Tesla won’t say whether the Cybertruck has been delayed

The Tesla Cybertruck is currently scheduled to arrive by the end of this year, but there have been some concerns that the electric truck might be delayed. Worst of all Tesla won’t commit to one answer or another.

Tesla issued an investor letter saying it was making “progress” towards Cybertruck production. However, the only information we have on when it’s due to begin is that it’ll kick off after Model Y production starts at the Tesla Gigafactory in Texas. That will happen “before the end of the year.”

Elektrek noted that the company issued a chart detailing the status of its vehicle production capacity in the same document. From that it’s clear various Tesla Models are either in production or at the “construction” phase at factories around the world. But not the Cybertruck. 

The Cybertruck is still down as “in development” alongside the newly-delayed Tesla Semi, the 2022 Roadster and a “future product” — likely the hatchback Elon Musk recently confirmed was coming.

Though this isn’t just a case of Tesla just not talking about things publicly. The automaker was directly asked about Cybertruck production on more than one occasion during the Q2 earnings call earlier this week. It was even asked to “confirm” that production is planned for later this year.

“Cybertruck is at a stage where we finished basic engineering of the architecture of the vehicle. With the Cybertruck, we are redefining how a vehicle is being made,” said Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, “As Elon said, it carries much of the structural pack and large casting design of the Model Y being built in Berlin and Austin. Obviously, those take priority over the Cybertruck, but we are moving into the beta phases of Cybertruck later this year and we will be looking to ramp up production at Giga Texas after Model Y is up and running.”

Which isn’t actually an answer to the question. While it confirms the Cybertruck is still happening, it doesn’t hammer down when. Unfortunately Tesla does not have a particularly good track record where delays are concerned. And since development is still in the alpha phase it doesn’t paint a very positive picture for the Cybertruck. 

With only five months of 2021 left to go, time is fast running out for the company to sort things out and start building trucks. Especially given all the features and performance that has already been promised.

The honest truth is we’re just going to have to wait and see. The Cybertruck may begin production before the end of the year, or it might not. And until Tesla actually tells us what’s going on then we can only speculate.