Elon Musk shows off production version of Tesla Cybertruck, says ‘best product ever’

livemint.com:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared the images of him riding the production version of the company's much-awaited ‘cybertruck’ at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Sharing the update on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote, “Just drove the production candidate Cybertruck at Tesla Giga Texas!" Tesla had first announced the pickup truck at an event in 2019 where Musk asked the vehicle's designer to throw a hunk of steel in order to show the unbreakable ‘armor glass’ windows of a prototype. However, the window broke and a second window also broke on further attempts.

Initially, the plan was to start production two years later but it was pushed back. Musk later stated shortages in sourcing components as the reason for postponing the launch of Cybertruck into 2023. In a shareholder meeting in May this year, Musk informed the shareholders that Tesla would likely produce 2,50,000 Cybertrucks this year and the number could even double given the accessible price tag.

However, Musk or Tesla have not given clarity about what the Cybertruck might actually end up costing. In fact, Musk even tempered down the expectations of investors during the company's annual meeting saying that the Cybertruck's stainless steel body can be expensive and difficult to shape and weld. “It’s going to be hard to make the cost affordable because it is a new car, new manufacturing method…In the grand scheme of things, relative to the production rate of all the other cars we make, it will be small.