Tesla’s timeline for its Cybertruck is proving even more tentative than before. Production of the Cybertruck has been delayed again, and Tesla executives confirmed during the company’s latest earnings call that pickup production will start only after that of the Model Y at its Austin, Texas plant.
The Model Y’s production is obviously more important for now, what with Tesla’s lucrative quarter, which means that the company’s 2021 deadline for getting the Cybertruck to drivers will probably come and go. Whether you call it a delay or not, the point is the Cybertruck is not likely to begin scale production in 2021, according to the company:
To better focus on these factories, and due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges, we have shifted the launch of the Semi truck program to 2022. We are also making progress on the industrialization of Cybertruck, which is currently planned for Austin production subsequent to Model Y.
“Ramping production,” as Musk referred to it during the investor call, is difficult as it is, even without the supply-chain woes the whole industry is undergoing.
Musk, more or less, seemed pleased with the progress the company has made and he said that despite the delays and shortages, the company is moving at a good pace:
“Anyway, it is quite a trial dealing with all of the constraints of scaling a large manufactured object. I think it may be the case that Tesla is scaling. I think we might be the fastest in history ever for scaling a large manufactured object. Maybe the Model T would have been comparable back in the day of the Ford Model T. Probably internet knows the answer, but I think we may be scaling large manufactured objects at the fastest rate in history, or I’d like to know who did it faster so we can learn from them.”
During the earnings call, Musk also addressed one possible solution to the chip shortage being Tesla’s in-house chip production. If Tesla did it with their batteries, why not their semiconductors?
Musk said that even if the company pivoted some production capacity, it would still be a while before that yielded anything useful:
“So in order for Cybertruck and Semi to scale to volume that’s meaningful for customer deliveries, we’ve got to solve the chip shortage, or working with our suppliers. People sometimes say, why don’t you just build a chip vat? Okay. Well, okay. That would take us, even moving like lightening, 12 to 18 months. So it’s not like you can just whip up a chip vat. It’s just like, yeah, just make a quick chip vat.”
So, no, in-house production is not all that and a vat of chips, Cybertruck fans.
The only thing left to do now is hurry up and wait. But look at the bright side. Maybe by the time the Cybertruck’s production actually scales, in, say, a year or so, buyers might be able to pay for their EV pickups using cryptocurrencies.
