At an event on Thursday in Austin, Tesla delivered its long-awaited electric pickup truck to at least 13 customers. Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit and husband of tennis champ Serena Williams, was among the first customers to drive away in the futuristic-looking truck—albeit in the passenger seat.
“Finally, the future will look like the future,” Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, told the crowd shortly after driving on stage in the polarizing polygonal-shaped vehicle.
Customers can now reserve one of the three available Cybertruck models with estimated delivery beginning in 2024. The cheapest, a rear-wheel drive option, will retail for an estimated $60,990, followed by an all-wheel drive model for $79,990, and the Cyberbeast model for $99,990.
BUMPS IN THE ROAD . . . SO MANY BUMPS
Tesla’s debut in the pickup market has been anything but a smooth ride. It’s been just over four years since the Austin-based EV maker first announced the Cybertruck and began accepting preorders. It failed to meet its original delivery estimate of late 2021. Some frustrated customers—or at the very least, enterprising ones—began posting their 2019 Cybertruck reservations for sale on eBay, fetching at least $7,500 for the option to purchase the vehicle once it becomes available.
During the event—part music video, part car show, and part Elon Musk grandstanding—the billionaire touted many of the truck’s specifications, including a bulletproof exterior, shatter-resistant glass, hauling capacity, steering radius, and, of course, its unique design. After an embarrassing gaffe in 2019, when a metal ball shattered the “armored” glass, Musk brought Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief of design, on stage again to prove this flaw is now fixed.
Musk also showed videos that seem to indicate the Cybertruck beats out competitors—namely, the Ford F-150, Ford F-350, and Rivian R1T—in towing strength, and is faster than a Porsche 911, even while the Cybertruck is towing a Porsche 911.
“What we have here is something that is a better truck than a truck while also being a better sports car than a sports car,” Musk said. “I think it’s our best product. I think it’s the most unique thing on the road.”
The Cybertruck is billed as “built for any planet”—an apparent nod to one of Musk’s other passions, getting humans to Mars via his SpaceX company.
It’s been an eventful week for the controversial business titan, who didn’t mince words earlier this week in a response to companies that have paused advertising on his X social platform over antisemitic content. He joked that the Cybertruck is “not just some grandstanding showpiece like me” during the live-streamed event, in addition to making quips about an apocalyptic future and posing for photos with customers, one of whom said he hadn’t slept for three days.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna-Louise Jackson is a freelance writer and editor with more than 15 years of experience covering financial markets, the economy, personal finance, and business trends. Her work has previously been published by Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, The Associated Press, Money, Success, and more.
