Tesla Cybertruck Won’t Arrive in 2022; Semi and Roadster Also Delayed
The Cybertruck does exist, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reminded us. “Been driving latest Cybertruck prototype around Giga Texas. It’s awesome,” Musk tweeted Tuesday, referencing the automaker’s new Texas assembly plant. The tweet came a day before Tesla’s 2021 fourth-quarter earnings call, where the automaker delivered some bad news for shoppers awaiting its all-electric pickup truck: Unlike Musk, they won’t get to drive the Cybertruck in 2022.
Related: Tesla Hikes Price of Full Self-Driving Package; Cybertruck Production Date Disappears
On the earnings call, Musk confirmed Wednesday that Tesla will not be introducing any new models in 2022, including the Cybertruck, the Roadster performance car and the company’s first commercial truck, the Semi. The expected arrival for these vehicles has now been pushed back to 2023.
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year,” Musk told investors on the call. “It would not make any sense because we’ll still be parts-constrained. We will, however, do a lot of engineering and tooling and whatnot to create those vehicles — Cybertruck, Semi, Roadster, Optimus — and be ready to bring those to production hopefully next year.”
Affordability Is the Roadblock
Tesla was not immune to the production challenges that plagued the auto industry in 2021. “In Q4, we saw a continuation of global supply chain, transportation, labor and other manufacturing challenges, limiting our ability to run our factories at full capacity,” read Tesla’s Q4 2021 Investor Relations report. But that isn’t the main reason for the Cybertruck’s delayed arrival, Musk claims. The bigger challenge is making the vehicle affordable.
“Batteries will probably not be the limiting factor in Cybertruck production,” Musk said in the call’s Q&A session. “There’s a lot of new technology in the Cybertruck that will take some time to work through. And then there’s a question of, like, what’s the average cost of [the] Cybertruck and to what degree is that affordable? You know, there’s — you can make something infinitely desirable, but if it’s not affordable, that will constrain people’s ability to buy it because they don’t have the money. I worry more about, like, how do we make the Cybertruck affordable despite having awesome technology?”
Originally, Tesla revealed the Cybertruck would start at $39,900 for its single-motor model, $49,900 for a truck with a second motor and all-wheel drive, and $69,900 for a three-motor variant. Tesla does not currently list pricing or an arrival date for the Cybertruck on its website.
Competitors
Tesla may have claimed the first-mover advantage on electric vehicles, but with news of the delayed Cybertruck, it will now have to catch up to its competitors in the electric pickup-truck race.
The 2022 Rivian R1T is the first all-electric pickup on the market, with a starting price of $68,575. Deliveries for the GMC Hummer EV pickup began in December, with a starting price of $79,995. Other upcoming competitors include the Ford F-150 Lightning, which has a planned arrival in the spring and a starting price of around $40,000, and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, which is expected to go on sale in 2023 with prices ranging from $39,900 for the commercial Work Truck to $105,000 for the RST First Edition.
According to the Q4 report, Tesla is making progress on the Cybertruck. Barring future supply chain disruptions, it’s expected to go into production at the automaker’s Austin, Texas, factory alongside the Model Y.
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