First Tesla Cybertruck completed at Giga Texas factory

In November 2019, Elon Musk revealed that his design studio had been working on something other than the increasingly popular electric cars that Tesla was selling. It was a pick-up truck – electrically powered, of course – and it was called the Cybertruck.

The full-sized prototype of Tesla’s sixth model had a radical design, which Musk described as ‘cyberpunk’ and inspired by ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’.

With its trapezoidal form and metallic finish, it looked like something a cybercop would drive.

The memorable scene from that presentation was when design chief Franz von Holzhausen wanted to show just how tough the Cybertruck was.

He hammered the body with a sledgehammer and then threw a metal ball at the glass – and it shattered.

Deliveries were expected to start in 2022
Just as his cars have become bestsellers in the world, Musk expects his Cybertruck to do battle with the dominant Ford F-Series and other American trucks – and beat them as well.

The owner of Tesla said that his truck would go into production at the end of 2021 and customers would get their Cybertrucks by 2022.

As we have seen, the COVID-19 pandemic upset every company’s planning and even as the pandemic eased, parts shortages limited and disrupted production.

In the meantime, at least one million people were said to have booked a Cybertruck in North America, the only market it will be sold in initially.

Radical design, complex to build
“It takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and this is really a very radical product. It’s not made in the way that other cars are made,” Musk told investors in April.

And not only is the vehicle complex to build but the parts needed have probably had to be engineered from scratch and that could also have taken more time than a more conventional vehicle.

So it’s understandable that Tesla has only just completed its first Cybertruck at its Giga factory in Texas.

The vehicle was shown in a Twitter post yesterday surrounded by the workers who built it.

Little else has been revealed but it doesn’t look like a typical roll-out of Job 1 where more vehicles will be following behind. It may even be a single unit completed to confirm all the processes of volume production.

Delivery event in September
Early this year, Musk suggested would only begin in 2024 but the company has now said production would start around now, and a delivery event is scheduled to take place at the end of the third quarter.

When production does start on a large scale, Musk has said that the annual number will be around 250,000 units… and there are a million customers waiting.

The US$39,900 (RM180,600) pricetag listed four years ago might also not hold and some analysts expect the starting price to be at the US$50,000 (RM226,300) level.

One, two and three motors
Other than overall technical details and range claims, little else is known at this time.

There will be drivetrains with one, two and even three motors with rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

Depending on the drivetrain and battery capacity, the range claimed is between 250 and 500 miles (400 – 800 kms).

Tesla announces first model and price for Malaysian market