Musk announces Tesla Semi and Cybertruck delay
Electric Semi and wild pick-up 'hopefully' in production by 2023Elon Musk has confirmed that his much-vaunted Semi and Tesla Cybertruck will “hopefully” start production in 2023.
During an investor call recently to announce a record fourth-quarter profit result for 2021, Musk said there would be no new product launches from Tesla in 2022.
That decree also pushes the reborn Tesla Roadster sports car and heavy-duty Semi freighter into 2023 at least, as well as the Optimus humanoid robot project.
While those models are still under development, Musk said the fabled $US25,000 Tesla compact EV is on-hold altogether.
More than one million reservations have reportedly been placed for the Cybertruck, which Musk unveiled in 2019 and originally forecast would be in production by the end of 2021.
But he told his online audience that introduction of new models in 2022 would have a negative impact on the production volume of existing models.
Musk is forecasting a rise in production of more than 50 per cent in 2022 compared to the company’s 2021 record of 930,422 vehicles.
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year, it would not make sense because we will still be parts-constrained,” Musk said.
“We will, however, do a lot of engineering, tooling whatnot to create those vehicles – Cybertruck, Semi, Roadster, Optimus – and be ready to bring those to production hopefully next year.”
The Cybertruck will be built at Tesla’s new Austin plant in Texas, where the first Model Y medium SUVs are now rolling off the line. Both vehicles will employ the company’s new structural battery pack and 4680 cells.
Musk made no reference to the mooted smaller Cybertruck that is supposedly aimed at international markets such as Australia, in what he described as a “high-level” product roadmap overview.
But he did hint at other new models under development that he wouldn’t name, saying they “deserve their own space”.
Musk said Tesla wanted to achieve at least 250,000 annual sales volume for the Cybertruck, which recently broke cover in leaked photography in its latest form.
He said the challenge would be retaining its high level of technology and keeping pricing under control.
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