At long last, the finished Tesla Cybertruck is finally here.
The EV giant announced over the weekend that it has started building its battery-powered truck. Production of the eagerly anticipated vehicle begins two years later than expected, and four years after the pickup was first announced.
The announcement came in the form of a post to CEO Elon Musk’s social media platform, Twitter on Saturday. The tweet featured a photo of the first Cybertruck surrounded by workers at Gigafactory Texas, which will be the main production facility for the Cybertruck and the Tesla Semi.
This it the first production timeline target that Tesla has hit since the EV was first unveiled in November 2019. Back then, Musk said that the Cybertruck would go into production in 2021; however, that date was pushed back a year to 2022 because of supply chain issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Then, last fall, reports suggested that production would commence this year, something which Musk confirmed in January. Although only one production Cybertruck has been built so far, the automaker looks set to finally deliver on its CEO’s latest promise.
Production may have begun, but we still don’t know what to expect from the finished EV. Musk has walked back some of the bolder claims he made about the Cybertuck back in 2019, including that a single-motor variant would start at $39,000. Price will be less of a sticking point if the Cybertruck can actually carry a 3,500-pound payload, tow up to 14,000 pounds and drive 500 miles on a single charge as promised. That might also force Ford CEO Jim Farley to walk back his comments about the pickup being for “Silicon Valley People” and not “real people who do real work.”
While Cybertrucks are finally rolling off the line in Texas, don’t expect to see the EV on the road anytime soon. Earlier this year, while talking about production plans for the vehicle, Musk said he likes to “downplay” the start of production because it is “always very slow.” He then went on to say that mass production won’t start until next year.