Your dreams of owning a Tesla Cybertruck could soon materialise, as the first of the highly anticipated electric vehicles has officially been rolled out. Tesla took to Twitter over the weekend to share an image of a freshly produced Cybertruck, marking its completion at the Giga Texas assembly line in Austin. In the announcement tweet, the automaker said, “First Cybertruck built at Giga Texas!”
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Since its initial reveal by Tesla’s chief Elon Musk in 2019, the path to achieving production has been a challenging and lengthy one, marked by repeated delays in vehicle production. Originally slated for production and delivery in 2021, the electric truck faced multiple delays as Tesla encountered difficulties in sourcing the essential components.
At the beginning of the year, Musk forecasted that volume manufacturing of the Cybertruck would kick off in 2024, with limited production likely to begin “sometime this summer.” Musk told investors in May, “Sorry for the delay, we’re finally going to start delivering production Cybertrucks later this year. And I think the product, if anything, is better than expectations.”
There are even plans for a Cybertruck delivery event which is expected to be held “around the end of Q3.” Musk’s highly ambitious Cybertruck has faced numerous setbacks, which the Tesla owner attributes to the vehicle’s revolutionary nature. In April, Musk emphasized, “(It) takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and this is really a very radical product. It’s not made in the way that other cars are made.” The electric truck’s distinctive stainless steel frame requires complex manufacturing techniques, which usually aren’t used in the production of conventional vehicles.
Despite Tesla’s progress in the production of the Cybertruck, the exact price of the vehicle still remains a mystery. Tesla projected a modest starting price of USD $39,900 (AUD $58,500) for the single motor and rear-wheel drive model, boasting impressive features such as a 7,500-pound towing capacity and over 250 miles of range. However, the price of this model has gone up since, and reports from Kelley Blue Book suggest the model is now expected to start at approximately USD $50,000 (AUD $73,300).
As for the dual-motor, all-wheel drive version, it may hit the market at around USD $60,000 (AUD $87,962), offering a remarkable towing capacity of over 10,000 pounds and an outstanding range exceeding 300 miles. Finally, the top model, anticipated to begin at around USD $70,000 (AUD $102,622), will showcase three electric motors and all-wheel drive, boasting an exceptional towing capacity of 14,000 pounds and an impressive battery range surpassing 500 miles.
According to a report from Electrek in November 2022, the Cybertruck had already secured an astonishing 1.5 million reservations.
