The Cybertruck has an iconic design that's smooth and aerodynamic. It's recently been rumored that the Cybertruck's design stemmed from the need for the vehicle to be very aerodynamic, hence the smooth, large windshield and the tonneau in back. Without the Cybertruck's aerodynamic design, the vehicle would need larger batteries, and would likely be more costly.
Price
Cybertruck mock based on the video below. Credit @TeslaTruckClub/Twitter
The Cybertruck was priced at under $40,000. For that price the Cybertruck certainly brings a lot of value. Although Tesla has just removed pricing for its electric truck from its website.
You can still place a reservation for $100, but the price of the vehicle is no longer shown. This could mean that Tesla is rethinking the price of the truck. The truck was initially set to begin production late this year, but has now been pushed to next year.
Mirrors
Tesla had planned for the vehicle to not have any mirrors, which certainly distracts from its design. Tesla knew it was facing an uphill regulatory battle. Elon confirmed on Twitter that the Cybertruck will come with mirrors. At least for now.
Cybertruck spotted with mirrors and possibly other changes
Elon goes on to elaborate that although the Cybertruck will come with mirrors from the factory, they are designed to be easily removed by owners.
They're required by law, but designed to be easy to remove by owners
We'll see how this plays out with local laws for any individuals who decide to remove their mirrors. Although, it likely means that Tesla will be offering a software solution for owners who do decide to remove their Cybertruck's mirrors. We had a sneak-peak into the Cybertruck's UI earlier this year.
Tesla will likely utilize the fender cameras to display video on the screen when a turn signal is initiated.
A Tesla fan found a what appears to be Tesla testing the Cybertruck's turning radius in a parking lot. The Cybertruck appears to have side mirrors in addition to other tweaks such as a windshield wiper and possibly a shorter frunk.
Rear Wheel Steering
Elon confirmed this summer that the Cybertruck will include rear wheel steering. For being a larger vehicle, having rear wheel steering will certainly help maneuver in tight situations, such as parking. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla has something special up their sleeves here. In the same tweet where Elon announced that the Cybertruck will have rear wheel steering, he also said that there are lots of other great things coming, presumably to the Cybertruck.
Friday afternoons are usually Tesla design studio time. Cybertruck will be almost exactly what was shown. We're adding rear wheel steering, so it can do tight turns & maneuver with high agility.
The Cybertruck was initially set to go into production in late 2021, but that has since been changed to the end of 2022. There could be various reasons why, but it's likely that the global shortage is likely affecting Tesla production as well. Tesla is selling every car they make and the wait for a new car is months into the future. There's no need for Tesla to rush into producing the Cybertruck only to limit their sales of current vehicles even more.
More Changes Coming?
Tesla has a large team of designers and engineers on their hands. They likely won't start designing the next thing yet, as Tesla won't have the means to produce them. Tesla already has a list of vehicles they're waiting to produce, including the Cybertruck, the Roadster 2 and the Semi.
Tesla Cybertruck size compared to a Model Y
Tesla designers and engineers may use this additional time to tweak future vehicles such as the Cybertruck. We may see more additions to the Cybertruck, especially given the new competition Tesla will have with the Rivian R1T.
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“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025”. This was one of the key sentences that were part of Tesla’s deck shared on Tuesday directly before its financial results.
Since Reuters’ report a few weeks ago saying Tesla had “scrapped” the highly expected cheaper model— which Elon quickly denied on X —retail and institutional shareholders started asking for more details on Tesla’s product roadmap for 2024 and beyond.
In the earnings conference call, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla expects to launch the next model in “early 2025, if not late this year”.
“We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously mentioned start of production in the second half of 2025. So, we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. “
Over concerns of temporary production halts to update the factories for these new models, Musk said that Tesla will produce new models with certain aspects from their next-generation platform and current models. This will reduce the number of changes needed on production lines and allow Tesla not only to ramp up production faster but also to get the vehicles to market quicker.
Model Y Redesign
Tesla appears to hit that their next-gen vehicle will be less “next-gen” than they were initially aiming for, but to get a new vehicle out the door by late 2024, the process would already have to be in motion. Tesla may likely be referring to the redesigned Model Y, which is expected to reuse many parts from the new Model 3. Earlier this year, Tesla said that the redesigned Model Y will not be released this year, so it makes sense that they’re looking to speed up that production.
Tesla CEO concluded by saying that these measures will allow Tesla to reach a capacity of over 3 million units. Tesla produced 1.84 million vehicles in 2023. However, this year they’re ramping up Cybertruck production and introduced the new Model 3 into new markets.
And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent.
Tesla reported on Tuesday its earnings results followed by a conference call where it teased its upcoming Robotaxi and its next-generation platform saying its “purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy”.
Earlier in the day, Tesla announced the new Performance variant of its sedan Model 3 with deliveries in the United States starting already next month. The new version starts at $45,490 (after applying the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit) and goes from 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.
On Tuesday Tesla reported its earnings results followed by a conference call that brought several updates on the company’s roadmap for future vehicles, autonomous driving, Optimus and much more.
While answering a question from Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney about updates on the licensing of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, Elon Musk said they’re talking to one major auto manufacturer and there’s “a good chance” the company signs the first deal before year-end. However, he went on to say that it would probably be three years before the necessary changes are integrated into the car.
I think we have a good chance we do sign a deal this year
Brings Benefits to Tesla
The technology would require other automakers to start using the same cameras and hardware as Tesla, meaning that Tesla may not only generate money from licensing FSD but also from selling the hardware itself. However, there would be other benefits as well. When licensing FSD, Tesla would likely own the data gathered with the system well, further helping them with data and edge cases that need to be solved to reach full autonomy.
people don't understand all cars will need to be smart cars… Once that becomes obvious, I think licensing becomes not optional.
Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja commented pointing out that future partners “take a lot of time in their product life cycle” resulting in a gap between the deal signing and the arrival in the market of Tesla’s FSD software.
Miles Driven With FSD
On the conference call, Musk added that Tesla now has over 300 million miles that have been driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.
Tesla said it will continue to increase its “core AI infrastructure capacity in the coming months” adding that in the first quarter, it completed the transition to hardware 4.0 with China now receiving the upgraded FSD computer and cameras.
Over the weekend, Tesla reduced the price of FSD dropping it from $12,000 to $8,000 for customers in the United States and from CA$16,000 to CA$11,000 in Canada.
Earlier this month, Tesla implemented a 50% price reduction for FSD subscriptions in the U.S. and introduced the subscription model in Canada at a great value of CA$99 per month.
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