ModelAZ

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Tesla’s Cybertruck delay may have been caused by design finalization

Source https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-cybertruck-2022-delay-design-finalization/

Posted on August 9, 2021

Tesla’s production of the all-electric Cybertruck may have been pushed back due to design finalization by company engineers who have been modifying the vehicle’s dimensions and look.

On Saturday, Tesla’s online configurator for the Cybertruck was officially updated to state that production was starting in 2022. This was a slight change, as previously the configurator, which outlines the variants of each vehicle, when their expected delivery dates are, and pricing, stated that the Tri-Motor variant of the truck would be produced as early as December 2021.

However, this has been pushed back to 2022, as the Model Y is taking priority at Giga Texas, Tesla’s newest facility. Construction is still ongoing, but production nears and could start within the coming weeks, according to some reports. The Cybertruck and Model Y are both slotted to be produced at the plant among other vehicles as well, but it remained unclear what vehicle would take priority. This was until the Q2 2021 Earnings Call where Tesla confirmed the Model Y would be the first vehicle built at the facility, which is located just miles outside of Austin.


It appears that Tesla may have been working on finalizing the design of the Cybertruck, and this instance may have caused the delay. Tesla insider @SawyerMerritt stated earlier today that a company source said Tesla finalized the design of the Cybertruck just recently.




Teslarati reached out to Merritt for more context, but no more information was able to be shared at the request of the individual who shared it. Merritt said the source was within Tesla.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk stated that Cybertruck engineering was “almost finished” during the Q4 2020 Earnings Call in January. “So we’re no longer iterating at the design center level or design level. We’ve got the designs fixed,” he stated. However, there was some movement on this statement when Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast just a few weeks later.

During the February podcast, Musk stated that the Cybertruck was still going through some minor design modifications related to size. He stated that the Cybertruck unveiled at the Hawthorne Design Studio in November 2019 was “pretty much what it will look like,” but there would be some small differences between that vehicle and the final design. Most of the changes were related to the dimensions of the car. “You know, we adjusted the size a few percent. Like around 3% or smaller. You don’t want it to be a couple of inches too big for the tunnel,” Musk added.

Musk stated during the podcast that the Cybertruck would enter production at Giga Texas late this year and that “if we’re lucky,” some deliveries might be completed by the end of 2021.

Tesla is known to take its time with designing vehicles, making sure the engineering and software of a vehicle are just right. This is most evident with the recent Model S Plaid deliveries, which were slated to begin in February. Tesla didn’t give the Model S Plaid to customers until June 10th, as software and design challenges held up the delivery process. Musk was transparent when announcing the delays, stating that minor tweaks needed to be made for the car to be acceptable.

The Cybertruck is still undergoing many design finalizations, and nothing is set in stone. Recently, Teslarati uncovered the possibility of Tesla installing solar panels on the Cybertruck’s tonneau for increased range. This idea has not been confirmed by Tesla yet, but the patents point toward the potential usage of solar cells to increase traveling distance between charges.
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John K

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Tesla’s production may have been delayed by Aliens. I have recently been told, aliens exist.

During a history channel broadcast, someone with interesting hair said you could not prove it was not aliens so, aliens.

There seems to be a leap of faith between cause and effect of production start. The guess may be correct but I am missing causal evidence,
 

Cyberon

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Tesla’s production may have been delayed by Aliens. I have recently been told, aliens exist.

During a history channel broadcast, someone with interesting hair said you could not prove it was not aliens so, aliens.

There seems to be a leap of faith between cause and effect of production start. The guess may be correct but I am missing causal evidence,
Tesla’s production may have been delayed by Aliens. I have recently been told, aliens exist.

During a history channel broadcast, someone with interesting hair said you could not prove it was not aliens so, aliens.

There seems to be a leap of faith between cause and effect of production start. The guess may be correct but I am missing causal evidence,
While it may have been delayed by aliens, alien transportation conglomerates are neither building in USA nor are they Union, this, no tax break.
(Silly Martians)
They will not prevail!
All Hail Elon!!!
 

Ogre

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I'm going to go out on a limb here. I know this is controversial, but my secret theory is that it is being delayed because they haven't figured out how to scale production of the 4680 battery.

