Tesla's Cybertruck will be delayed "until next year," CEO Elon Musk in an earnings call on Wednesday. The announcement confirms previous reports that the electric truck would miss its previous production date of late 2022.
See also: Tesla removed any mention of 2022 from Cybertruck site
"If we introduced new vehicles, our overall vehicle production would decrease," Musk said. "We will not introduce new vehicle models this year."
When asked what else is holding the Cybertruck back besides battery production, Musk said pricing and what people are willing to pay for the technology in the vehicle is the main issue. “How do we make the Cybertruck affordable?” he said. The Cybertruck originally had a starting price of $39,900 at its 2019 unveiling.
Musk was also asked about the availability of a $25,000 electric car, to which he replied: “We are not currently working on a $25,000 car.” Musk has been promising a low-cost Tesla for years, based in part on the company’s work to reduce the cost of battery production.
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“At some point we will. We have a lot on our minds right now,” Musk added. The Teslawas also asked how the company plans to sell more cars without a more affordable option. He replied: “If the price of our cars didn’t change at all, we would sell everything we could make.”
Indications that the Cybertruck would be delayed first emerged last August, when the online reservation page was changed and then removed from the website. Musk said in early 2021 that a few trucks would be delivered to customers by the end of that year, but no deliveries ever took place.
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The Cybertruck has already undergone some changes since its unveiling, including the addition of a comically oversized single windshield wiper, traditional folding mirrors, and invisible door handles, according to a video leaked this week.
Musk also tweeted that he was driving the latest prototype.
