is more certain than he gave to investors in January, when he said that delivery in 2023 was “most likely.”
Delays in the production of cybertrucks have allowed competitors to enter the market sooner, with pickups being one of the most popular vehicles in the United States. Ford is expected to begin delivering the Lightning, a battery-powered version of its F-150 this summer. Revian’s electric pickup went on sale late last year to garner reviews, but a common problem for new car companies, the company had trouble increasing production.
Tesla invited about 15,000 people to the cyber rodeo, which Mr Musk billed as “the biggest party on earth” with their traditional hyperbole. The factory is as big as three Pentagons, he said.
Local schools were closed early so that parents could avoid traffic jams caused by people attending the event, television station KXAN reported. Actor Harrison Ford was among the guests. Tesla parked red, white, and blue cars to look like the Texas state flag.
The plant is part of Tesla’s global expansion, which includes a newly opened plant near Berlin. With the existing factory in Shanghai, the new assembly lines could help the company repeat its growth in 2021, when it doubled sales of nearly 1 million vehicles and outperformed other major car manufacturers.
“This year is about to grow,” Mr Musk said. “Next year, there’s going to be a big wave of new products.”
In 2023, Tesla will also produce the first version of a roadster, a semi-truck and a humanoid robot called Optimus “Hope”, which, Mr Musk said, would do “anything humans don’t want to do”. He added that a beta version of the entire self-driving software will be available to North American customers this year.
