Fans of Tesla's much-awaited Cybertruck may have to wait for yet another year to see their dream pickup at their doorstep. According to a Reuters report, the production of the stylish electric vehicle (EV) unveiled in 2019 has now been delayed until the end of 2023.
When Elon Musk first showcased the Cybertruck, it immediately caught the eye of many motorheads. With a $100 fee to book the truck, many jumped in the fray to get one. Years have now rolled by, and Tesla has been pushing back production dates.
First scheduled for production in 2021, the rollout timeline was shifted by a year, first to 2022, then another to 2023. While it was earlier expected that the futuristic pickup would go into production early in the year, it now appears that it has been pushed further into the fag end of the year.
What is delaying the Cybertruck?
Last month, Interesting Engineering reported how the Italian company Idra, the maker of Giga Press for Tesla lies elsewhere, perhaps in the most important component of an EV, the battery. Over the years, Musk has boasted about how Tesla is innovating heavily with the 4680-cell battery pack which would give the Cybertruck its 610-mile (980+ km) range. However, the progress on the battery pack seems to be going much slower than anticipated.
Therefore, Earlier this year, Musk also said that his Giga factories in Berline and Texas were losing billions of dollars since production could not be ramped up and Tesla was shipping out its Model Y SUVs with a 2170-cell battery pack, since the 4680-cell pack wasn't ready yet.
Musk has refused to place the blame for delays on the battery pack but has also not shared details on its production volume, Reuters said in its report.
Cybertruck in NYC pic.twitter.com/Q7JnSo1QoX
— Tesla (@Tesla) May 8, 2021
Why is the Cybertruck is important for Tesla?
The Cybertruck is one of the highly anticipated launches in the EV segment. Every time the vehicle production is delayed, Tesla effectively loses ground to other EV makers with pickups in their production pipeline. Two EV makers, Rivian and Ford, have launched their electric pickups, even though their popularity is not close to Tesla's other models.
Since automotive factories often take a while to ramp up production rates, even if Tesla were to begin production in late 2023, it would only be able to roll out large numbers of Cybertrucks in 2024, which would reflect in its revenues only later.
Tesla, which has now stopped accepting the $100 fee for booking a Cybertruck outside North America, has enough orders to fulfill three years of its production capacity. However, with passing time, input costs have also risen and the Cybertruck which was expected to cost less than $40,000 in 2019, was now way over the mark in August this year and surely will be when it is rolled in 2024.
At that juncture, the willingness of car owners to shell out the money for the car may be hard to predict now. However, the EV market would have likely matured with more options available for customers to choose from. Tesla, which does not have a new car model in the pipeline, may be heavily reliant on Cybertruck to deliver in such a competitive space. Is it putting all its hopes in just one car?
