Tesla Cybertruck: all the news about Elon Musk’s futuristic pickup truck

Four years after its debut, the Tesla Cybertruck has finally reached its first batch of customers. The truck was delivered to about a dozen people during a lavish event at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, at which Elon Musk predicted the truck would usher in a new, more exciting future.

The company also provided updated details about the pricing, range, and features for the truck, much of which has changed significantly from the originally announced numbers. The rear-wheel drive version of the electric truck will start at $60,990 — up from the original price of $39,900 in 2019 — and will get 250 miles of range on a full charge. That version won’t be available until 2025.

Tesla is about to deliver the first Cybertrucks to buyers at an event on Thursday, November 30th, starting around 3PM ET / 2PM CT / 12PM PT in Austin, Texas.

The electric pickup truck, with a jarringly polygonal design, was first revealed in November 2019 by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The Cybertruck’s unique design helped it make its mark, and many people immediately plunked down $100 to hold a place in line to get one. Even the botched “armor glass” demonstration, in which Tesla’s lead designer smashed the driver’s side window with a metal ball, did little to deter interest.

It feels like a thousand years since Tesla first introduced the Cybertruck, but it’s actually only been about a thousand days. Still, that’s a long time in the auto world, and to say people are getting antsy waiting would be a huge understatement. 

The Cybertruck certainly took its time getting here, slogging its way through a global pandemic, a presidential election, two ongoing wars, and many other terrible things that have happened over the past four years. Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and his emergence as a “haver of bad opinions, especially about Jews” also took place within this time and is sure to cast a shadow over the Cybertruck’s big moment.   

After being recalled last year for not meeting product safety standards, Tesla’s $1,900 Cyberquad for Kids is once again available to purchase on the Tesla webstore in the US. The latest release of the Cybertruck-inspired ride-on toy — identified as Model 915 — is an updated version of the Model 914 Cyberquad for Kids that launched back in December 2021. Orders for the Model 915 are expected to begin shipping in late November.

Like the Model 914, the new Model 915 Cyberquad for Kids was jointly created by Tesla and popular children’s toy maker Radio Flyer, best known as the makers of the Little Red Wagon. The battery-powered Cyberquad for Kids has a 500W motor with a top speed of 10 mph (that parents can switch to 5 mph) and a max range of 15 miles, with LED headlights and taillights. Much like its Cybertruck inspiration, this pint-sized version of the Cyberquad ATV for adults also features a steel frame and high-pressure rubber air tires.

As Vergecast listeners know, I am deeply and forever fascinated by the Tesla Cybertruck’s wiper — it is one of the silliest design compromises in automotive history on a vehicle that is itself a rolling design compromise. I love it so much.

Anyway, I’ve been asking listeners to send in detailed shots of the wiper to confirm a rumor I’ve been hearing — my thanks to the dozens of people who’ve passed along photos. I didn’t have anything worth running until today, though: our own Parker Ortolani spotted a Cybertruck in NYC and took several photos that appear to show that the “single wiper” is actually multiple wiper blades stacked in a row.

Tesla’s Cybertruck is finally nearing its first delivery event on November 30th, and yet we still don’t have key details on configurations, prices, and other specifications of the unconventionally designed pickup truck.

But today, we got some insight for the launch, including initial Cybertruck powertrain options and Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), thanks to new VIN info from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The Tesla Cybertruck finally has a delivery date, according to a company post on X (formerly Twitter). Along with its third quarter earnings today, Tesla announced the long-delayed Cybertruck electric pickup will have its first deliveries during an event on November 30th at the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. The company is also expected to announce pricing then, which was originally pegged at $39,900 when first announced in 2019.

On Tesla’s Q3 earnings call Wednesday evening, CEO Elon Musk said he wanted to “temper expectations” as production ramp-up for Cybertruck will be extremely difficult. Musk says Tesla is targeting a quarter million Cybertrucks per year in the future, but that won’t happen until after 2024, and confirmed that more than 1 million people have reserved the truck.

