On November 30, US time, at the delivery ceremony of the Texas Gigafactory, Musk drove a Cybertruck on the stage and demonstrated the Cybertruck's off-road ability, towing ability, body bulletproof and acceleration capabilities.
Made of shiny stainless steel, the Cybertruck has a flat shape and is partly inspired by a Lotus ESPRIT S1 submarine from the 007 film series Underwater City. New body materials and unconventional design styling underline the "futuristic feel" of this model.
The Cybertruck is available in three variants, with a rear-wheel drive, all-wheel-drive, and Cyberbeast version, each starting at $60,990 (about $43.).50,000 yuan, 990 US dollars (about 57..)10,000 yuan, 990 US dollars (about 7140,000 yuan), which is 50% higher than the expected selling price when it was first released in 2019. The cheapest rear-wheel-drive version of these will not be delivered until 2025, and the other two versions will be delivered next year.
As Musk said, the Cybertruck is indeed powerful. The fastest cybertruck can be in 2From a standstill to 60 miles per hour (about 96.) in 6 seconds5 km), as fast as the Porsche sports car 911 Turbo S. At the same time, it also has extraordinary traction power, and the towing weight can reach 110,000 pounds. In the event of a power outage in the home, power can also be supplied in reverse. However, its range is not impressive, with the lowest range version at just 402 km.
Pickup trucks are one of the best-selling models in the United States, and in the third quarter of this year, the top two best-selling models in the United States were Ford and Chevrolet pickups. The Cybertruck, which entered the popular pickup market two years later than originally planned, will compete with models such as the Ford F150 Lightning, Rivian R1T and Hummer EV. Specifically, the Rivian R1T starts at $73,000, while the F-150 Lightning starts at around $50,000, and the Hummer EV sells for more than $96,000.
Although deliveries have begun, the Cybertruck has not yet really come out. With only 10 units delivered in the first batch, the difficulty of mass production will continue to be a major problem for the Cybertruck in the coming period.
Musk said in last quarter's earnings conference that mass production is 100 times harder than designing a prototype, and the Cybertruck is especially difficult. "Not only to invent the car, but also to invent the way to produce it".
Tesla's most commercially successful product, the Model Y, is a testament to this, with manufacturing costs reduced by 40% after the introduction of one-piece die-casting technology to produce underbody panels. The Cybertruck also uses one-piece die-casting technology, and Tesla has customized a 9,000-ton die-casting machine specifically for the production of the Cybertruck.
The Cybertruck's choice of stainless steel body is not just for "coolness", Musk said that this body material can be bulletproof and corrosion-resistant, and the same material is also used in SpaceX rockets. Tesla's special stainless steel overcomes the problem of stainless steel being easy to break at low temperatures, but it is not elastic, not easy to bend, and not easy to stamp.
Another factor that drags down the mass production schedule may be Tesla's self-developed 4680 large cylindrical battery. Released in September 2020, the battery is named after its size, with a diameter of 46 mm and a height of 80 mm, resembling a can of Coke. Compared with the 2170 small cylindrical battery used by Tesla, the energy density is increased by 5 times, the vehicle mileage can be increased by 16%, and the cost will be reduced by half.
The Cybertruck is heavy and supports reverse charging. For fast charging, it is equipped with an 800-volt high-voltage architecture, which requires the support of a 4680 battery. However, the mass production of 4680 batteries has not gone smoothly, as of October this year, the cumulative production of 4680 batteries has only exceeded 20 million, and this part of the battery is mainly installed on the Model Y.
Currently, the Cybertruck has more than 1 million bookings, and third-party tracking data shows that bookings are higher. However, the difficulty of mass production has put Tesla in an "embarrassment", and Wedbush analysts have predicted that the production of the Cybertruck in the fourth quarter of this year may be only 2,000-3,000 units, and about 10,000 units in the first half of next year. After the delivery press conference, Tesla's stock price fell to 3% at the end of the session, and finally closed down nearly 2%, which shows that the market sentiment is not very optimistic.
Cybertruck is Tesla's first new model launched in the past four years, it is a representative of Tesla is still "cool", and it is also Tesla's hope to create increments in the face of weak demand for electric vehicles and intensified competition, but this ** is not very easy at present.