Why Is the Tesla Cybertruck Taking So Long?
By Sean Tucker 02/06/2023 9:24am
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stood on stage before a prototype of the company’s upcoming Cybertruck in late 2019 and announced that the truck would reach production within two years.
It’s been more than four years since, and there’s no Cybertruck.
Musk recently announced that large-scale production of the truck won’t start until 2024, though the company expects to begin small-scale manufacturing this year.
Rival companies that announced their trucks later already have them in customer driveways.
What happened? Why did industry veterans Ford (with the F-150 Lightning) and General Motors (the GMC Hummer), and startups Rivian (with its R1T) and Lordstown Motors (the Endurance) all start the race later than Tesla but get working electric trucks to customers before the Texas-based EV maker?
Lots of New Technologies in One Model
There’s likely not a single answer to the question.
Tesla is using the Cybertruck to introduce several new technologies. Growing pains in any one of them would slow down a project. If more than one proves challenging, delays could quickly stack up.
The Exoskeleton
A new report in The New York Times blames the truck’s unusual stainless steel body for delays.
“It’s the use of stainless steel for the Cybertruck’s body that has industry experts shaking their heads,” the Times explains.
Almost every car ever built has used a steel body (we see you, Saturn fans). But stainless steel is a very different prospect.
Stainless steel contains chromium, molybdenum, nickel, and other metals in high demand in technology products. It resists corrosion and could stay attractive for decades without painting. It’s also heavier than the steel used in most car bodies, which could resist dents better.
But it’s difficult to machine into body panels, and its limitations help drive the odd, cyberpunk shape of Tesla’s truck. Using it for the truck’s body – Tesla calls it the “exoskeleton,” though other automakers call the same technology unibody construction – is a challenge. The Times explains that it’s “expensive and difficult to shape and weld.”
That has skeptics questioning its value. Patrick McQuown, executive director of entrepreneurship at Towson University, told the Times, “the insistence on stainless steel is a manifestation of [Musk’s] belief that he has some unique understanding of the market.”
Mega Casting
The chassis of the Cybertruck uses new technology as well.
Tesla has long been working toward assembling the frames of its cars from fewer and fewer parts. That effort is part of the reason Teslas are notoriously expensive to repair. Traditional automakers keep the basic design of a car the same for several years at a time, allowing for consistency that makes them easy to repair.
A Tesla Model Y from 2020 and another from 2021 can use different parts under the skin, drastically limiting the industry’s ability to repair damaged models.
Tesla seeks to cast the basic parts of its cars in larger and larger segments over time. The Cybertruck will include the largest so-called “megacastings” the industry has ever seen.
The Texas factory that will build the Cybertruck recently took delivery of a gargantuan 9,000-ton casting machine it calls the “giga press” that will produce Cybertruck structural components.
It’s the only one of its kind and is still not operational. Recent images of prototypes show smaller components welded together to mimic what the megacastings will look like.
Delays May Not Matter Much
Some analysts say Tesla included too many new technologies in a single product, costing itself vital time.
Carnegie Mellon University Professor of Engineering Raj Rajkumar told the Times, “The first-mover advantage that Tesla could have leveraged has completely gone away. It’s a massive opportunity lost.”
But Tesla claims it has more than a million pre-orders for the truck. It may easily sell every one it can build.
Tesla fans tend to love the company’s products specifically because of their image as cutting-edge technology products. The company consistently scores poorly in industry quality measures like J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study (where the company refused to participate, but its scores would have placed it tied for 28th of 33 automakers).
But another J.D. Power study provides the key to understanding the company’s appeal. J.D. Power analysts look at how owners react to the technology in their cars in a separate survey, the Tech User Experience Study. Tesla again declines to participate. But its scores would have easily taken first place had it chosen to participate.
Tesla fans are more concerned with the feeling that their cars are as high-tech as possible than they are with standard measures of quality. With that in mind, they’re likely happy to wait for the Cybertruck if they understand that the delays are caused by Tesla’s struggles to master new technologies.