Musk’s Cybertruck and its Premium: How Strong Can It Really Be? A Demonstration at the ILC Campus in Austin

Musk said demand for the Cybertruck was far off the hook during the company’s March 1 Investor Day. But landing even 15 percent of the reservationists seems optimistic because the vehicle is running late and isn’t global—Cybertruck won’t be for sale outside of the US, Canada, and Mexico for some time, and doesn’t appear to meet safety regulations in the European Union and Australia anyway.

Another crucial stat: 250 miles per charge for the base model Cybertruck, and 320 for the premium Cyberbeast. It’s not as impressive as some were hoping, even though the Rivian R1T can get up to 350 miles on a single charge.

Musk emphasized that the Cybertruck is powerful during an Austin event, where he showed off footage of the truck with its premium model towing another car.

The base model, which has a single-motor and is rear-wheel, will go from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds. It can hit 60 mph in 4.1 seconds with the all-wheel drive middle model. The premium pick, also due in 2024, will be able to hit top speeds of 130 miles per hour, go 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds, and tow a fairly beastly 11,000 pounds—more than the Ford F-150 Lightning, and about on par with the Rivian R1T.

The Tesla-Small-Memory Puzzle Revisited: Tesla Goes After Holzhausen and the Hummer Did It Happen?

In the year 2019, Musk and Company launched a thousand meme after the head of design of the car company threw a metal ball at the Cybertruck. The glass broke. Today, Tesla went a bit easier on its truck. Von Holzhausen went after the windows with a baseball. The Cybertruck survived.

The price bump will also be a drag on demand. The vehicles picked up by the 10 or so customers yesterday—likely to be “manufacturing unit” one-offs rather than true retail models, and which will be tethered to Tesla for some time—was $10,000 more expensive than the $39,900 base model promised in November 2019. Crucially, the world has moved on since, with a slew of competitors selling here-now, traditionally-shaped product.

Ford jumped ahead of the competition with its battery powered F-150, a version of the pickup that has dominated the segment for decades. GM will soon roll out its $52,000 electric Chevy Silverado, and Stellantis is readying its $58,000 RAM 1500 REV. Rivian has a $73,000 R1T truck that is ideal for looking-at-me extroverts.

The Boston University professor says that just 15 percent of the preorders would match the yearly sales of Toyota. “But Tesla faces the challenges of scaling up production and achieving a sufficient flow of paying customers.”

With 2 million pre-orders from self-styled reservationists, this electric pickup could make the wealthiest man in the world even wealthier. If half of those $100 refundable deposits stack up, that’s revenue of more than $65 billion, based on a newly inflated $61,000 price tag—up $21,000 from what was promised four years ago.

That’s stupid. It’s very sad. Vulnerable. The Hummer shouldn’t have sold in numbers, but it did. Is there a chance that Musk could do the same thing with the Cybertruck?