By Michael Elkins
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk confirmed in an interview with the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley on Thursday that the Cybertruck design is now “locked”.
“We need to get on that [getting the Cybertruck to production]. At least, the design is finally locked," said the billionaire in the interview. “We got too carried away [with design updates].”
During the interview, Musk updated the production timeline for the Cybertruck to now "mid-2023."
Elon Musk first unveiled the Cybertruck at their Design Studio in Los Angeles in 2019. Tesla claimed that the Cybertruck's "Armor Glass" windows were virtually unbreakable, but two windows shattered during a demonstration.
On 23 November 2019, Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla had received 146,000 pre-orders in the first 1.5 days after the unveiling. At the time, Tesla said that the electric pickup truck would make it to market by the end of 2021.
As the first deadline approached, it became clear that the Cybertruck was not going to make the original timeline. In August, the company confirmed via footnotes on their site that production had been delayed till 2022. A month later, Musk confirmed on a company-wide call that Tesla doesn’t expect to start Cybertruck production until the end of 2022.
However, as the timeline for the Model Y was pushed back, it appeared likely that the Cybertruck timeline would be delayed yet again. During Tesla’s earnings report in January, Musk gave an update confirming that Tesla wouldn’t launch the Cybertruck or any new vehicle in 2022.
With a new timeline of “mid-2023”, the company continues to have confidence in the electric pickup. Earlier this year, Cybertruck prototypes were seen being tested by Tesla as well as being used for promotion at events.