Tesla starts telling some Cybertruck orders to ‘prepare for delivery’
A number of Cybertruck order holders have started getting “prepare for delivery” emails today, suggesting that Tesla might be getting Cybertrucks out to the public a little sooner than we expected.
Tesla held its first Cybertruck delivery event late last month to deliver the first Cybertrucks, though there were only a small number delivered on the day. Those deliveries seemed to largely go to VIPs, such as Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian.
At that time, it wasn’t clear how soon we would start seeing wider public deliveries of the Cybertruck. It could have been weeks or it could have been months.
In the case of the Model 3, for example, Tesla held one big delivery event in July where it mostly delivered vehicles to employees, and it took several months before the general public started to receive cars. We got one of the first cars delivered to the public a full five months later, in late December. And the same happened with the Tesla Semi, which we’ve really seen no movement on over the course of the last year.
But in the last few days, some Cybertruck reservation holders have gotten emails inviting them to configure, with “prepare for delivery” emails going out to several today. Several have posted about it on cybertruckownersclub after getting the email.
Most of these seem to be orders for the fully-optioned, limited edition, $120k “Foundation Series”. In the past, Tesla has sold other limited-edition early versions of several of its cars (Roadster, S and X), naming them “Founders” or “Signature” series. The company stopped this practice for the Model 3, but it’s back for the Cybertruck.
The “prepare for delivery” email doesn’t necessarily mean that trucks are coming right away, as in the past Tesla has made people wait for up to a few months after that notification. But cybertruckownersclub has also assembled a spreadsheet tracking submitted Cybertruck orders, with some purportedly showing delivery dates beginning as early as December.
Those with December dates are in Texas and in California, where Tesla says Foundation Series deliveries have already begun. However, we’ve seen no evidence of these deliveries yet, outside of the initial delivery event. Deliveries to other states won’t start until 2024.
So it sounds like Tesla will try to do an end-of-quarter delivery rush to get some highly-optioned Cybertrucks into owners’ hands before the end of the fiscal quarter and year. Tesla is no stranger to these end-of-quarter delivery rushes, and there is often quite a bit of chaos at Tesla delivery centers at the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
Honestly, these deliveries are coming much sooner than we expected. Given Tesla’s history of having a significant gap between delivery events and the first actual wave of public deliveries, we thought it would take longer to get a significant number of Cybertrucks out to the public.
This might still be the case, and maybe there will only be a few deliveries by the end of the year. But with the number of people signed up to the tracking spreadsheet just today, and given that most Cybertruck owners won’t think to go straight to an online forum to talk about their order, there might be enough to call this a “wave” of deliveries.
It makes sense, because we have certainly seen more than ten Cybertrucks in existence. But a lot of those are going to be engineering prototypes or other early models which may or may not be ready for public consumption.
Then again, Tesla did say it currently has production capacity to build 125,000 Cybertrucks per year. We really doubt we’ll see five digits worth of cars delivered by the end of this month, but a few hundred would still be above our expectations given the history of latency between Tesla delivery events and real mass deliveries.
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Environment
Baidu- and Geely-backed JiYue brand unveils ROBO X EV that goes 0-100 km/h in under 1.9 sec
JiYue, a Chinese EV brand focused on delivering all-electric “robocars” to the masses, has unveiled its latest model, and it’s quite a deviation from its previous EVs—but in the best way. Earlier today, JiYue launched the ROBO X supercar, designed for high-speed racing. By high speed, we mean 0-100 km/h acceleration in under 1.9 seconds. My mouth is watering.
JiYue has only existed since 2021, when parent tech company Baidu announced it was expanding from software development into physical EV production, joining forces with multinational automotive manufacturer Geely.
The new “robotic EV” marque initially launched as JIDU with $300 million in startup capital before garnering an additional $400 million in Series A funding, led by Baidu, in January 2022.
In August 2023, Geely took on a larger role in JIDU alongside a greater financial stake as the brand reimagined itself as JiYue, inheriting the JIDU logo and its flagship model, the 01 ROBOCAR.
In December 2023, Baidu and Geely unveiled a second model called the JiYue 07. It was born from JIDU’s ROBO-02 concept, which debuted in 2023 and was designed to compete against the Tesla Model 3 in China.
The 07 finally launched in China earlier this year with 545 miles of range. With an all-electric SUV and sedan on the market, JiYue has unveiled an exciting new entry in the form of a performance supercar called the ROBO X. Check it out:
JiYue’s new ROBO X EV is available for pre-order now
JiYue showcased its new ROBO X hypercar in front of the crowd at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show earlier today. Similar to previous models but with a unique spin, JiYue described the ROBO X as an AI smart-driving supercar that, for the first time, blends artificial intelligence and autonomous driving into a high-performance, race-ready EV.
When we say “high performance,” we mean a quad motor liquid-cooled drive system that can propel the ROBO X from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in under 1.9 seconds. JiYue called the new ROBO X a “performance beast” with “the perfect balance of excellent aerodynamic performance and high downforce.” JiYue CEO Joe Xia was even bolder in his statements about the ROBO X:
For the next 20 years, the design of supercars will bear the shadow of Robo X. This is the best design in the history of Chinese automobiles today, and it is a landmark presence.
Fighter-style airflow ducts bolster the EV’s aerodynamics, efficiency, and overall posture. Per JiYue, the two-seater ROBO X is expected to deliver a maximum range of over 650 km (404 miles).
The new supercar features falcon-wing doors, a carbon fiber integrated frame, and a professional racing HALO safety system offering 360° of support. The interior features an AI smart cockpit with SIMO real-time feedback to give drivers an immersive racing experience.
Furthermore, JiYue said the vehicle will utilize parent company Baidu’s Apollo self-driving technology, which could make it the first electric supercar to apply pure-vision ADAS technology that enables track-level autonomous driving.
Following today’s unveiling of the ROBO X, JiYue has officially opened up pre-orders in China for RMB 49,999 ($6,915). That said, reservation holders will need to be patient as JiYue shared that it doesn’t expect to begin mass production of the ROBO X until 2027.
What do you think? Will people be talking about the ROBO X for the next 20 years?
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This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes the launch of the Lectric XPedition 2.0, Yamaha e-bikes pulling out of North America, LiveWire unveils an electric scooter concept, PNY readying its cargo e-scooters for pilot testing, Royal Enfield’s first electric motorcycle, and more.
The Wheel-E podcast returns every two weeks on Electrek’s YouTube channel, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the Wheel-E podcast today:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 9:30 a.m. ET (or the video after 10:30 a.m. ET):
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Crude oil futures were on pace Friday for loss for the week, as a supply gut and a strong dollar depresses the market.
U.S. crude oil is down more than 2% this week, while Brent has shed nearly 2%.
Here are Friday’s energy prices:
- West Texas Intermediate December contract: $68.56 per barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.2%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has shed about 4%.
- Brent January contract: $72.36 per barrel, down 20 cents, or 0.28%. Year to date, the global benchmark has lost nearly 6%.
- RBOB Gasoline December contract: $1.99 per gallon, up 0.46%. Year to date, gasoline has fallen more than 1%.
- Natural Gas December contract: $2.70 per thousand cubic feet, down 2.98%. Year to date, gas has gained more than 4%.
The International Energy Agency has forecast a surplus of more than 1 million barrels per day in 2025 on robust production in the U.S. OPEC revised down its demand forecast for the fourth consecutive month as demand in China remains soft.
A strong dollar also hangs over the market, as the greenback has surged in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
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