Tesla built its first Cybertruck at the electric-vehicle marker’s plant in Austin, Texas, the company said on Saturday, after two years of delays.
Tesla founder Elon Musk introduced the pickup truck in a 2019 reveal where the vehicle’s designer cracked the vehicle’s supposedly unbreakable “armor glass” windows.
Musk took to Twitter to share the news and congratulate the team involved in the Cybertruck’s production.
The company has pushed back production timing since then and Musk had last year cited shortages in sourcing components as the reason for pushing the launch of Cybertruck into 2023. The sleek and futuristic vehicle, which was two years behind schedule, is Tesla’s first entry into the electric pickup market.
The Cybertruck prototype was unveiled by Tesla in 2019. However, the unveiling event faced an unexpected hiccup when a demonstration to showcase the truck’s unbreakable windows went awry, with the windows breaking upon impact from a metal ball. Despite this setback, the Cybertruck received an overwhelming response, with nearly 150,000 advance orders placed within just two days.
Just drove Cybertruck around Austin! pic.twitter.com/QN19Agqa7R
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2023
Tesla remained relatively silent about its plans for the Cybertruck, leaving eager customers waiting for updates. In 2021, the company announced that an updated version of the highly anticipated vehicle was in the works. Elon Musk cited supply chain issues as the reason for the delay in debuting the new vehicles, including the Cybertruck.
In a May shareholder meeting, Musk said that Tesla would like to produce a quarter-million Cybertrucks a year, depending on demand.
The Cybertruck launch will give Tesla an EV entrant in one of the most profitable segments of the U.S. market and a competitor to electric pickups from the likes of Ford Motor and Rivian Automotive, both of which have launched models in still-limited numbers.
Tesla plans to offer three different models of the Cybertruck, with varying price ranges and features to cater to different customer preferences.
