A seemingly production-ready variant of the Tesla Cybertruck has found its way online following a private viewing event, featuring a single windshield wiper, production mirrors and a couple of other subtle features about which we previously had no idea.
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We still don’t know whether this is a production-ready vehicle or a near-production prototype, but by the looks of it, it’s somewhere in that vicinity. It already looks more rugged than the initial concept, unveiled back in November of 2019.

The images, courtesy of Cybertruck Owners Club, show a great deal more detail than that previous leak from October of last year, which did feature side mirrors and fog lights, among other things.

Let’s unpack everything we see, starting with the front end. If you look closely, you can see that the fascia itself (the panel positioned underneath the light strip but above the fog lights) might be detachable, which is a smart solution for hiding things like a trailer hitch or other utilitarian goodies.

It could also be a storage unit of sorts, but we’ll have to wait either until Tesla unveils the final product, or for more leaks in order to know exactly what’s going on with that front fascia area.

Moving on to the windshield wipers – or rather wiper (singular), we ca see that it’s quite large and that it’s resting in an upright position along the A-pillar. We’re not sure if this is its final resting position, but it kind of looks like it. Also, the way it’s designed, it might actually extend and retract, as one form member points out in the thread.

Moving on to the side of the vehicle, we can see the production mirrors in a lot more detail than before, and the same goes for the wheels. Oh, and gone are the "conventional" door handles that were featured on the concept, which is both cool and questionable in a pickup truck that some people will use as a workhorse, maybe while wearing gloves.

The Cybertruck is expected to go into production in 2023, which means Tesla still has plenty of time to fine-tune its appearance.

As promised so many times, Tesla Cybertruck is about to enter production. This time, it could be the real thing, though, as the Italians from Idra have shown the assembling process of their biggest Giga Press yet. The 9,000-ton machine is supposed to cast the Cybertruck underbody, greatly simplifying the production process.
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If you’re not familiar with Idra, it’s enough to say that the Italians build the world’s largest high-pressure die casting machines. They call them Giga Presses, and, believe it or not, the name has nothing to do with Elon Musk. As explained by the company’s CEO, it was coined in 2019 when Idra produced the first 5,500-ton die casting machine. It might have something to do with Tesla, though, since the EV maker was among the first customers for the Giga Press, and its assembly plants are called gigafactories. Who cares?

These things are getting bigger and bigger, and the latest built by Idra is capable of 9,000 tons of clamping force. Rumors have it that the Giga Press is destined to be installed at Giga Texas and used in the Cybertruck’s single-piece rear underbody production. This information was backed by Elon Musk, who said a year ago that the Cybertruck’s underbody would require at least an 8,000-ton Giga Press.

“We’re actually going to be using even bigger casting machines for the rear body of the Cybertruck because it’s a bigger vehicle and you’ve got a long truck bed that’s going to support a lot of load,” said Musk at the time. “So we’ll be using an 8,000-ton casting press for the rear body casting as opposed to the 6,000-ton for the Model Y.”

Next week, Idra’s open house event will exhibit the gigantic casting machine. But before that would happen, the Italians had to assemble the contraption, and a video was produced to show the process. As you can see, the Giga Press (or maybe the Terra Press) is already painted in the traditional Tesla livery, just as the smaller Giga Presses before it. This adds further weight to the claim that it will be used to build the Cybertruck.

A one-shot mega casting of a front or rear platform from a Giga Press replaces up to 250 pieces and reduces weight by 10 to 30 percent, depending on the mix of steel and alloy used. It is also very efficient, replacing up to 200 meters of robotized welding lines that would have been needed to create a complete front or rear platform.

Elon Musk has been promising the Tesla Cybertruck for three years now, but the wait seems to be far from over. The more we find out about Tesla’s electric truck, the more we are convinced that Elon never really gave it much thought, let alone get it into production.
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It might come as a surprise, but it does not appear that Tesla Cybertruck is now any closer to mass production than it was three years ago. Despite some rough prototypes being showcased at different events, the Cybertruck is only an idea for now. What’s discouraging is that this idea keeps changing. Like the horizon line, the Cybertruck seems impossible to get to.