Wait wait I know this sounds unlikely, but I have evidence. An anonymous source with knowledge of the matter gave me an exclusive. My source says they wouldn't produce the Cybertruck without the 4680 being manufactured at scale. They even went so far as to say that without high scale production, the Cybertruck would cost $1m per unit.

I know... it's hard to believe but I trust my source.
 


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I can't put much faith in information from a source that just "recently . . . uncovered the possibility of Tesla installing solar panels on the Cybertruck’s tonneau." This has been a stated possibility since around November 22, 2019.
 

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As said previously, the availability of scale on the 4680 cells is likely a factor.

The biggest design change we’ve heard about to date, that would require much more than just a functional layout change, would be the late mentioned 4 wheel steering. Not only do they need to make sure the rear wheel well has enough space for the turning radius, but also the linkages for the steering mechanisms, if not leveraging drive by wire.
 

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While there are a number of good theories here, I think the 4 wheel steering is something that probably was in the design as a feature they were holding back telling us about for some time. With all the reservations they had no reason to add it to compete with Rivian and Hummer. Cybertruck was already going to grab a huge portion of the electric truck market. I am going to bet that they have been playing with this idea for a long time and it was in the engineering design that they announced was done months ago.

IMO Most likely culprits are:
#1 wanting to get 4680 production ramped up first (batteries not included is not an option. )
#2 waiting on NHTSA finalizing approval of camera mirrors. Tesla really has a thing against mirrors. They have tried for years to launch cars with cameras in place of mirrors and I think that they are really hoping that if they can hold out just a little bit longer they might finally get to do it with the cybertruck.
 

Ogre

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IMO Most likely culprits are:
#1 wanting to get 4680 production ramped up first (batteries not included is not an option. )
#2 waiting on NHTSA finalizing approval of camera mirrors. Tesla really has a thing against mirrors. They have tried for years to launch cars with cameras in place of mirrors and I think that they are really hoping that if they can hold out just a little bit longer they might finally get to do it with the cybertruck.
Tesla told us why it was delayed in fairly uncertain terms.

Without the 4680, there is no Cybertruck and no Semi. Production at scale of the 4680 is still a work in progress. They were pretty explicit on the earnings call that the 4680 was a complete show stopper.

I strongly suspect Tesla would ship with mirrors if they needed to in order to get the truck out the door.
 


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I'm going to go out on a limb here. I know this is controversial, but my secret theory is that it is being delayed because they haven't figured out how to scale production of the 4680 battery.

Wait wait I know this sounds unlikely, but I have evidence. An anonymous source with knowledge of the matter gave me an exclusive. My source says they wouldn't produce the Cybertruck without the 4680 being manufactured at scale. They even went so far as to say that without high scale production, the Cybertruck would cost $1m per unit.

I know... it's hard to believe but I trust my source.
Maaaybe…IDK 4680 but sounds reasonable.

Superimpose SOP Cybertruck over any one of BoomTrooper‘s videos and what you have would be the Clusterf#$& video of all time. GigaAUSTIN isn’t even closed-in; still whole sections are exposed to the elements.

There’s so many moving parts BoomTrooper can’t convey the layers of activity involved ongoing.
 

hridge2020

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IDRA the world's first 8,000-ton diecasting machine. Order was only signed March 16, 2021


Since using the Giga Press, costs will go down, so will that cost be forward to the consumer??
 
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Diehard

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The Cybertruck is still undergoing many design finalizations
English is still a baffling language to me. I always thought of the word ”final” as a binary thing. Either something is Final or it is not. Nothing like optimism can ruin a language; “undergoing finalization”. It is simple people; it ain’t final until a fat lady or dude in this club is singing in his own CT. If you are not fat, don’t even bother posting the video, it does not count.

We just need to accept there will not be worthy news for at least a year. Shut the site down and turn it back on 8/10/2022. I can’t quit on my own. It needs to be cold turkey.
 

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Seems to me it's just a shell game of what delay comes last. Battery production, design, software, assembly line, lack of staffing, materials supply. I am just looking forward to the day I can install my Copenhagen pinstripes.
 
 




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