Tesla has announced that the long-awaited Cybertruck electric pickup truck has been delayed until 2022 following months of hinting at a possible delay to the originally planned late 2021 release. Originally announced in 2019 and boasting over one million preorders, the electric car company is confident in one of the first fully electric pick-up truck's 2022 release.
There have been numerous hints over the year that the Cybertruck would face a delay. Tesla CEO Musk stated that the Cybertruck will have some challenges facing production namely due to new features such as the steel exoskeleton, which according to Musk requires entirely new manufacturing processes. Additionally, Musk also remarked that he expected there to be few deliveries of the Cybertruck in 2021 with volume production being met in 2022. In the company's Q2 2021 financial results released in July the company stated that Cybertruck production will begin in Gigafactory Texas following the production of the Tesla Model Y which hits the production line at the end of the year.
As reported by Electrek, on the configuration page of the automaker's first electric pick-up truck, the page now states that “you will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in 2022.”. This contradicts previous statements by Tesla that stated that the higher-end dual and tri-motor models of the Cybertruck would release first. No other information is given on a specific timeline for release on the website. During Tesla's second-quarter earning's call the car manufacturer's VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy also stated that the Cybertruck was “at a stage where we finished basic engineering of the architecture of the vehicle...[we will be] moving into the beta phases of Cybertruck later this year.”
Tesla Bets Big On Cybertruck
The Cybertruck is available to pre-order in three models: the base $39,900 model sports a single motor RWD whereas the double motor AWD comes in at $49,900 and the triple motor AWD model has a $59,900 price tag. Features the truck boasts include the full steel exoskeleton and armored glass for driver protection. Alongside those features, the Cybertruck can go from 0 to 60MPH in 6.5 seconds with the single motor model, 4.5 seconds with the dual motor, and 2.9 with the triple motor setup.
Other electric car manufacturers are facing similar issues with companies such as Rivian delaying their fully electric pick-up truck the R1T from July until September. Similarly, General Motors are expected to release the Hummer EV for US markets next year. Eventually, electric trucks will catch up to where electric cars are now, but it'll be a while before we see how well these vehicles perform in the real world, and how willing buyers are to adopt them.
Source: Electrek