Tesla will officially launch the company’s new Cybertruck on November 30 with the release of the model’s first 10 vehicles to their new owners, reported CBS News. The model was first revealed by Tesla in 2019, but the company has repeatedly pushed back on its release since then. Production on the trucks began this year at the Texas Gigafactory.
According to The Wall Street Journal, through the repeated delays, Tesla has been “betting customers are willing to wait for an electric pickup that will be unlike anything else on the road today. The triangular-shaped truck—Tesla’s first new passenger vehicle in more than three years—has a stainless steel exterior and a giant windshield. Tesla has also promised it would be bulletproof.”
The launch of the Cybertruck is critical for Tesla as its sales growth has slowed. The model arrives as automakers like Ford, General Motors and Toyota are “trying to drive down the price of their electric vehicles to appeal to a wider audience.” For the first time, Americans are on track to buy more than one million EVs this year.
The Verge reports, “Experts say what we really need to drive adoption is a mass-market EV that’s affordable and practical. The Cybertruck is neither. It stands proudly as the antithesis of what the market needs. Tesla fans are convinced it will change the industry forever.”
According to the company, the Cybertruck can tow more than 14,000 pounds and can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds. The truck can fit six passengers inside. However, previews have questioned the size of the truck’s cabin and bed.
Tesla’s new model will be made with stainless steel, a material that hasn’t been used by automakers for years. According to the Journal, the last company to release a car with an unpainted stainless-steel exterior was DeLorean Motor over 40 years ago.
During the October earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he expects the company will eventually produce about 250,000 pickups a year, though the ramp-up in production will be slow due to the difficult design. Musk said that Tesla is unlikely to reach that production rate before 2025.
Currently, exact prices on the Cybertruck are unknown. According to CBS News, Tesla originally said that it would make three different versions of the Cybertruck, with prices ranging from $40,000 to $70,000. The company later removed the prices from its website.