Elon Musk biographer Walter Isaacson has shared a photograph of the Tesla CEO during an early meeting about the Cybertruck that sheds interesting light on the alternative designs considered, as well as the pop culture that ultimately inspired it. On the left of the image we can see several concept images of Tesla’s electric pickup truck, while on the right is a mood board showing images from various movies and video games, including many sci-fi and cyberpunk titles. In the foreground Musk can be seen in conversation with Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an alternative design for Tesla’s eye-catching pickup truck. During the company’s launch event for the Tesla Semi in 2017, Musk teased the announcement of the forthcoming vehicle with an early concept image featuring a much more Semi-style front-end. But the new photograph released by Isaacson shows a range of different designs, many with less-angular bodies that what recently rolled off the assembly line.

Tesla revealed new measurements for its long-delayed Cybertruck in its Q2 earnings report. The polarizing truck will be less than 19 feet long and will have a bed that’s longer than six feet, which is shorter than Ford’s best-selling F-150 Lighting, which is 19.25 feet long with a 5.5-foot bed.

“We continue to build release candidates of the Cybertruck on our final production line in Austin,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on an earnings call today. Musk claims it’s the first four-door pickup that comes in that bed and length size combination and that there’s “a lot of new technology” in the vehicle.

When the Cybertruck was announced in November 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he expected production to start in late 2021. But leaked Tesla documents examined by Wired suggest that the company was still struggling with the performance of basic elements of a preproduction “alpha” version of the truck in January 2022 including its braking, body sealing, and suspension.

Over a million customers are thought to have put down a $100 deposit to reserve the Cybertruck since its infamous 2019 unveiling, during which Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhausen — at Musk’s request — accidentally smashed two of its windows with a metal ball in a failed demonstration of its durability. Although it’s unlikely to be Tesla’s best-selling vehicle, the Cybertruck’s eventual release will be seen as a symbolic victory for a company that has not shipped a new consumer model since 2020’s Model Y. 

As Tesla nears its deadline to begin Cybertruck production, the person responsible for buying the materials to build the electric trucks is leaving the company. The Information reports that Tesla’s supply chain executive Mustapha El Akkari, who oversaw purchasing of raw materials for the Cybertruck and other Tesla vehicles, is now moving on to rival electric vehicle company Rivian.

According to the report, El Akkari (whose Twitter profile mentions he is Tesla’s head of raw materials) was responsible for $16 billion in supply purchases at Tesla, which included materials like aluminum and steel. Now it looks like El Akkari will be doing similar work for Rivian by accepting a “senior director of structures and raw materials” position, according to a source speaking to The Information.

We here at The Verge are committed to delivering to you hard-hitting journalism that touches on the defining issues of our times. Issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, free speech, and, of course, the Tesla Cybertruck’s comically oversize windshield wiper.

Yesterday, Tesla teased a new accessory for the Cybertruck: a tool rack that attaches to the bed of the electric pickup truck. At first glance, this would seem to be an obvious accessory to offer to truck customers, many of whom are contractors and tradespeople with a wide variety of tool storage needs. The Cybertruck aspires to be a truck for all types of people, and a tool rack helps illustrate the types of accessories that will be available when it eventually comes out (probably next year, but who knows).

Tesla will have a delivery event for its long-delayed Cybertruck in the third quarter of 2023, Elon Musk said during an earnings call with investors Wednesday.

After more than three years since its initial announcement, Cybertruck production is expected to start this summer — though Musk has said that volume production won’t begin until next year.

A new drone video has surfaced showing the Cybertruck’s ridiculously large windshield wiper in action. And you know what? It’s functional — and perhaps improved — but still doesn’t reach a good chunk of the glass in front of the passenger.

The video shot by Brad Sloan above Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory location on Thursday (and surfaced by Electrek) shows the Cybertruck undergoing a wind tunnel test. At the 13:42 mark you can see the truck’s single XL wiper blade start moving, with decent reach across the majority of windshield. Maybe it’s the angle, but it does seem like an improvement over some prototypes we’ve seen.