Many things were said about the Cybertruck, but the simple fact that Tesla changed the concept once the Rivian R1T was launched says a lot about this electric truck project. At the end of May, another seemingly unrelated news shed more light on the Cybertruck development state. It’s taking shape, it’s closer to daylight, but it’s still in its infancy.

The news was about Idra’s biggest casting machine yet, the 9,000-ton Giga Press. The rumors around the gigantic casting machine were quickly stopped by Elon Musk himself, who confirmed the machine would be used to stamp the Cybertruck body. This is a little different from stamping the underbody, as Musk also told us a year ago. Either way, this information confirms two things related to the Cybertruck development.

The first is that Tesla did not have a casting machine big enough to build the Cybertruck a year ago when the pickup was first supposed to enter production. The second is more complicated. Depending on what you want to see, is either positive (as in “Tesla has the machine now”) or negative (the whole plan needs to be rewritten from scratch).

To be clear, Elon Musk said from the very beginning that the Cybertruck would have an exoskeleton unibody shell. This is not very different from how die-cast toy cars are made. Until now, Tesla did not have a casting machine big enough to produce one. This probably made Musk stall for time or even find a workaround, hence the 8,000-ton machines Tesla ordered at Giga Texas.

Now, it looks like Idra was finally able to supply Tesla with a bigger casting machine that can stamp the whole Cybertruck body instead of only the rear underbody. This will force Tesla to redesign the entire production process, leading to more delays. The good part is that Tesla could once again revolutionize car manufacturing. If only the Cybertruck would enter mass production, of course.

Even though at first glance the Tesla Cybertruck that was most recently spotted looks almost identical to the original prototype/concept shown in November of 2019, the electric truck has undergone some quite notable changes. However, no additional big changes are coming, according to Elon Musk, who announced in an interview that the Cybertruck’s design was “finally locked.”

The most notable changes we observed over the last year or so are the new windscreen wipers (no, they’re not lasers, but they may extend somehow, since in the latest photos they look too short for the massive windscreen), the addition of rear-wheel steering, the appearance of production spec side mirrors and the disappearance of physical door handles (which the concept ha).

We recently also got a peek inside the Cybertruck at what appeared to be the final design of the dashboard, which features a similar setup to the Tesla Model S and Model X, with a driver’s display complimenting the big central infotainment screen. The Cybertruck dash looks a lot like a Model S/X, but instead of rounded flowing shapes, Tesla made everything angular to match the exterior.

During the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley interview where he made many other announcements, Musk said Tesla’s focus is now to try to finally start building the truck. However, he points out that no matter how hard the automaker will try, it will not be able to make up for the lack of semiconductors that is now plaguing the industry.

This is why he estimates that even though the Cybertruck’s design won’t be changed any more, so they can start preparing and tooling up for production at the Texas Gigafactory, its actual start of production is still 12 months away. And that’s just Elon’s estimate right now, which doesn’t take into account any additional hitch they may still encounter on the road to production.

While other manufacturers seem to be propelling their vehicles into the all-electric stratosphere, Tesla seems reluctant to get off the ground with its Cybertruck. Earlier this year the company stopped taking reservations in Europe and China because the amount of orders on the books already equates to a three year wait time for delivery. Now, Tesla will start refunding those with a reservation in Australia as the Cybertruck won’t be making its way to The Outback anytime soon, if at all.

It’s alleged that Tesla had 1.2 million pre-orders for the Cybertruck in August of last year, each of which cost $100. That amounts to $120 million dollars made solely off of reservations for the automaker. Of those reservations, America holds the most, then Canada, and Australia rounded out the top-three with 76.25%, 10.43%, and 3.16% respectively. Some quick math, and we find that Australia is responsible for about 38,000 reservations in total or roughly $3.8 million dollars.

The controversial Cybertruck was pulled from Tesla Australia’s website earlier this year and reservation holders were told, by the company, that they are eligible for a refund. In order to take advantage of a full refund however reservation holders will have to apply for it. Seeing as though the earliest delivery of the Cybertruck isn’t expected to happen until December of 2023 at this point, one begins to ask if the Cybertruck even matters anymore. Rivals such as the F-150 Lightning, Rivian’s R1T and the GMC Hummer EV will have full production already under their belt by then.

