Starting at $81,500, Tesla’s Cybertruck is priced 50% higher than initial estimate

San Francisco – Tesla’s long-delayed Cybertruck will be priced starting at US$60,990 (S$81,500), over 50 per cent more than

what chief executive Elon Musk had touted in 2019

and a cost that analysts have said will draw select, affluent buyers.

The truck, made of shiny stainless steel shaped into flat planes, is partly inspired by a car-turned-submarine in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, Mr Musk has said.

Its new body material and unconventional, futuristic styling have added complexity and costs to production, and threatens to alienate traditional pickup truck buyers who focus on utility, experts say.

But Mr Musk, who has priced the vehicle’s three variants between US$60,990 and US$99,990, said on Nov 30 that the Cybertruck has “more utility than a truck” and is “faster than a sports car”.

He drove a Cybertruck onto a stage to cheers from the crowd and later handed over vehicles to about a dozen customers at an event in Austin, Texas. “Finally, the future will look like the future,” he said about the truck’s design, showing a video of the Cybertruck towing a Porsche 911 and beating another petrol-powered 911 in a short race.

Tesla shares fell 2 per cent in extended trading on Nov 30 after closing off 1.6 per cent at US$240.08.

Mr Musk did not announce the vehicle’s prices at the event, but Tesla’s website listed them. Its highest-performance variant, the Cyberbeast, will be available in 2024, as will the all-wheel-drive trim that starts at an estimated US$80,000. The cheapest rear-wheel-drive version, with an estimated starting price of US$61,000, will be available in 2025.

“This is going to appeal to... definitely a wealthier clientele that can afford the price point, and they want something that is unique and quirky,” said Ms Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at auto research firm Edmunds, adding that there “just isn’t a large segment of the population that can afford that, especially where interest rates are”.

After Mr Musk estimated in 2019 that the Cybertruck would sell for US$40,000, the vehicle drew over a million reservation holders who put down US$100 deposits. He had not offered an updated price before Nov 27, despite rising raw material costs for electric vehicles (EVs). New deposits are US$250, Mr Musk said on Nov 30.

Grandstanding showpiece

Cybertruck, two years behind schedule, enters a hot pickup truck market to compete with the likes of Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Rivian Automotive’s R1T and General Motors’ Hummer EV. Rivian’s R1T has a starting price of US$73,000, while the F-150 Lightning starts at about US$50,000. The larger and more powerful Hummer EV pickup costs more than US$96,000.

The Cybertruck, Tesla’s first new model in nearly four years, is critical to the firm’s reputation as a maker of innovative vehicles. At a time when Tesla is battling softening EV demand and rising competition, the Cybertruck is also key for generating sales, although not to the extent of the company’s high-volume Model 3 and Model Y.

Mr Musk tempered investor expectations about the product in October, citing problems in ramping up production and warning that it would take a year to 18 months to make it a significant cash flow contributor.

Ahead of the launch, Mr Musk captured media attention on a different subject,

giving a profanity-laced interview to The New York Times on Nov 29.

He cursed advertisers who left his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, because of allegedly anti-Semitic comments.

On Nov 30, he said about the truck: “It’s basically an incredibly useful truck. It’s not just some grandstanding showpiece like me.”

During its 2019 reveal, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen took a metal ball to demonstrate the truck’s unbreakable “armour glass” window,

only to shatter it.

Mr Holzhausen on Nov 30 lobbed a baseball at the Cybertruck window and it bounced off. REUTERS