Tesla Cybertruck Production Appears Delayed Until 2022
Comments made by Tesla boss Elon Musk and other company execs on an earnings call seem to suggest that Tesla Cybertruck production may be delayed.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the truck will be a flop, as I’ve predicted, but it’s not great news for Tesla, either.
According to Electrek*, the relevant quote is this one: “We are also making progress on the industrialization of Cybertruck, which is currently planned for Austin production subsequent to Model Y.” It’s relevant because Model Y production is set to begin by the end of 2021.
Furthermore, a chart showing production capacity lists the Cybertruck as “in development.”
*Ed. note — We’ve had our, um, tangles with Electrek before, but other sources, such as TechCrunch, are reporting the same thing.
Lars Moravy, the vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla, danced around a concrete answer about when Cybertruck production might begin:
“Cybertruck is at a stage where we finished basic engineering of the architecture of the vehicle. With the Cybertruck, we are redefining how a vehicle is being made. As Elon said, it carries much of the structural pack and large casting design of the Model Y being built in Berlin and Austin. Obviously, those take priority over the Cybertruck, but we are moving into the beta phases of Cybertruck later this year and we will be looking to ramp up production at Giga Texas after Model Y is up and running,” he said.
Moravy wouldn’t say that production would begin this year, and he also wouldn’t say it would start in 2022, but it seems reasonable that if the Cybertruck is after the Model Y in queue, production won’t start until 2022.
Again, that doesn’t mean we were right and the truck will be a flop — a production delay doesn’t necessarily mean the truck won’t be an overall success once it’s launched. That said, a delay, or a series of delays, could scare some potential buyers away, or cause impatient customers to cancel reservations.
I can’t yet say I told you so. But it’s trending in that direction.
[Image: Tesla]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Cybertruck is not aiming for the civilian pickup market. Musk’s goal is not work truck peasants with their limited funds. Cybertruck is aimed for the military defense complex folks who can fill the back of each one with tax dollars. The stainless steel body panels and curved design is to appeal to the defense complex and militaries around the world. The defense market will generate far more money. It will get the ex-Hummer poser willing to drop 100K+ to look tough but that is just the sugar on the defense money cookie.
Duh! Tesla is a modern, US, company. Hence in the business of selling paper to the coquetry of rank idiots the Fed has transferred near all the wealth productive people built up over the first century and a half past America's founding, to. The occasional vehicle, is just a marketing expense necessary to move that paper. As long as The Fed prints ever more, a less and less important one, since the much cheaper and easier version, pure hype, seem to work equally well.