While Australia was one of the top-three countries to have pre-orders on file, we know that there were other countries (seemingly less interested) that had access to pre-orders as well. Norway, Germany, Sweden, France, Iceland, and the Netherlands all had the opportunity to make pre-orders, only time will tell if they should befall the same fate.

Elon Musk made some interesting comments about the Tesla Cybertruck prices and specs at the company's "Cyber Roundup" annual meeting of shareholders on August 4.

More specifically, Tesla CEO said that prices and specifications of the Cybertruck production model will change compared to those announced at the concept's unveiling in November 2019.

This should come as no surprise for anyone given how much the world has changed since the Cybertruck was first revealed. The pandemic and lockdowns hit just months later, causing major supply chain disruptions, shortages of semiconductors and other parts, and price increases on basically everything.

Add to that the raging inflation most of the world is seeing at the moment and the military conflict in Ukraine and it's pretty clear that the Cybertruck can't be priced from just under $40,000 as Tesla originally announced in 2019. Here's what Elon Musk had to say about Cybertruck pricing after an investor asked when Tesla would announce prices for its electric truck during the Q&A session at the shareholder meeting yesterday.

“Cybertruck pricing, it was unveiled in 2019, and the reservation was $99. A lot has changed since then, so the specs and the pricing will be different. I hate to give sort of a little bit of bad news, but I think there's no way to sort of have anticipated quite the inflation that we've seen and the various issues.”

That's not really a surprise; after all, Tesla did remove Cybertruck prices and specs from its website as early as October 2021, so it was pretty clear that changes would come in the pricing and specification structure.

That said, Musk reassured the audience that "the Cybertruck will be one hell of a product" and "a damn fine machine." Unfortunately, he did not make any comments about how the electric pickup's specifications would change compared to what Tesla announced in 2019.

Finally, Musk reiterated the mid-2023 target for the start of Cybertruck production and said that manufacturing preparations for the electric pickup at Tesla's Gigafactory Texas will start soon.
"We're going to be installing the production equipment, tooling and all starting in the next couple of months, we'll begin the installation, so we're aiming to be in volume production in the middle of next year."

Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen had a long chat on the Ride the Lightning podcast with Ryan McCaffrey, and the upcoming Cybertruck took the better part of the interview. Von Holzhausen revealed that the Cybertruck would probably come with a yoke, although things might change at the last minute.

The Cybertruck is arguably the most anticipated vehicle launch this year, considering the delays and the 1.7 million reservations. Tesla has made several promises that the electric pickup truck would enter production “by the end of next year,” and we’re hoping this dance will finally end in 2023. One of the reasons why the Cybertruck was delayed so many times was because Tesla considered changing features and design at the last moment, which pushed the production phase even further. This has made the Cybertruck a wheeled equivalent to the horizon line: we all see it, but it moves further as we try to get nearer.

Nevertheless, this is about to change in 2023, as confirmed not only by Tesla and Elon Musk, but also by the changes in progress at Giga Texas. This is where the Cybertruck will be assembled with the help of IDRA’s 9,000-ton Giga Presses. The production line is in the tooling phase, and we expect to start calibration soon. The imminence of the production start has now been confirmed by Tesla’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen in the interview with Ryan McCaffrey on the Ride The Lightning podcast.

The two talked about the Cybertruck for the best part of the interview, although few new details were revealed. This is understandable, considering that von Holzhausen is far from having the same liberty discussing sensitive topics about Tesla as Elon Musk does. But then again, Musk’s credibility is at an all-time low, especially when talking about future products. For this purpose, we’re happy that von Holzhausen offered a glimpse into what we can expect from the upcoming electric truck.

Tesla’s chief designer confirmed that the Cybertruck design is now finalized, which means the production can start. Before you rejoice, note that von Holzhausen also stated that Tesla is not shy about making changes as it sees fit. Like all other Tesla vehicles, the Cybertruck is a rolling project, and changes are implemented around the clock under the hood, even though, on the outside, it seems like nothing has changed. Nevertheless, Franz is certain that the Cybertruck production line will start working this summer and will achieve volume levels by the end of the year.

