Tesla’s Cybertruck was unveiled at the Tesla Design Studio in Los Angeles back on November 21, 2019. Now 3+ years on from that, during the Q1 2023 investor relations call, Tesla indicated they will hold an event in Q3 this year to deliver the first vehicles to customers.
Musk went on to expand on this saying at this stage that is an ‘aspiration’ rather than a promise, suggesting there’s still some doubt in that timeline.
Given that it would be smart to imagine late Q3, rather than closer to the end of Q2.
In the Q1 2023 slide deck, we see new images of the Cybertruck pilot production line where the first vehicles will be made, in Gigafactory Texas.
During the Q&A section of the call, Tesla took questions from Say.com and one question was about updating pricing and specs for Cybertruck. Given it’s been a number of years, many questioned if the initial pricing (including FSD pricing) would be honoured. Elon Musk’s response was that the time for this is the customer delivery event, which certainly seems late, perhaps an indication that at least those first customers would be charged what they committed to.
Also included in the quarterly results were details about Tesla’s financials. Tesla’s Cash and Investments now total $22.4B.
Tesla continues to focus on ramping the number of vehicles produced and it’s clear the company is betting big on autonomy for future margin growth. Under the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) section, they show continued growth in the number of FSD Beta miles driven, now reaching a total of more than 150 million miles.
This level of data collection is unprecedented in the industry. Mass collection of diverse datasets is essential for AI-based approach – the only approach we believe can work for scalable autonomy.
Musk was asked about FSD take rates (purchase or subscription), but he declined to comment.
Another big story from Tesla’s progress is Energy Storage, predominantly the Megapack. Energy storage deployments increased by 360% YoY in Q1 to 3.9 GWh, the highest level of deployments we have achieved due to the ongoing Megafactory ramp.
Tesla is ramping up its new 40 GWh Megapack factory in Lathrop, California has been successful with still more room to reach full capacity. This Megapack factory will be the first of many. Tesla recently announced a second 40 GWh Megafactory, in Shanghai, with construction scheduled to start later this year.
