Tesla delivered its first Cybertrucks on Thursday afternoon in Austin, Texas, four years after the dystopian electric vehicles were unveiled. Musk kicked off the delivery event by driving a Cybertruck up next to a crowd of people, standing on top of the car, and giving a speech in the dark. The top-end Cybertruck costs roughly $100K (320mi), and ships in 2024 along with an $80k (340mi) model with less features. The entry-level model will cost $61K (250mi), but doesn’t ship until 2025.
The truck has come a long way since its 2019 reveal when Tesla’s lead designer, Franz von Halzhausen, threw a metal ball through its “armored glass” window. Since then, Cybertruck’s release date has been pushed back numerous times, Bloomberg called it a production nightmare, and Elon Musk said “we dug our own grave” with the Cybertruck on an earnings call. Then the vehicle did what any canceled celebrity does: it went on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Today, Franz von Halzhausen threw a ball at the Cybertruck window again. Famously, the last time they tried this stunt they smashed up the Cybertruck pretty thoroughly. This time it was not a steel ball, but a bouncy ball, and the window did not break. Musk then presented a video of someone shooting a gun at the Cybertruck, showing off its bulletproof capabilities. “Here at Tesla, we have the finest in apocalypse technology,” said Musk about the Cybertruck. Musk then walked a few new customers into their Cybertrucks in an awkward, long, and very dark send off. It was all dark. One might say suspiciously dark.
Despite the chaotic journey, there’s still massive interest in the Cybertruck. Teslaratti reported there are 2 million reservations for the stainless steel, “waterproof,” electric vehicle. Wedbush Securities Tech analyst Dan Ives estimates that roughly 40% of those will convert into actual deliveries.
A quote from Musk, “the future should look like the future” shot across the screen of Tesla’s delivery event Thursday, which undoubtedly inspired Cybertruck’s design. Musk showed multiple videos showing off the truck’s performance, one of which showed a Cybertruck towing a Porsche 911 faster than a 2023 Porsche 911 could drive on its own. Time will tell how accurate these glossy video demos are in reality.
If you’re hoping to get you’re hands on one, you’ll have to wait. Tesla’s latest earnings call predicted mass production won’t start on Cybertrucks until 2025. Analysts expect Tesla will only produce a couple thousand of the polygon-inspired trucks this quarter.
The electric truck weighs 7,000 pounds, making it about as heavy as a Ford F-150, but can accelerate from 0-60 in under 2.6 seconds. The Cybertruck is also “waterproof enough” to cross a river like a boat.
Tesla briefly threatened to sue anyone who attempted to resell the Cybertruck but quickly walked back those claims. It was an odd claim to make for a supposed “mass-produced” vehicle, but it highlights the fact that production will be very slow in this first year, and Tesla doesn’t want to lose reservations to the resale market.
Tesla needs Cybertruck to do well, but the heavy, fast, oddly shaped, truck has presented a lot of challenges in production. The panels don’t line up well because of the stainless steel shell, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Verge reported its big windshield wiper is actually made of little windshield wipers, like two children in a trench coat disguised as an adult. And in general, what may have seemed novel at first has become a bit boring. Now that customers have the truck, we’ll finally get some firsthand reviews of the product, and see what Musk has been cooking up all these years.