Tesla Cybertrucks without the $20,000 “Foundation Series” package will now start delivery in “late 2024,” rather than this quarter as previously expected.
Tesla started delivering its much-anticipated (and much-delayed) Cybertruck late last year, and has been ramping production steadily since then.
So far, Tesla has only delivered “Foundation Series” trucks, which is an early fully-loaded model with an additional $20,000 option added on, and comes bundled with several extras, like Powershare bidirectional charging and additional badging – and, importantly, priority delivery. But that costs upwards of $120,000, quite a bit more than the originally-promised $39,900 base price.
So, many prospective owners have been waiting patiently for a more affordable trim to be released. That time was supposed to finally come this quarter, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Tesla’s shareholder meeting just two weeks ago.
But now, order holders have started receiving emails stating that Tesla will “only” deliver the Foundation Series through “late 2024.”
The language was spotted and posted on reddit this weekend:
As an early reservation holder, you have been invited to order your Foundation Series Cybertruck with early access to delivery. Due to continued high demand, we expect to deliver only the Foundation Series through late 2024.
Your Cybertruck will be fully optioned and will include limited-edition laser-etched badging, premium accessories, $2,500 in Powershare hardware shop credits, Full-Self Driving capability and more.
Previously, the timing language was not in the email.
This is a pushback from Tesla’s most recent plans, announced just a couple weeks ago at the shareholder meeting.
At that same meeting, Tesla also stated that it recently achieved a “peak” production of 1,300 Cybertrucks in a week.
Tesla also hasn’t said how many Cybertrucks it has delivered yet. In today’s delivery update, it said it delivered 21,551 “other models” in Q2, but that includes Model S and X as well.
But, we did get a hint as to how many Cybertrucks are out there recently, when Tesla recalled 11,000 of them just a week ago. Previously, Tesla had recalled about 4,000 Cybertrucks in mid-April, so that gives us a sense of what the run rate has been since then.
So, if Tesla continues to ramp from there, and looks like it is indeed at a current run rate of somewhere on the order of a thousand trucks a week or more, this would mean it sees tens of thousands of six-figure Foundation Series trucks left to fulfill deliveries of.
Electrek’s Take
That’s quite a lot of expensive triangles, and is a pretty impressive number for any vehicle of that price. There is a lot of pent-up demand for this truck and some buyers are stretching due to its novelty, but considering Rivian’s sales of some ~14k per quarter between two models, and the R1S’ place as best-selling EV over $70k, that puts the six-figure Cybertruck in good company (and potentially even ahead of the Rivian, if Cybertruck continues to ramp).
This could be good news for Tesla shareholders as the company sells more high-optioned (and higher-margin) models, but it’s not great news for those waiting patiently for an affordable truck. While Tesla didn’t specify beyond “late 2024,” that phrasing, and use of the word “only,” certainly seems like it won’t happen this quarter.
That’s a long time to wait, especially given that Cybertruck was originally supposed to deliver in “late 2021”. And that’s just for the $79,990 AWD model, while the base $60,990 model won’t come until 2025 – unless that one gets delayed again, too.
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