Is the Tesla Cybertruck Finally Inching Towards Production?

The Tesla Cybertruck has been making waves ever since images of the EV first appeared in 2019, but finally there is now news of the pending release of arguably the most obviously striking vehicles to get promised a production run in recent times. Recently, test vehicles have been seen on roads on a highway in the USA, driven by the man himself, Elon Musk.

Only at the end of last year Musk had stated that, hopefully, customers would be taking delivery of their vehicles in 2023. While Musk has admitted that there have been some teething issues involving production due to the extraordinary nature of the Cybertruck, production is now apparently underway.

We have begun to see more and more shots of the Cybertruck appearing on the Twitter account owned by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@@teslaownersSV), an account that Musk appears to like and has replied to the account’s posts. Most recently, Musk confirmed that the Knight Rider-esque futuristic narrow rear red light-bar will stay (we’ve seen many things come and go in the past as part of the Cybertruck’s tweaking). The comparison image also showed what looks like matching angular wing mirrors, although there is no confirmation these will stay as they are. Having Musk as an active user on Twitter certainly seems to be providing little glints of light when trying to find out more information. Another suggestion is that the Tesla Cybertruck will arrive without any colour options – at least not yet – with the idea being to use stainless steel panels and omit the painting process completely.

While a prototype Cybertruck has been spotted previously in 2022 in California at the Moss Landing Elkhorn Battery plant, the truck appears to undergo plenty of tweaks each time it is seen. It does make me wonder if the designers really ‘know their best team’ yet so to speak; presumably they do if production is now on its way/underway.

While concept vehicles tend to get dumbed-down for production release, a vehicle such as the Tesla Cybertruck would take quite a bit of smoothing out to stop it being one of the most futuristic, striking vehicle releases I can remember – the addition of a central windscreen wiper and wing mirrors are very necessary additions of course, while the outlandish alloy wheels also appear to have been calmed down a little too.

Elon Musk has said previously that making such an out-there vehicle as the Cybertruck affordable is also a major concern, one I presume has been solved to some degree now, though everyday pricing of course is still pure speculation. We have heard in the past that the single motor version was set to cost from around $40,000 with the three-motor version costing from $70,000; we’ll see. There has also been talk of special Cybertruck ‘megawatt’ charging stations. Once we see production rolling smoothly, Musk has said that the intention is to produce a quarter of a million Cybertrucks annually, which hints at a decent sized market for the electric super-truck. Back in 2019, Musk had confirmed that 250,000 customers had already placed blind orders for the angular EV.

While there’s probably no point repeating the claimed impressive tech specs here once more (Musk has since said that such numbers will now likely be different), it’s worth mentioning the infamous Tesla toughened polymer glass demo onstage that went a little wrong in front of an audience leaving the glass cracked. This does go to highlight the difficulties the Tesla Cybertruck has faced since 2019. It would be great to finally see it appear in 2023, but I for one won’t be holding my breath, not just yet.

Images: Twitter (@teslaownersSV), tesla.com