Wacky electric pick-up “hopefully” in production by 2023, along with Roadster and Semi
The wild Tesla Cybertruck will “hopefully” start production in 2023, an uncharacteristically cautious company boss Elon Musk has confirmed.
During an investor call this morning (Australian time) to announce a record fourth-quarter profit result for 2021, Musk said there would be no new product launches from Tesla in 2022.
That decree also pushes the reborn Tesla Roadster sports car and heavy-duty Semi freighter into 2023 at least, as well as the Optimus humanoid robot project.
While those models are still under development, Musk said the fabled $US25,000 Tesla compact EV is on-hold altogether.
More than one million reservations have reportedly been placed for the Cybertruck, which Musk unveiled in 2019 and originally forecast would be in production by the end of 2021.
But today he told his online audience that introduction of new models in 2022 would have a negative impact on the production volume of existing models.
Musk is forecasting a rise in production of more than 50 per cent in 2022 compared to the company’s 2021 record of 930,422 vehicles.
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year, it would not make sense because we will still be parts-constrained,” Musk said.
“We will, however, do a lot of engineering, tooling whatnot to create those vehicles – Cybertruck, Semi, Roadster, Optimus – and be ready to bring those to production hopefully next year.”
The Cybertruck will be built at Tesla’s new Austin plant in Texas, where the first Model Y medium SUVs are now rolling off the line. Both vehicles will employ the company’s new structural battery pack and 4680 cells.
Musk made no reference to the mooted smaller Cybertruck that is supposedly aimed at international markets such as Australia, in what he described as a “high-level” product roadmap overview.
But he did hint at other new models under development that he wouldn’t name, saying they “deserve their own space”.
Musk said Tesla wanted to achieve at least 250,000 annual sales volume for the Cybertruck, which recently broke cover in leaked photography in its latest form.
He said the challenge would be retaining its high level of technology and keeping pricing under control.
“There is a lot of new technology in the Cybertruck that will take some time to work through,” he said. “And then there is the question of what is the average cost of Cybertruck and to what degree is that affordable.
“You can make something infinitely desirable but if it’s not affordable that will constrain peoples’ ability to buy it.”
Tesla recently removed specs and pricing guides for the Cybertruck from its website, but Australians can still place a refundable $150 deposit to pre-order the vehicle.
Musk first raised the prospect of a $US25,000 model at Tesla’s 2020 Battery Day and it was mooted it could be seen in three years.
Since then development of a small Tesla has also been linked with Tesla’s Shanghai R&D centre. But Musk made it clear the project as on the backburner.
“We’re not currently working on the $25,000 car. At some point we will, but we have too much on our plate frankly,” he said.
Issues cited by Musk during the call included the global semiconductor and other parts shortages, ramping up the existing Fremont and Shanghai plants, and bringing the new Austin and Berlin plants online.
More new plants may be announced before the end of the year, he said.
As we’ve reported, while Tesla Model 3 sales are going gangbusters in Australia, first deliveries of the updated MY22 Model S and X are likely to be delayed until 2023.
Musk also made it clear the business case for an entry-level $A35K Tesla model was intrinsically linked to the introduction of fully autonomous driving capability.
“The thing that overwhelmingly matters is when is the car autonomous – at the point of autonomous the cost of transport drops by a factor of four or five,” he said.
Separately during the call Musk said his “personal guess” was Tesla’s Full Self driving (FSD) Level 4 autonomous tech would be sorted by the end of 2022.
He repeatedly emphasised FSD, autonomy and robotaxis as a massive future revenue source for Tesla.
“Over time we think Full Self Driving will become the most important source of profitability for Tesla. If you run the numbers on robotaxis it’s… nutty good from a financial standpoint.”
Keyword: Musk confirms Tesla Cybertruck delay