1,176 days have passed since that November 22, 2019
, when
Elon Musk left the industry speechless by presenting the Tesla Cybertruck
, his science fiction truck that anticipated a revolution for the industry.
The expectation was enormous, but over time it was worn down by countless postponements that, as in the story of Pedro and the wolf, generated distrust that one day it would see the light.
However, a new promise indicates that the path is now paved, and that his arrival is finally imminent.
After endless postponements and samples of what the truck that promises to be revolutionary will be like,
Elon Musk
himself was in charge of announcing that
the production of the Cybertruck will begin in the boreal summer, that is, at some point in the third quarter of this year
.
A piece of news that will undoubtedly delight those most eager to have it in their garage: from its announcement until today,
the brand received no less than 1.5 million reservations
for this truck, an excessive demand that forced the company to suspend the sale. taking orders in Europe and China.
This was the Tesla Cybertruck when it was presented.
in 2019.
"We hope to start production sometime this summer. But I always like to try to minimize the start of production because the start is always very slow. It increases exponentially, but it's always very slow at first. So I wouldn't think too much about that. the start of production. It's more or less when volume production actually happens, and that's next year," said the South African tycoon.
The electric pickup will first be incorporated into the American market, where mid-size and full-size trucks rule sales.
In fact, Ford
's F Series
confirmed its historic supremacy in 2022. The Cybertruck will arrive to fight in an electric segment that already has several players:
the F-150 Lightning, the Chevrolet Silverado EV, the GMC Hummer and the Rivian R1T, among others
.
Tesla Cybertruck: many promises and few concretions
Beyond the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the environment, and the concrete fact that in these three years and months
Tesla
also decided to give priority to other products in its catalog – a decision that seems to have borne good fruit, since the Model Y was one of the best-selling vehicles in the world in 2022–, the truth is that times were also delayed by all the changes that had to be made to the prototype to turn it into a serial production model and enabled to circulate on the road public.
This is what the Tesla Cybertruck looks like in February 2023.
Video from an amateur who caught it in California.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Flavio Tronzano (@ftronz)
At least from what some leaked images of the vehicle in action revealed, its futuristic design is still there, of course, but with several changes.
The first and most obvious are the side mirrors:
the original project replaced them with cameras that show on the screen
what is happening on all sides of the vehicle, but current regulations prevent their approval without physical mirrors like those that any car has.
Something similar happens with the windshield wiper: according to Tesla, the technology that equips the Cybertruck uses laser beams to fulfill that function instead of brushes or liquids, so they
had to add one to their final configuration
– although easily removable, just like the mirrors , in case in the future the laws change and they are no longer mandatory.
But for this very reason
there were also changes in its design, such as adjustments to the bumpers
and in some angles of the body, as well as the replacement of the strip of LED lights that covered the width of the prototype's trunk by two somewhat somewhat optics. more conventional.
Elon Musk and the Cybertruck in November 2019.. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)
But what is known so far, then?
Among its unique qualities,
the main thing is perhaps the subframe
: an image taken at the Gigafactory in Austin, United States, allowed us to verify that it will be manufactured in two castings, one made of hydroformed stainless steel and the other made of aluminum.
This detail is not minor, and promises to be one of the central points of the Cybertruck, whose structural design logic is based on an "almost impenetrable" exoskeleton, according to the company itself, to contain both the battery pack and the body itself.
The Cybertruck displayed in 2021 in Manhattan.
REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
This last item is a whole subject in itself, based on the fact that
Tesla promises that it will be made of stainless steel
but that, contrary to what anyone might think, thanks to a new system it will also be easy to repair in case of scratches or bumps. Minors: it was the head of Tesla Design, Franz von Holzhausen, who assured that the Cybertruck body will be covered by a protective layer of simple polishing that in this way solves one of the main problems of a body like this.
Von Holzhausen also confirmed that, like the Tesla Model S and Model X Plaid, the Cybertruck will come from the factory with the Yoke steering wheel, although, as also in those cases, a slightly more conventional circular model is offered as an option and not so controversial as the one that is so reminiscent of David Hasselhoff's Fantastic Car.
Regarding motorization, batteries and capacities, Tesla's original idea was to offer three variants: one with rear-wheel drive,
402 kilometers of autonomy, 3,401 kilos of towing and acceleration from 0 to 96 km/h in less than 6 .5 seconds
;
another, with dual motor and all-wheel drive, autonomy of 482 km, 4,535 kilos of towing capacity and two seconds less to accelerate from 0 to 96 km/h;
and the top-of-the-range variant, with triple motor, all-wheel drive, a range of 804 km, 6,350 kg of trailer and that goes from 0 to 96 km/h in just 2.9 seconds – more than a second less than a Porsche 911 Carrera –.
One of the images of the Cybertruck that appeared on social networks.
Although the idea of three versions still stands, there is no greater certainty as to whether Tesla will maintain these specific characteristics of each one.
The same thing happens with the prices, after the adjustment that Musk anticipated after the problems in his production and the inflation that the United States experienced from 2019 to this part:
in principle they went to US$39,900, US$49,900 and US$69,900
, respectively, but the Final numbers are, for the moment, unknown.
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