Tesla Cybertruck set for mass production in 2023

San Francisco/Shanghai — Tesla aims to start mass production of its Cybertruck at end-2023, two years after the initial target for the long-awaited bakkie CEO Elon Musk unveiled in 2019, two people with knowledge of the plans said.

Tesla said last month that it was working on readying its Austin, Texas, plant to build the new model with “early production” set to start in mid-2023. “We’re in the final lap for Cybertruck,” Musk told a conference call with financial analysts.

A gradual ramp in the second half of next year to full output for the sharp-angled electric truck would mean that Tesla would not be recording revenue until early 2024 for a full-quarter of production on a new model seen as key to its growth.

It would also mean a wait of another year for the estimated hundreds of thousands of potential buyers who have paid $100 to reserve a Cybertruck in one of the most highly anticipated, and closely tracked electric vehicle (EV) launches yet.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

It has not announced final pricing on the Cybertruck, showed the production version of the vehicle or specified how it will manage the battery supply for the new model.

In 2019, Tesla had projected an initial price of less than $40,000, but prices for new vehicles have shot higher since then and Tesla has raised prices across its line-up.

Musk introduced Cybertruck in a 2019 reveal where the vehicle’s designer cracked the vehicle’s supposedly unbreakable “armour glass” windows. The company has pushed back production timing three times since: from late 2021 to late 2022, then to early 2023 and most recently to the mid-2023 target for initial production.

The launch of the Cybertruck will give Tesla an EV entrant in one of the most profitable segments of the US market and a competitor to electric bakkies from the likes of Ford and Rivian, both of which have launched models in still-limited numbers.

In January, Musk had cited shortages in sourcing components as the reason for pushing the launch of Cybertruck into 2023.

In May, Tesla stopped taking orders for the Cybertruck outside North America. Musk said then the company had “more orders of the first Cybertrucks than we could possibly fulfil for three years after the start of production”.

Carmakers often ramp production slowly for an all-new model such as the Cybertruck.

Analysts have also cautioned that a weakening global economy will start to weigh on sales for Tesla, which has so far been able to sell every car it makes. Musk has said he expected a coming recession would last “probably until spring of 2024”.

Idra Group, the Italian company making the Giga Press that will be used for die-casting parts for the Cybertruck, said in a LinkedIn post last week that the 9,000-tonne machine for truck part production was packed and ready to be shipped.

The post did not name Tesla. The company has been using the Giga Press to cut the cost and complexity of production of its Model Y, an innovation other carmakers, including Toyota, have studied.

Reuters