By Thomas Barrabi | New York Post
The long-delayed reveal of Tesla’s Cybertruck left many critics fuming about the “disappointing range” and “abusive pricing” of Elon Musk’s strange-looking electric pickup.
Tesla finally provided Cybertrucks to a handful of owners — including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian — during a flashy event at the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
The roughly 30-minute presentation was livestreamed on X and hosted by Musk, who described the stealth bomber-esque vehicle as Tesla’s “best product” and the “finest in apocalypse technology.”
Tesla fans, however, were left with sticker shock and another year of delays before the stainless-steel trucks rumbled off assembly lines.
The entry-level, rear-wheel-drive version of the Cybertruck costs $60,990 and is not expected to ship until 2025. The mid-tier Cybertruck with all-wheel drive costs $79,990, and the top-tier “Cyberbeast” costs $99,990.
The premium Cyberbeast purportedly maxes out at approximately 320 miles. When the Cybertruck was initially announced in 2019, Musk said the highest-end model would cost $77,000 and have a range of some 500 miles.
Tesla shares sank nearly 2% in early trading Friday.
Reddit users decried the vehicle’s “disappointing range (and) almost abusive pricing considering what was promised.”
Others said they were “totally let down” by the much-hyped delivery event, grumbling about “the lighting. The presentation. Just everything sucked.”
Tesla investors had anxiously awaited firm details about the Cybertruck amid a slew of reports — and warnings from Musk himself — about how difficult the pickup is to manufacture. The vehicle features a costly stainless-steel frame that is difficult to shape and prone to defects without careful oversight.
Industry analysts also appeared skeptical of what they had seen. Needham analyst Chris Pierce told The Post that “the feedback seems to be underwhelming” and noted that Tesla’s truck “doesn’t have any significant range advantages” compared to its chief rival in the electric vehicle market, Rivian.
“To me that’s the most surprising, TSLA made a truck that’s similar in specs (but not design) to Rivian, versus being able to deliver something with technology advantages from their lessons learned as the EV standard,” Pierce said.
Prominent tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who is known for his in-depth product reviews, described the Cybertruck as “notably the first time that Tesla is straight up not delivering on some of the key specs they promised.”
Brownlee pointed out that the highest-end model, the Cyberbeast, has less driving range and a higher price point than Tesla initially stated.
Meanwhile, Gene Munster, a Tesla investor and managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told Bloomberg that the Cybertruck was “a lot more expensive than I thought.”
“They need to get production up to get the price down, and they know they can’t produce a lot of them next year,” Munster said. “The reality is that the Cybertruck isn’t really out yet.”
Earlier this fall, experts told The Post that the Cybertruck was more likely to be a niche entry into Tesla’s product lineup.
The delivery event included several demonstrations of the Cybertruck’s supposed prowess, including footage of its bulletproof doors withstanding gunfire and its highest-end model winning a drag race against a Porsche 911.
“If Al Capone showed up with a Tommy gun and emptied the entire magazine in the car door, you would survive,” Musk quipped at one point during the presentation.
At one point, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen soft-tossed a baseball into the Cybertruck’s window — a callback to the disastrous incident at the 2019 launch event, when he shattered one of the truck’s windows with a metal ball.
Musk also touted some of the more impressive specs, such as the Cyberbeast’s 11,000-pound towing capacity that outstrips Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning and its ability to go 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds.
“We have a car here that experts said was impossible, that experts said would never be made,” Musk added. “I think it’s our best product. It’s the most unique thing on the road and finally the future will look like the future.”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a prominent Tesla bull, also gave an optimistic view of the launch, arguing that the Cybertruck is a critical display of the technological prowess that has allowed the company to build a dominant hold over the electric vehicle sector.
“While Cybertruck does not significantly move the financial needle for Tesla in [2024] it further shows the innovation and mind share lead that Tesla has built with many OEM competitors around the world still on the treadmill stuck in neutral,” Ives said in a note to clients.
