Tesla Will Promote Its Cybertruck Subsequent Yr, Elon Musk Says

Tesla will start producing its much-delayed electrical pickup, the Cybertruck, subsequent yr together with quite a few different new merchandise, Elon Musk, the carmaker’s chief government, mentioned late Thursday.

The truck, with an angular design and stainless-steel pores and skin that units it other than conventional pickups, has been delayed after an inauspicious unveiling in 2019, when a designer lobbed a metallic ball at a window in what was imagined to be an illustration of the automobile’s toughness.

As a substitute, the window cracked.

“We’re going to smash the window once more,” Mr. Musk joked as a Cybertruck rolled onstage at a lavish “Cyber Rodeo” organized by Tesla in Austin, Texas, to indicate off its newly constructed manufacturing unit close to the state capital.

“We are able to’t wait to construct this right here,” Mr. Musk, sporting a black cowboy hat, mentioned of the truck. “Sorry for the delay. However you’re going to have this subsequent yr, and it’s actually going to be nice.”

Tesla’s C.E.O. has a protracted historical past of promising merchandise that materialize later than he mentioned they’d or under no circumstances, however his timeline for the Cybertruck is extra particular than the one he gave to traders in January, when he mentioned that supply in 2023 was “more than likely.”

Delays in producing the Cybertruck have allowed rivals to come back to market sooner with pickups, some of the well-liked sorts of automobile in america. Ford is anticipated to start delivering the Lightning, a battery-powered model of its F-150, this summer time. Rivian’s electrical pickup went on sale late final yr to rave critiques, however the firm has had bother ramping up manufacturing, a standard drawback for brand new automotive firms.

Tesla invited about 15,000 folks to the Cyber Rodeo, which Mr. Musk, together with his customary hyperbole, billed because the “greatest get together on earth.” The manufacturing unit is as massive as three Pentagons, he mentioned.

Native faculties closed early so that oldsters might keep away from site visitors jams attributable to these flocking to the occasion, the tv station KXAN reported. The actor Harrison Ford was among the many company. Tesla parked pink, white and blue automobiles in formation to appear to be the Texas state flag.

The manufacturing unit is a part of a world enlargement by Tesla that features a newly opened plant close to Berlin. Together with an current manufacturing unit in Shanghai, the brand new meeting traces might assist the corporate repeat its development in 2021, when it almost doubled gross sales to virtually a million automobiles, far outpacing different main carmakers.

“This yr is all about scaling up,” Mr. Musk mentioned. “Subsequent yr, there may be going to be a large wave of latest merchandise.”

In 2023, Tesla will even produce a roadster, a semi-truck and “hopefully” the primary model of a humanoid robotic known as Optimus, which, Mr. Musk mentioned, will do “something that people received’t wish to do.” He added {that a} beta model of full self-driving software program can be out there to North American clients this yr.