Tesla Inc. has delivered its first Cybertrucks at an event in Texas on Thursday, with Chief Executive Elon Musk heralding the electric pickup truck as the future of cars.
“Once in a long while a product comes along that is rare, something really special … We will remember these special moments,” Musk told an audience of fans and some of the first Cybertruck owners. “We have a car here that experts said would never be made.”
The event at the company’s Austin factory was live-streamed on X, the social-media site formerly known as Twitter, which is owned by Musk.
After showing the truck performing a few feats, including winning a race with a 2023 Porsche 911, Musk personally greeted customers and delivered the first few Cybertrucks to them, including to a man who could be overheard saying he hadn’t slept in three days, presumably in anticipation.
“It’s going to be amazing to see all those cars driving around,” Musk said. “This is really going to change the look of the roads.”
According to Tesla’s website, the trucks start at $60,990 without incentives or projected gas savings, all the way to $99,990 for a top-of-the-line version Tesla is calling “Cyberbeast.”
Tesla shares
TSLA,
were down about 1% at the start of the event and ended the regular trading session down 1.8%.
Musk didn’t speak about specific delivery dates for the trucks, and some of the trims were showing availability as late as 2025. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note late Thursday that he estimates Tesla is able to make 2,000 to 3,000 Cybertrucks this quarter, reaching 10,000 units a quarter in the first half of next year.
“While Cybertruck does not significantly move the financial needle for Tesla in [2024], it further shows” Tesla’s innovation, said Ives, a known Tesla bull.
Pricing was at “the high end of what we expected,” RBC Capital Tom Narayan said. That supports the view that conversion rates on the million-plus reservations will be “low, likely under 20%,” he said.
“However, this shouldn’t be a factor through 2024 as we don’t expect Tesla to deliver a cumulative [200,000] units until well into 2025,” the analyst said.
Earlier Thursday, Musk posted on X a photo of the vehicle’s production line:
The sales of the futuristic-looking electric pickup truck have been delayed by a couple of years, and arrive as Musk has sought to temper expectations about the production pace, warning there would be “challenges” to reaching production at scale.
That hasn’t stopped Wall Street from calling for a “halo” effect from the Cybertruck’s sales to other Tesla vehicles.
“We believe the rollout of [Tesla’s] most highly anticipated vehicle will boost sales of the 3/Y and see the launch event as a potential catalyst for [Tesla’s] entire lineup,” Ben Kallo, an analyst at Baird, said in a recent note.
Others, however, have been more cautious given the vehicle’s not-for-everyone looks — and price.
“Our expectations are that Cybertruck volumes will [be] worthy of a niche product at first, as electric vehicles still have limited appeal,” Cox Automotive analysts said in a recent note, recalling their survey in August that found the Cybertruck “doesn’t appear to be what pickup-truck buyers are looking for.”
The Cybertruck has drawn more than 1 million reservations since its unveiling in November 2019, when a test of its “armor glass” went memorably awry — with two windows badly cracked after a steel ball was thrown at them. On Thursday, another similar test was performed, and the glass held.
At the 2019 unveiling, Tesla said the truck’s price would start around $39,900 for a single-motor version with a battery range of about 250 miles, and go all the way up to $69,900 for a tri-motor version with a range of 500 miles.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock has gained more than 2% this week, handily beating the S&P 500 index
SPX.
That outperformance holds for the year to date as well, with Tesla shares up 95% in comparison with a 19% advance for the broader index.
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