Tesla chief Elon Musk has posted a photo of a “production candidate” Cybertruck, with the man himself behind the wheel of the new electric pickup.
“Just drove the production candidate Cybertruck at Tesla Giga Texas!” Musk said in the post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Announced four years ago, the Cybertruck has been a long time coming, with numerous delays disrupting its schedule. But in April this year, Musk finally promised that a delivery event would be taking place in the third quarter, which, if he keeps his word, should be announced any day now.
In July, the electric car maker also posted a photo showing the first Cybertruck to roll off the production line at Tesla’s Giga Texas facility in Austin.
Although the delivery event will involve handing over the first Cybertruck pickups to their new owners, Tesla has already made clear that volume production of the vehicle won’t begin until 2024, suggesting that many customers still have some waiting to do before they finally receive their Cybertruck.
According to earlier reports, Tesla has received more than 1 million preorders for the Cybertruck, with customers paying a refundable $100 deposit.
Pricing for the electric pickup has yet to be determined. It used to show on the company’s website but was removed toward the end of 2021 for an undisclosed reason. At the time, it showed three variants of the Cybertruck starting at $39,900 and topping out at $69,900, depending on features such as the number of electric motors, towing capacity, and range. Many expect that the final pricing will be more expensive, but Tesla’s recent habit of cutting the prices of its existing vehicles to make them more appealing in an increasingly competitive market means we’ll just have to wait and see which way the automaker goes.
There’s no telling how successful the Cybertruck will be in the long term. Even Musk, the man running the Tesla show, appears uncertain. In April, for example, he sounded ultra-enthusiastic, tweeting shortly after a visit to the production line: “Gonna be awesome … feels like the future.” But a couple of years ago he also admitted that the vehicle’s quirky design meant there was “some chance that Cybertruck will flop.” Currently, he sounds super-positive, tweeting on Wednesday: “I think this is our best product ever.”
