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Elon Musk admits Tesla’s Cybertruck might flop

Elon Musk admits Tesla's Cybertruck could flop

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveils the Cybertruck at the TeslaDesign Studio in Hawthorne, California. The cracked window glass occurred during a demonstration of the strength of the glass.

Robert Hanashiro | USA TODAY | Reuters

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said in an exchange with fans on Twitter on Thursday that there is “always a chance” that his company’s upcoming cybertruck will “flop”. Nonetheless, Musk plans to keep the “production design” of the Cybertruck almost exactly the same as his show car – a giant metal trapeze.

But he also said that he “doesn’t care” about the risk of the Cybertruck flopping because he personally loves the design.

He wrote, “To be honest, there is always some chance that Cybertruck will flop because it’s so different from anything. I don’t care. I love it so much, even when others don’t. See other trucks looks like copies of the same thing, but Cybertruck looks like it was made from the future by aliens. “

The launch event of the Cybertruck 2019 caused a stir because of the unusual design of the vehicle and because Musk asked Tesla design manager Franz von Holzhausen to try and smash the vehicle’s windows, which he did. Von Holzhausen threw a metal ball against one of the windows and surprised Musk when the glass broke even though it stayed in place.

Despite the start-up snafu and the uncertainty of when Tesla can begin delivering the Cybertruck, the $ 100 orders went off. Musk boasted that the company saw 250,000 within about a week of the Cybertruck’s debut.

In September, at Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting and Battery Day, Musk announced that Tesla had received so many Cybertruck orders that the company stopped counting. “The orders are gigantic,” he said, “… well over half a million orders. I think maybe six hundred thousand – it’s a lot, really.

That was before competitors unveiled their plans for more traditional battery-powered trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning and the GMC Hummer EV.

Musk also said Thursday that Tesla has no plans to put door handles on the Cybertruck without indicating whether such a vehicle could meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards in the United States. He also reminded fans that Tesla decided to add everything from a four-wheel steering system to the handsome Cybertruck that should allow it to move diagonally in a straight line and get in and out of tight spaces.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

He wrote: “Ultimately we left the production design almost exactly like the show car. Just a few tweaks here and there to make it a little better. No door handles. The car recognizes you and opens the door. It’s amazing all of that steer four wheels. ” nimble handling & tight corners! “

The all-wheel steering, if it comes through as promised, would make the Cybertruck more directly competitive with the GMC Hummer EV, which already had a “crab mode” feature.

Musk didn’t comment on the Tesla Cyberquad, an ATV product that was supposed to accompany the cybertruck.

In the company’s investor presentation in the first quarter, Tesla described the Cybertruck as “in development”. The company is expected to release a progress update and second quarter results on July 26th.

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World News

Tesla’s China gross sales greater than doubled in 2020

Tesla Model 3 reportedly explodes in Shanghai parking garage

Model 3 vehicles manufactured by Tesla China are on display during a delivery event at its facility in Shanghai, China on Jan. 7, 2020.

Aly Song | Reuters

BEIJING – Tesla’s sales in China more than doubled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The electric car maker’s sales in China of $ 6.66 billion last year accounted for about a fifth, or 21%, of the $ 31.54 billion.

In 2019, Tesla achieved sales of $ 2.98 billion in China, which is only 12% of total sales of $ 24.58 billion.

The US remained Tesla’s largest market. Revenue rose 20% to $ 15.21 billion last year and accounted for about half of total revenue.

Tesla started ramping up production at its Shanghai plant last year and selling China-made cars in the local market.

The company’s Model 3 was the top-selling electric car in the country in 2020, according to China’s Passenger Car Association. The automaker also began shipping a new model, a China-made Model Y, to local customers that year.

However, Tesla faces competition in the local market from Chinese electric car startups like Nio and Xpeng, while government scrutiny has increased.

On Monday, the Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation announced on its website that it and four other government departments recently spoke with Tesla’s local subsidiaries about an increase in consumer reports of vehicle problems.

Among several incidents that have garnered attention on Chinese social media in recent weeks, a Model 3 reportedly exploded in a parking garage in Shanghai in January. Last week, Chinese authorities said Tesla had to recall more than 36,000 cars due to a touchscreen failure.

