Cybertruck Production Numbers Revealed
Cybertruck’s preproduction phase is continuing, with sightings of what look like test-castings of the vehicle’s frame being spotted at GigaTexas for the last couple of weeks - but nothing shows that a manufacturing project is getting close to starting like hard numbers.
On June 8th, EV News outlet Electrek reported that they had received details of Tesla’s planned production targets for their hotly anticipated pickup truck. Through communications between Tesla and their suppliers, the EV company is reportedly aiming for 375,000 Cybertruck units created per year to begin with.
This lines up with earlier statements made by CEO Elon Musk at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, where Musk said he wanted to achieve 250,000 units per year initially - but believed the company could likely produce anywhere from 250,000-500,000 units per year with their current facilities.
And that variation in estimates is normal for a new vehicle launch. Sure, Tesla has about 1.5 million reservations for their Cybertruck, but the company has to take into account their capacity to make and store these vehicles, as well as reservation cancellations, and - potentially, a lukewarm reception.
That’s probably not going to be the case - Cybertruck is probably the most hyped vehicle Tesla has ever produced - but it would be very irresponsible not to plan for a potential flop.
Cybertruck production is intended to start this summer, with a planned delivery event for the first batch of trucks to take place sometime around the end of September 2023. From there, production will continue to ramp up as availability of 4680 batteries and more manufacturing lines get up and running. Tesla expects Cybertruck production to be in full swing by early 2024.
And that timeline hasn’t changed in several months at least - which is a very good sign. Tesla has been working very well to get their Texas gigafactory ready, and testing of the vehicle prototypes themselves has apparently gone very well - otherwise we’d be hearing of delays by now.
And this report on Tesla’s expected production numbers only reinforces that. Handing suppliers some concrete numbers isn’t something you do if you’re shaky about when you can actually start making your new trucks - so we’re probably going to start seeing some Cybertrucks coming off that GigaTexas line in the next month or so.
Especially since they don’t seem to be hiding anything anymore.