Tesla shows off first Cybertruck after two years of delays

By Trevor Mogg July 16, 2023

The first Cybertruck built at Tesla's Giga Texas facility. — The first Cybertruck built at Tesla’s Giga Texas facility. Tesla

Tesla has shown off the first Cybertruck to roll off the production line at its new Gigafactory plant in Austin, Texas.

The automaker tweeted a photo of the all-electric pickup surrounded by the personnel who helped to build it.

Production of the Cybertruck has been delayed by around two years, so the sight of the fully built vehicle will give some welcome relief to early buyers who’ve been waiting patiently for their new vehicle.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently promised a delivery event for the Cybertruck in the third quarter of this year, meaning it should take place by September. But the company has yet to offer any specific timings for the event.

While the delivery rollout will see the first Cybertrucks handed to their new owners, Tesla has previously said that volume production of the pickup won’t begin until 2024.

Tesla took the wraps off the Cybertruck in 2019 and targeted volume production by the end of 2021, but the date slipped several times.

Reports suggest Tesla has received more than 1 million preorders for the futuristic-looking Cybertruck, with interested customers paying a refundable $100 deposit.

Pricing information for Tesla’s new Cybertruck was removed from the automaker’s website toward the end of 2021, but at the time showed three variants costing between $39,900 and $69,900, dependent upon features such as the number of electric motors, towing capacity, and range. It’s widely expected that the final prices will be more expensive.

In April, Musk revealed that he’d visited the Cybertruck production line in Austin, tweeting, “Gonna be awesome … feels like the future.” But in 2021 he also admitted that the Cybertruck’s offbeat design meant that there was “some chance that Cybertruck will flop.”

With the amount of time and investment that’s gone into the Cybertruck, those folks in the photo will surely be hoping it’s the former.

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