Elon Musk Has Been Tweeting Cybertruck Order Numbers, But They Could Be Inaccurate

From Car and Driver

• Tesla Cybertruck orders could be made with a $100 refundable deposit at the electric pickup's unveiling in Los Angeles last week.

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been tweeting order number updates; however, some customers are complaining that they have been charged for multiple orders.

• Production for Tesla's first all-electric pickup is expected to commence in late 2021, and the tri-motor all-wheel-drive models will follow in late 2022/
  

Right at the launch of Tesla's first pickup truck, dubbed Cybertruck, pre-orders opened up for customers, with a $100 deposit required. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been posting frequent Twitter updates on how many Cybertruck orders have been placed; however, some customers have been on Twitter as well, complaining that they have been charged for multiple orders.

As of 9:18 p.m. on November 24, 2019, Musk tweeted that around 200,000 orders have been placed for the Cybertruck. His first order update tweet, however, was more informative, saying that 146,000 orders had been placed, with 42 percent of customers choosing dual motor, 41 percent opting for the tri-motor version, and 17 percent selecting single motor. For comparison, as of October 2019, Ford has sold 735,016 F-series trucks in 2019, which seems to be Musk's target competitor.

The numbers Musk is tweeting could be slightly less than what he claims, though, if customers truly are getting notified that they've placed multiple orders and getting charged for them. High order numbers could also be misleading because the $100 deposit to place an order for a Cybertruck is refundable. It's also not clear whether Musk sees or is accounting for canceled orders in his estimates.

A $100 deposit is pretty cheap for a Tesla product, though. To save your spot in line for a Tesla Model 3, a $1000 deposit was required, and to reserve the upcoming Model Y crossover, a $2500 deposit was needed.

According to Forbes, Elon Musk's net worth dropped $770 million after the Cybertruck debut. That may seem like a lot, but keep in mind that the Tesla CEO's net worth is around $23.6 billion.

Customers can complete their desired Cybertruck configuration online with the $100 deposit, and production is expected to start in late 2021 with the tri-motor all-wheel-drive truck, beginning in late 2022. But based on past Tesla rollouts, that could change; orders for the highly anticipated Model 3 were delayed.

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