Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in a third-quarter earnings call on October 18 that deliveries of the long-anticipated Cybertruck will begin to reach customers on November 30.
Just before that revelation, a fleet of the electric pickup trucks was photographed outside of the company's Gigafactory in Texas.
Tesla enthusiast Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, the image of nine Cybertrucks in the facility's outbound lot. All but one were covered up, but since the shape of the Cybertruck is so distinctive, it's clear they were all of that model.
16 October 2023 Giga Texas! 9 Cybertrucks in the outbound lot, but few Model Y's today. The temporary electrical switchyard seems to be in decommissioning, while the new End-of-Line (EOL) facility on the west side continues to grow! 1/2 pic.twitter.com/X6YoFpSpkb
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) October 16, 2023
Electrek noted that Cybertrucks have been sent all over the United States and Mexico, as well as at least one model delivered to New Zealand, in recent weeks in order to complete a testing program.
According to Reuters, Musk said in his October earnings call that over 1 million Cybertruck reservations have been made, and the company should be able to produce 125,000 trucks every year.
There has been some skepticism about that figure, but at least one commenter on Electrek's website backed Musk's prediction.
"Musk said very few Cybertrucks will be [built] this year for commercial delivery," the commenter said. "He's right on target. Next year more will be built"
There is obvious excitement for the release of the electric pickup, perhaps even from those who aren't quite so keen on how the lower-polluting vehicle looks.
Social media has been awash with pictures and videos of Cybertruck models out in the wild for testing, and side-by-side comparisons with competitors in the electric vehicle market provide a fascinating insight into what to expect.
That's partly down to the fact that Tesla has been fairly coy about specifications for the Cybertruck, leading people to draw their own conclusions based on scraps of information.
"I can't wait for the announcement and some more information on specs etc," one Electrek user said. "If price and specs beat Ford and GM, we will have a strong indicator of the risk facing them."
But the Cybertruck has the potential to shake up the pick-up market. While Ford and Rivian have successfully delivered efficient and powerful electric trucks, Tesla's foray into the space could be game-changing.
According to the University of Michigan, light-duty vehicles — like pickup trucks, SUVs, and sedans — produce 58% of dirty-fuel pollution on the United States' roads, with pickup trucks accounting for 14% of the country's light-duty sales in 2020.
If 1 million electric pickups can start phasing out some of these internal-combustion-engine models that cause more planet-warming pollution, which leads to global heating, it will be a huge win for the environment.
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