Tesla's Cybertruck Could Be A Lot More Expensive Than People Thought, And Some Are Cancelling Their Reservations

Tesla has said the first deliveries of its long-awaited Cybertruck will begin November 30 at its Giga Texas facility, with actual production to begin in 2025. Just a little over a month out from the event, Tesla still has not finalized pricing for the truck. Some who have ordered Cybertrucks claim to have been contacted to pay up for their trucks, and have been met with sticker shock, quoting prices some 40 percent higher than what was announced at the truck’s unveiling in 2019. And based on recent government documents and Tesla’s own admissions, it seems the $40,000 version isn’t happening anytime soon, potentially never coming at all.

Back in 2019 when the Cybertruck rolled into our lives, we were fed all kinds of unbelievable numbers. The official line was that a base rear-wheel-drive model would run just $39,900. A two-motor version would cost $49,900, and a three-motor performance model—with 500+ miles of range, 14,000 pound tow rating, and 2.9-second 0-60 time—would cost an incredible $69,900. These numbers, along with a refundable $100 deposit, allegedly convinced over 2 million people to give Tesla an interest-free loan of around a quarter of a billion dollars.

Read more

• You Should Probably Buy a Flipper Zero Before It's Too Late

• You'll Never Believe the Major Plot Twist That Just Happened in Jonathan Majors' Domestic Dispute Case

• Cyberpunk 2077's New Patch Buffs Keanu Reeves' Gun And Screws Over Homeless People

• Hasan Minhaj responds to New Yorker story with a lengthy fact-check of his own

• Wawa Pizza: An Investigation

It seems like the first few deliveries are going to be hand-assembled tri-motor trucks at a huge price. I’m sure a lot of people who put down deposits in 2019 for a $40,000 electric truck have asked for their $100 back in the last five years, and this revelation seems to have caused even more to do so. If the company says it’ll be another two years to get a base model example delivered, is it worth continuing to wait?

When the Cybertruck first launched, it was planned to be the first to market in a seemingly lucrative electric truck market. Back then the Rivian R1T, Ford Lightning, GMC Hummer, and Chevy Silverado EV didn’t exist, but every delay of the Cybertruck has been met with a new competitor in the segment. Rivian has lowered prices as demand wanes. Ford is doing the same, as Lightning demand seems sated. GM continues delaying its Ultium facility, and cancelled its own base model Silverado EV as demand fails to materialize for EV trucks.

Will Tesla still be able to find enough people willing to plonk down a hundred grand for its half-assed electric truck? Or will it hand-assemble a few thousand, claim production issues made the truck impossible to scale, and cancel the whole thing and sweep it under the rug? Will people still be excited enough about a seven-year-old design by the time production is allegedly scheduled to ramp up? There sure are a lot of questions remaining to be answered about a truck that was announced five years ago, Tesla. If only the company had a public relations department, I could ask them.

More from Jalopnik

• Halo Infinite May Have Just Begun Its Renaissance

• NASA Is Struggling to Open Its Asteroid Sample Container

• Pour One Out for the Banks That Invested in Musk’s Twitter

• Every David Fincher movie, ranked

• Peter Parker Can’t Do The ‘Wakanda Forever’ Salute In Spider-Man 2

Sign up for Jalopnik's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.