Tesla will start producing its much-delayed electrical pickup, the Cybertruck, subsequent yr together with quite a few different new merchandise, Elon Musk, the carmaker’s chief govt, mentioned late Thursday.
The truck, with an angular design and a stainless-steel pores and skin that set it other than conventional pickups, has been delayed after an inauspicious unveiling in 2019, when a designer lobbed a metallic ball at a window in what was purported to be an indication of the car’s toughness.
As a substitute, the window cracked.
“We’re going to smash the window once more,” Mr. Musk joked on Thursday as a Cybertruck rolled onstage at a lavish “Cyber Rodeo” organized by Tesla in Austin, Texas, to indicate off its new manufacturing facility close to the state capital.
“We will’t wait to construct this right here,” Mr. Musk, sporting a black cowboy hat, mentioned of the truck. “Sorry for the delay. However you’re going to have this subsequent yr, and it’s actually going to be nice.”
Tesla’s chief govt has a protracted historical past of promising merchandise that materialize later than he mentioned they’d or in no way, however his timeline for the Cybertruck is extra particular than the one he gave to traders in January, when he mentioned supply in 2023 was “probably.”
Delays in producing the Cybertruck have allowed rivals to return to market sooner with pickups, one of the vital common varieties of car in the US. Ford Motor is anticipated to start delivering the Lightning, a battery-powered model of its F-150, this summer time. Rivian’s electrical pickup went on sale late final yr to rave critiques, however the firm has had bother ramping up manufacturing, a standard downside for brand new automobile firms.
Tesla invited about 15,000 folks to the Cyber Rodeo, which Mr. Musk, together with his customary hyperbole, billed because the “greatest social gathering on earth.” The manufacturing facility is as massive as three Pentagons, he mentioned.
Native colleges closed early so dad and mom might keep away from site visitors jams attributable to these flocking to the occasion, the tv station KXAN reported. The actor Harrison Ford was among the many company. Tesla parked purple, white and blue vehicles in formation to seem like the Texas state flag.
The manufacturing facility is a part of a world growth by Tesla that features a newly opened plant close to Berlin. Together with an present manufacturing facility in Shanghai, the brand new meeting traces might assist the corporate repeat its development in 2021, when it practically doubled gross sales to nearly a million automobiles, far outpacing different main carmakers.
“This yr is all about scaling up,” Mr. Musk mentioned. “Subsequent yr, there’s going to be an enormous wave of recent merchandise.”
In 2023, Tesla will even produce a roadster, a semi-truck and “hopefully” the primary model of a humanoid robotic referred to as Optimus, which, Mr. Musk mentioned, will do “something that people received’t wish to do.” He added {that a} beta model of full self-driving software program could be obtainable to North American clients this yr.
