According to an official Tesla tweet, the ‘first Cybertruck’ electric pickup was built at the Texas gigafactory this week. Whether that means the company is ahead of production schedule or this is, just a first unit to fine-tune upcoming volume production isn’t clear. Normally, the first deliveries were scheduled for ‘around the end of the third quarter’.

The Cybertruck was introduced by Elon Musk in 2019, but Tesla pushed back production timing twice toward the end of 2023. In May, Musk told his shareholders he would like to build 250 000 units a year, entering a highly volatile pickup market in the US.

No pre-orders outside the US

The Cybertruck didn’t fail to wow the crowds with its sci-fi design and caused quite a stir. Hitting the core section of the automotive market in North America, the only region where the vehicle is currently available for pre-ordering, the number of pre-orders is stunning and reportedly already exceeded 1,5 million in November last year.

Those customers paid a fee of 100 dollars, and at a production rate of half a million units per year, it would take the EV maker six years to fill that ordering bank. But, according to Musk, the order book is filled for three years after the start of assembly, so the company stopped taking orders outside North America last year.

No updates on the specs

Cybertruck is based on an exoskeleton structure and looks futuristic and raw, a mix of a ‘Mad Max’ pickup and the ‘Back-to-the-Future’ Delorean. Since its introduction in November 2019, Tesla didn’t give updates on the car’s specs.

At that time, the Cybertruck was said to be available in three different forms. The introductory offer is a rear-wheel driven vehicle (Single Motor RWD). Then there is a twin-engine four-wheel-drive version (Dual Motor AWD).

Finally, a top-notch version with three engines (Tri-Motor AWD) for ultimate power and performance. The range of the pickups varies as well, according to the battery pack promising 400 km over 482 to an impressive 800 km.

But meanwhile, the battery pack became another worry. The Cybertruck is scheduled to leave the factory with the all-new 4680 batteries, but analysts claimed that ramping up production of the new cells needs to catch up for that.