Tesla Will Sell Its Long-Awaited Cybertruck Next Year, Elon Musk Says

Tesla will start producing its much-delayed electrical pickup, the Cybertruck, subsequent 12 months together with quite a few different new merchandise, Elon Musk, the carmaker’s chief government, stated late Thursday.

The truck, with an angular design and stainless-steel pores and skin that units it aside from conventional pickups, has been delayed after an inauspicious unveiling in 2019, when a designer lobbed a steel ball at a window in what was imagined to be an illustration of the automobile’s toughness.

As an alternative, the window cracked.

“We’re going to smash the window once more,” Mr. Musk joked as a Cybertruck rolled onstage at a lavish “Cyber Rodeo” organized by Tesla in Austin, Texas, to point out off its newly constructed manufacturing unit close to the state capital.

“We are able to’t wait to construct this right here,” Mr. Musk, sporting a black cowboy hat, stated of the truck. “Sorry for the delay. However you’re going to have this subsequent 12 months, and it’s actually going to be nice.”

Tesla’s C.E.O. has an extended historical past of promising merchandise that materialize later than he stated they’d or by no means, however his timeline for the Cybertruck is extra particular than the one he gave to buyers in January, when he stated that supply in 2023 was “almost definitely.”

Delays in producing the Cybertruck have allowed rivals to return to market sooner with pickups, one of the vital standard kinds of automobile in the US. Ford is anticipated to start delivering the Lightning, a battery-powered model of its F-150, this summer season. Rivian’s electrical pickup went on sale late final 12 months to rave evaluations, however the firm has had hassle ramping up manufacturing, a typical drawback for brand new automobile corporations.

Tesla invited about 15,000 individuals to the Cyber Rodeo, which Mr. Musk, together with his customary hyperbole, billed because the “largest occasion on earth.” The manufacturing unit is as giant as three Pentagons, he stated.

Native colleges closed early so that oldsters might keep away from site visitors jams attributable to these flocking to the occasion, the tv station KXAN reported. The actor Harrison Ford was among the many visitors. Tesla parked pink, white and blue automobiles in formation to appear like the Texas state flag.

The manufacturing unit is a part of a worldwide growth by Tesla that features a newly opened plant close to Berlin. Together with an current manufacturing unit in Shanghai, the brand new meeting traces might assist the corporate repeat its progress in 2021, when it almost doubled gross sales to virtually a million automobiles, far outpacing different main carmakers.

“This 12 months is all about scaling up,” Mr. Musk stated. “Subsequent 12 months, there’s going to be a large wave of latest merchandise.”

In 2023, Tesla may also produce a roadster, a semi-truck and “hopefully” the primary model of a humanoid robotic known as Optimus, which, Mr. Musk stated, will do “something that people received’t wish to do.” He added {that a} beta model of full self-driving software program could be obtainable to North American prospects this 12 months.