It certainly was an embarrassing debut for the CyberTruck where CEO Elon Musk invited Tesla’s chief designer on stage to test the durability of the revolutionary truck. The designer threw a metal ball at the armoured glass, which immediately shattered. He again, threw another ball at the rear window which also shattered. Musk was heard uttering a profanity but brushed the embarrassing moment off and continued with the presentation.
This event has not had any negative implications for Tesla, in fact it has had the opposite. Tesla has announced that they have taken over 200,000 pre orders for the vehicle. Prices start at $39,000 (UK prices not yet announced) for the single motor version. There are options for a single motor, dual motor and tri motor all of these can have come with full self-driving capability.
Whilst the 200,000 pre orders is unprecedented, especially for such an unconventionally designed vehicle we do not expect to see a large percentage of these orders converted into sales. There are several reasons for this, such as.
The pre order deposit amount is relatively low compared to previous figures for other Tesla vehicles. The amount required to pre order the cyber truck was a relatively low £100, €100 or $100. Compared to the £1,000 which was charged for the Tesla model 3.
The pre order deposit is fully refundable, Tesla have described this as a “Very refundable” deposit. The general feeling is that many people that have paid this amount have done so as it is very non-committal and relatively low risk
Delivery date, It is expected that production of the single motor will be late 2021 and production of the tri motor version will be late 2022. So realistically we are looking at a delivery date of 2023 for the tri motor version of this vehicle and given Tesla’s history with production delays which almost bankrupt the company with the Model 3 we don’t expect that Tesla can produce 200,000 of this vehicle alongside their other models.
