Words: Rory FH Smith
Whatever your opinion of Elon Musk is, there’s no denying he’s pretty damn good at getting things done. Since he reportedly walked away from the sale of PayPal with $100 million, the South African born tech magnate-cum-Bond villain has launched rockets into space, created the world’s most valuable car company and come up with a wacky plan to build a hyper-fast tube network. But despite all that, the controversial multi-CEO appears to have met his match when it comes to producing an affordable all-electric pick-up truck.
First announced in true Musk style at a bizarre launch event in 2019, the angular, brushed stainless-steel Tesla Cybertruck rolled on stage while Musk, dressed in all black, gave a jarring run down of what to expect from it.
“We’re going to be using the same alloy in the Starship rocket as we are in the Cybertruck,” he proudly declared as Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen gleefully took an industrial sledgehammer to the door to prove his point. Cue whoops and cheers from Musk’s adoring fanbase who stood below the stage at the in-person event. Shortly after, Musk had another party trick lined up which again involved von Holzhausen launching a steel ball at the Cybertruck’s ‘amour glass’ windows to show they wouldn’t smash. Only they did. Spectacularly.
While the unorthodox stunts were both highly unusual and unnecessary for a car reveal, it was the reported range and performance that got the crowd of ‘Musketeers’ cheering, whistling and whooping the loudest. Illuminated in red letters on the wall behind Musk was a 0-60mph time of 2.9-seconds, all-wheel drive and over a 500-mile range. While few electric car companies can match those figures even now, that kind of performance was ambitious in 2019 – a little too ambitious, perhaps.
With Musk promising the sub $40,000 truck would be on the road by 2021, the tech boss tracked back on his words at a shareholder meeting earlier this year, where he declared the company wouldn’t be launching any new cars in 2022. But the signs of Tesla’s dystopian truck falling short were evident well before that call.
In the immediate aftermath of the reveal event in late 2019, Musk proudly took to his favourite form of communication — Twitter — and revealed that over 250,000 people had pre-ordered a Cybertruck in less than five days. Just nine days later, the company announced that it would be delaying the production of the base, rear-wheel-drive model to focus on the more expensive dual and tri-motor models, which had proved more popular in the pre-order phase.
By April 2020 — just over a year from when production was meant to start – Musk was still looking for a site to manufacture his new idea. “Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA,” he simply Tweeted. Immediately, state governors put together lofty incentive packages in a bid to woo Musk and his exciting new project. By the summer, Tesla had finally decided to site its factory in Austin, Texas, at which point the company was still far from having a production-ready car to manufacture.
By November 2020 — one year out from production starting – Musk hinted in a Tweet that the company was working on an updated design but no details emerged. Shortly after, the inevitable came and Musk announced that production had been pushed back a whole year to 2022. After a few diversionary outings for the prototype truck in New York, by the summer of 2021, the number of orders for the truck had reportedly topped 1.25 million.
With a sizeable number of people in line for what Musk had earlier referred to as “a glitch in the Matrix,” Tesla needed to take drastic action as the ‘special project’ continued to falter. Removing the specs and pricing from its online configurator in October 2021 was a sure as hell sign that the Cybertruck wasn’t going to hit the road any time soon. As of March 2022, all that lies on the Cybertruck page of the Tesla website is the option to place a fully refundable order for (£100) and the promise of being able to ‘complete your configuration as production nears.’
In true Musk fashion, the boss hinted at another round of potential delays again, on Twitter recently, when responding to a question on the Cybertruck’s pricing. “Our primary challenge is affordability,” he admitted in early March 2022. “Creating an expensive truck is relatively easy. If it is extremely hard to do so for Tesla, despite our much greater economies of scale & better technology, then it is damn near impossible for others,” he said not-so-humbly.
With still very little word on the truck’s production, let alone its delivery date, Tesla rivals Ford and General Motors are hot on the heels of the Californian car company with their own all-electric trucks. While Musk’s following is loyal, it’s very possible that a significant portion of Tesla’s potential owners will be tempted away from the Cybertruck dream by a road-ready rival.
Still, delays aren’t entirely out of character for the car industry and not least Tesla, whose CEO has often over-promised and under-delivered. Remember the radical Roadster he revealed in 2017? Or how about the articulated semi-truck he launched at the same time? Or perhaps his promise to deliver fully-autonomous driving by 2018? While the company’s gone a bit quiet over all three recently, all 1.25 million people patiently waiting in line for a Cybertruck will be hoping the same fate doesn’t await their four-wheeled, stainless-steel clad “tank from the future,” as Musk once called it.
While it’s easy to take shots at Musk, let’s not forget the tech magnate is battling against the same headwinds that plague every other car manufacturer – in the form of a global chip shortage, disrupted supply chains and a fast-developing energy crisis. Sure, it doesn’t do much to justify Musk’s overzealous approach to timelines but it might go some way to reassuring the growing Cybertruck waitlist that he’s giving it his best shot in trying circumstances.
Regardless, what crucially remains unclear is when — and if — the Cybertruck will ever hit the road. With its polarising looks and bonkers performance figures, could the Cybertruck be a step too far for the man who seemingly can’t be stopped? If his track record of self-backed space exploration and car industry domination is anything to go by, that seems unlikely. You might just want to search, as Musk recommended, for a temporary ride in the meantime — this could be a long old wait.
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