The Tesla Cybertruck is an electric vehicle introduced by Tesla in 2019, with a body designed to be manufactured from stainless steel. Production of the Cybertruck has been delayed several times. In August 2021, the start of Cybertruck production had to be postponed until 2022. In January 2022, production was further postponed to early 2023 and then again to mid-2023.
The starting price for the Cybertruck is $60,990, which is over 50 percent more expensive than what CEO Elon Musk had advertised in 2019.
This may narrow the vehicle’s appeal.
Although Musk is now hyping the Cybertruck, he was even more cautious during the October earnings call.
“There are enormous challenges to reaching volume production with the Cybertruck and making the Cybertruck’s cash flow positive. We dug our own grave with the Cybertruck.” Additionally, he noted that there are “special challenges” in producing the truck and bringing it to market.
Musk’s personal ability to build the Tesla brand has also been questioned this week following an interview where he lambasted advertisers leaving the social media platform X. X has recently lost advertisers after allowing the sharing of antisemitic material.
The Cybertruck will not do much for Tesla’s coffers next year. Musk has said that Tesla will likely only reach an annual production of about 250,000 Cybertrucks in 2025. The company has repeatedly warned that it would face significant challenges in scaling up Cybertruck production and achieving positive free cash flow.
“Tesla has a product problem – namely an older lineup that does not appeal enough to the market, and it won’t have new mass-market offerings until likely late 2025,” analysts from the asset management firm Bernstein told the Reuters news agency.