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Business

Tesla’s U.S. Gross sales Slowed in 22 States in 2020

Tesla’s U.S. Sales Slowed in 22 States in 2020

After several years of rapid growth, Tesla US sales appear to have slowed in 2020, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is evident from new data on new vehicle registrations.

In 22 states, which account for around 65 percent of the new car market, 130,844 new Teslas were registered last year, an increase of less than 2 percent compared to 2019, according to the market research company Cross-Sell.

The pandemic dampened sales of all automakers in the spring and summer, forcing companies to suspend most production stops in North America. Tesla’s Fremont, California facility was shut down from late March to mid-May. Last year was also the first full year that Tesla vehicle purchases no longer qualified for a federal tax credit.

The company’s sluggish sales in its 22 states, which include California, Florida, New York, and Texas, came in spite of the addition of the fourth car to Tesla’s lineup, the Model Y, which appears to be selling its top seller, the Model 3.

Model 3 registrations across the state’s 22 cross-sell routes fell 35 percent last year to 67,638 from 103,810 vehicles in 2019. Sales of the Model Y began earlier this year and exceeded those of the Model 3 in August.

“Model Y is doing very well and is really competitive with Model 3,” said Meagan Saxon, director of partnerships at Cross-Sell.

In the last three months of 2020, 22,267 Model Ys were registered in the 22 states. At the same time, Model 3 sales were just 14,823 vehicles, a decrease of almost a third from Q4 2019. Model Y is a more spacious hatchback version of the Model 3 sedan.

Cross-sell provides a rare glimpse into Tesla’s U.S. registrations as the automaker doesn’t breakdown sales by region or country. The company recently reported that its global deliveries rose 36 percent to 499,550 cars in 2020. That increase was mainly due to rapid growth in China, where a new Tesla plant started production of the Model 3 a year ago. Tesla is also growing in Europe, despite increasing competition from new electric cars introduced by Volkswagen, Volvo, and others.

Tesla is expected to announce its fourth quarter financial performance on Wednesday.

Cross-Sell buys vehicle registration data from 22 states that they put for sale. California, where Tesla is based and where many people are much more willing to buy electric cars than other Americans, accounts for about 35 percent of the company’s US sales.

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Business

Rivian Has Been a Tortoise to Tesla’s Hare. Can It Catch Up?

Rivian Has Been a Tortoise to Tesla’s Hare. Can It Catch Up?

Rivian differs from Tesla in several ways. Tesla has so far grown by selling sporty sedans, a type of vehicle that is falling out of favor with consumers. Tesla plans to build a strangely angular, futuristic pickup truck called the Cybertruck later this year. However, the focus is not yet on trucks and SUVs, which make up 75 percent of the US passenger car market.

Rivian, on the other hand, focuses on making “adventure” vehicles that owners can drive off-road. This means that Rivian doesn’t often compete directly with Tesla. “There is a perception that this is the winner and that is just wrong,” he said. “Consumers need to have different brands and tastes. Our success is by no means mutually exclusive. “

Rebecca Puck Stair is the kind of car buyer Rivian wants to attract. As a Boy Scout in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she has been interested in buying an electric vehicle for a number of years, but requires high ground clearance and four-wheel drive for tasks that take her into the desert. “It didn’t exist in the market,” she said. “A Tesla doesn’t suit my needs.”

She first heard from Rivian about a year ago and the next day put bail on an SUV – like Tesla, the company doesn’t plan to sell through dealers. Ms. Stair saw the cybertruck, but the design is not for her. “It just screams ‘disgusting guy truck'” she said with a laugh.

Rivian’s truck and SUV, which start at $ 67,500, look more conventional than they could have been designed by Land Rover.

Unlike Tesla, which is trying to grow fast, Rivian takes measured steps. Last year, before the pandemic broke out, it was planned to build around 20,000 pickups and SUVs in 2021 and around 40,000 in 2022. An updated outlook has not yet been presented. By the middle of the decade, a production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year should be achieved in Normal. The company hasn’t disclosed how many orders it has taken, but a spokeswoman said it has customers for all vehicles it expects this year.

And even if other auto startups go public by partnering with shell companies that have bundles of cash and stock listings, Rivian is unwilling to do so. “We want to start, show our skills and let our performance speak for itself before we can deal with the public,” said 38-year-old Scaringe.