One thing that von Holzhausen thinks “makes a lot of sense” is the yoke steering, as we’ve seen on the refreshed Model S and Model X introduced in 2021. The yoke steering was a very polarizing design choice, especially as Tesla does not offer progressive steering on the two models. This forces drivers to contort their arms, trying to rotate something that isn’t round.

“I think that the yoke makes a lot of sense; once you experience it, it’s a great driving experience. Once you combined with Autopilot, it makes the whole kind of user experience and the interior cockpit simpler and cleaner, and so yeah, we’re looking at the yoke there too,” von Holzhausen said during the interview.

Nevertheless, Tesla customers don’t see things as clearly as Tesla’s designer because the EV maker conceded and now offers a round steering wheel option for the two models. Hopefully, the Cybertruck will provide a round steering wheel too.

Von Holzhausen talked about another controversial design choice on the Cybertruck: handleless doors. Because Tesla didn’t want to cut holes in the ultra-hard cold-rolled stainless steel door panel, an automatic door opening was designed instead of regular handles. This works similarly on the Model X, where front doors automatically pop open when approaching the car.

Von Holzhausen also talked about the stainless steel finish of the Cybertruck body and how scratches will be removed. He also hinted at some “unannounced features,” saying they would be a pleasant surprise for everyone.

If you’ve been holding your breath since 2019 for a Tesla Cybertruck you need to think of your family and breathe; CEO Elon Musk announced in a call with investors Wednesday that volume production of the giant electric truck would likely only start in 2024.

Musk, of course, loves to say new products will come at some point in the future until they don’t. He said the Cybertruck would go into production in late 2021 back when the vehicle was revealed in 2019. In 2021, production was delayed to 2022. When 2022 came around, Musk pegged production at the end of 2023. Now we’re in 2023, and Musk has kicked the can further down the road.

The same day Musk confirmed he had reviewed the Tesla Cybertruck in production beta, the internet started filling up with pictures and videos of the actual prototype. The latest iteration of the electric pickup truck sports a new side mirror design and other modifications over the previous prototypes.




Update: Elon Musk confirmed that the prototype in the video is very close to the production model. “Yeah. Still many small tweaks to make it better (and the side mirrors are removable by owner), but this is very close to production design.”

As Tesla nears the Cybertruck production, the EV maker becomes more secretive about everything related to the electric pickup truck. People following progress at Giga Texas confirmed that Tesla even took the extreme step of covering the windows of the Cybertruck production facility. Nevertheless, crowd-sourced information is filling the void, with some speculations and hard facts revealing interesting details about the production-ready Cybertruck.

After Elon Musk confirmed he reviewed the production beta prototype of the truck, social media was shaken by the pictures and videos of the prototype. It sports interesting modifications, although some of them failed to attract the usual cheers from the Tesla community. It’s hard to judge a vehicle from just a short video, but it seems Tesla has toned down the original concept, and the “CGI in real life” mantra is no longer valid.

We’ll start with the obvious, which is the new side mirror design. Tesla opted for a tetrahedron shape that better suits the Cybertruck design. Indeed, this is miles better than the huge side mirrors on the previously-spotted prototypes, although it might be less efficient at covering blind spots around the truck. We can’t say we dislike the new design. It’s just less functional than before.

Another striking detail is the rear door, which appears to have been modified. In the previous prototypes, the rear window featured a panel with a white button at the bottom to open the door. In the latest prototype, on the other hand, this panel is missing, which means the rear door opening might be triggered from the B-pillar, like the front doors.

Another detail stirred discontent in the Tesla community and concerned the taillights. People lament the apparent lack of a light strip as in previous prototypes. Instead, the beta Cybertruck only features spot taillights. While arguably less visually appealing, the new lights are probably better for a work-ready, rugged truck.

The biggest disappointment, though, is the realization that the Tesla Cybertruck prototype in the video doesn’t feature all-wheel steering. This is not different from a previous prototype we saw at Giga Texas in preparation for the Cyber Rodeo event last year. All-wheel steering helps a great deal in maneuvering a large truck like the Cybertruck in tight spots like parking garages. Nevertheless, we have the impression that this prototype has a shorter wheelbase than the previous ones, so this might be less of an issue.