Elon reveals Cybertruck details / production expectations on Q3 2023 call

[CYBRSMTH]

wonder if all those "bells and whistles" are all consumable items prone to breaking.....I agree it looks like he is setting us up for a bigger starting price than we have calculated......it might be mid 80's before options and 350 mile range......I dont care about bells and whistles.....a lot of that stuff we can get 3rd party....what we cant get.....RANGE.....A range of 350 for me is a show stopper

You mean a dealbreaker? I showstopper means you’re impressed.

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[happy intruder]

You mean a dealbreaker? I showstopper means you’re impressed.

maybe....but for me it is a showstopper because of all my grand plans for introducing the CT to my neighborhood will all have to come to crashing halt......hehehehehe

 

[JWass]

wonder if all those "bells and whistles" are all consumable items prone to breaking.....I agree it looks like he is setting us up for a bigger starting price than we have calculated......it might be mid 80's before options and 350 mile range......I dont care about bells and whistles.....a lot of that stuff we can get 3rd party....what we cant get.....RANGE.....A range of 350 for me is a show stopper

I don’t think he’s setting it up to be expensive. I think he’s setting it up to not be profitable or as profitable as it can be until they get to max capacity and best workflow. They cant make it as expensive as a S or X because that has a very limited audience and they’ll lose lots of orders.

He's tempering the investors excitement by saying it won’t be hugely profitable at first. But had tons of potential.

 

[SSonnentag]

Elon sure is preparing the masses that the Cyber truck is going to be expensive

That's not how I read Elon's comments. I read him as stating to investors that R&D and the ramp-up costs are expensive, so don't expect the Cybertruck to contribute to profitability for 18 months or so. He isn't addressing the vehicle purchase price at all in these comments, other than to reinforce that it is designed and priced for affordability. This indicates he is committed to keeping the price as close to the 2019 prices as possible.

 

[JWass]

That's not how I read Elon's comments. I read him as stating to investors that R&D and the ramp-up costs are expensive, so don't expect the Cybertruck to contribute to profitability for 18 months or so. He isn't addressing the vehicle purchase price at all in these comments, other than to reinforce that it is designed and priced for affordability. This indicates he is committed to keeping the price as close to the 2019 prices as possible.

Exactly!

People have to remember this is an earning call with investors. So he’s giving them some reality checks with such a heavily R&D project and new manufacturing methods. That’ll take time to pay back and become profitable.

 

[Tinker71]

Sounded to me like he was preparing investors to expect losses on CT sales for a while. Which could imply affordability

That is how I interpreted it. Funny I am usually the pessimist. Maybe we will be in the middle somewhere. 10-15% more.

 

[Tinker71]

That is how I interpreted it. Funny I am usually the pessimist. Maybe we will be in the middle somewhere. 10-15% more.

I bet profit below 10% is a loss in Elon's mind. They won't take a loss on more than the first 5000 units excluding capital tooling investment. I am doubling down on 10-15% relative price increase.

 

[HaulingAss]

Elon sure is preparing the masses that the Cyber truck is going to be expensive

Nope, he's letting the bystanders know that manufacturing is not simply flipping a switch, causing millions of trucks to just roll off the line at low cost. Mass producing such a unique vehicle is even more difficult than mass-producing a normal vehicle. And look at the pitiful volumes and high prices of the EV truck competition!

The Cybertruck will be a far better value than the supposed competition, but it won't get there by naysayers standing around saying it's going to be expensive. It will be driven by people figuring out how to build them efficiently and deliver them cheaply. If you don't want to be one of those people, then avoid the temptation to tell those who are doing it that it's an impossible task.

 

[WHIZZARD OF OZ]

Elon: Cybertruck has lots of bells and whistles. ?

Does it come with a HORN(?)
'Toot toot, hey, beep beep' ( Donna Summer )

 

[Aces-Truck]

I noticed TSLA Stock priced dropped pretty heavy today. This was before the Investor call. I wonder if stock prices will drop even further. Things that investors don't like to hear are things like new product is not going to be profitable for 12-18 months...

 

[HaulingAss]

Another Elon quote that stood out to me:

"It’ll be cool but it’s utilitarian. It’s not meant to fill you with awe and magic, it’s to get you from a to b. It’s still beautiful, but it’s a utility."

This does not make it sound prohibitively expensive imo.

Cybertruck has never been positioned to be prohibitively expensive. That "expensive" narrative is driven by people who think Tesla is no better than other manufacturers, therefore Tesla can't deliver a product that is superior in so many fundamental ways, at such a low price.

But it's never a good idea to think something can't be done, simply because no one else is capable of doing it. That's the recipe for being mediocre. Tesla (and Elon Musk) have a long history of setting audacious goals, goals so audacious that other "experts" say they are ridiculous, or impossible, only to prove them wrong time and time again. And usually in dramatic fashion. This keeps happening, again and again.

 

[hqmp]

Elon: 14" of travel on the Cybertruck's suspension

Is that a lot? It seems like a lot, but I'm not sure what this really means.

 

[Klaxon]

Elon: Cybertruck has lots of bells and whistles. ?

 

[HaulingAss]

I noticed TSLA Stock priced dropped pretty heavy today. This was before the Investor call. I wonder if stock prices will drop even further. Things that investors don't like to hear are things like new product is not going to be profitable for 12-18 months...

Is that really what Elon said? I heard him say it would be a year to 18 months for Cybertruck to contribute meaningfully to positive cash flow. That is a lot different than taking that long to become profitable. The difference is one of the massive investments they needed to make in things like the biggest gigapress ever made and probably custom heavy machienery to form the panels iin high volumes. These types of machines have lives measured in millions of units and yet the Cybertruck will not be "cash flow positive" contributor until it has paid off those expenses.

Profitability is a different thing, because Tesla can cost the heavy equipment over it's useful life when determining profit per vehicle. Becoming cash flow positive requires taking revenues and profits from Cybertruck sales and paying off the equipment entirely, even though it may still have 8 years or more of life left in it.

In any case, automaking is a business of huge capital expenses and those investments might not pay off for years to come. These kind of investments are not a problem for a company like Tesla that keeps getting more cash flow positive every year. Elon is simply explaining why investors might see the growing cash flow trend level off for 4 or 6 quarters (below where it would have been without these massive investments).

 

[BeastSlayer]

As every finance dude already know, as well as the investors, low initial production with full depreciation burden, will make it unprofitable at the onset.

The investing community was expecting a firm date for Cybertruck release and downward oressure on stock price was a reaction to Elon's hewing and hawing.

Cybertruck price will be a function of competition now that there are others who beat them to be first to market.

Pushing it up are us with the hype of being among early owners of turning those reservations into orders. And like the F150 Lightning, where it eventually waned and they had to lower price to match current realities of real and normalized demand.

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