As we just reported, Tesla CEO Elon Musk held an all-hands call yesterday with Tesla execs and employees. Of course, much of the information from the call was leaked. In fact, it seems that people on the call were feeding details to others on the outside as the call was taking place.
Among the juicy morsels from Musk's call was another Tesla Cybertruck timeline update. Some may see it as a delay while others were already well aware that the electric pickup truck had already been delayed to 2022.
Interestingly, Tesla fan and investor Sawyer Merritt first reported the Cybertruck information as a delay. He was sending tweet after tweet to a thread as someone leaked details to him from the reported all-hands call.
Later, Merritt walked back his wording. He said he wanted to retract the part about the Cybertruck being delayed since Tesla's website had been recently updated to show the 2022 production timeline. Moreover, Tesla and Musk had already previously confirmed that the Cybertruck wasn't coming this year.
Merritt goes on to say that this makes sense for Cybertruck volume production to come in 2023 if the electric truck isn't going to begin production until sometime near the end of 2022.
Many Tesla fans, owners, and investors, as well as the media and financial markets, aren't happy about Tesla's continued delays. The brand has many projects in the pipeline, and though some were announced years ago, they still aren't coming to market for years. One major point of contention comes from many of the people who worked to rack up enough referrals to get a free Tesla Roadster. They've already had to wait years, and there's really no light at the end of the tunnel.
With that said, Musk made an interesting comment this week that sort of puts it all into perspective. No matter how many new products Tesla announces, it can't really ship any of them any time soon due to supply chain shortages. Tesla will have two new factories up and running soon, but if it can't even get parts for its current lineup, it has no business bringing more cars to market.
Some folks may argue perhaps Tesla shouldn't have revealed all these vehicles if it can't yet follow through with them. However, it didn't know prior to 2020 that the pandemic was coming and it couldn't forecast with certainty the timelines for its new factories, especially the one in Germany.
Automakers revealing concept cars that either don't come to market for many years – or actually never come to market – is nothing new. Brands have been doing this for years, but Tesla is actually taking reservations for these vehicles despite no opportunity to produce or deliver them anytime soon.
Scroll down to the comment section to start a conversation. What do you think about Tesla's upcoming vehicle timelines?
Source: Sawyer Merritt (Twitter)