Tesla’s Cybertruck backlog is depleted – can now be ordered without reservation
The Tesla Cybertruck is now open for orders to anyone – whether or not you were one of its millions of reservation holders.
Tesla first revealed the Cybertruck in 2019, and the unconventional vehicle attracted lots of interest – measured by the number of reservations the vehicle got.
At the time, Tesla was taking refundable $100 deposits to reserve a place in line to order the truck when it came out, which had a promised release date of late 2021 and starting price of $39,900.
Plenty of people decided to throw a few bucks into the pot, and the Cybertruck managed to tally over 250k pre-orders in less than a week, later reaching a peak of potentially 2 million reservations according to crowdsourced data.
But when the truck hit the road, things didn’t go exactly as planned. The vehicle came out late and over budget, also missing some of the specs that were originally promised. The first available “Foundation Series” models started at $100k – a far cry from the promised entry-level $40k.
But despite that, it’s still selling relatively well, becoming the best-selling electric pickup in the US and the third best-selling EV with a very high average transaction price, bringing in a good chunk of change for the company.
And recently, Tesla started taking orders for a “cheaper” model starting at “just” $79,990, which should open it up to even more sales.
So with sales going well and a new lower price point, the controversial truck seems to be getting off to a good start… or does it?
We’ve seen reports all along that Tesla was working through the Cybertruck backlog pretty fast, with Foundation series models quickly becoming available with little lead time. That’s part of why the $80k trim came into being.
But even though that new lower price point only came available two weeks ago, it’s already available for near-instant delivery, and with no need to have a 5-year-old reservation.
Today, Tesla changed its “Design your Cybertruck” page to allow anyone to configure a vehicle and order it now. The site now says “Order Now,” where just a couple weeks ago reservation holders were waiting for invites to be able to configure their vehicles. Availability is listed as October-November – so, basically, a month or less if you order today.
Accompanying this change is the end of the Foundation Series, the limited-edition early trim, which is no longer available as of today.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla’s quick ramp of the Cybertruck has been impressive. It’s outselling similarly-expensive vehicles that have been in the market and ramping for years now. This shows that Tesla remains in a dominant position in the EV market (thanks to it actually taking EVs seriously, which other automakers aren’t).
But the fact that a 2 million-strong reservation list has been worked through so quickly is troubling.
While we don’t know exact numbers, Tesla has sold something on the order of 30,000 Cybertrucks so far. And if the company had 2 million reservations, that means it has only converted 1.5% of those into sales.
There are surely a number of reasons for this, and probably chief among them is the change in pricing. The Cybertruck currently costs twice as much as promised, which is going to turn off a lot of potential buyers.
The F-150 Lightning saw something similar when a base model was originally promised at $40,000 but that price never saw the light of day. That too turned off a lot of buyers, and Lightning sales have been less impressive than hoped for ever since.
And the Lightning could be another reason for the Cybertruck’s lack of conversions – at the time it was announced, it was supposed to beat other electric pickups to market. It ended up coming out after several other models, so there are now other more traditional options available that buyers can choose from.
But there’s another reason that I think may be part of it: the tarnished sheen on Tesla lately, concomitant with its CEO’s increasingly bizarre behavior. This has turned off a lot of customers from its vehicles, and this effect is perhaps more apparent with the Cybertruck.
While the Model 3 and Y are common vehicles that are seen as “normal,” the Cybertruck is quite clearly a “statement vehicle.” That statement is heavily tied to the persona of the CEO who pushed such a, let’s say, “iconic” vehicle into the market – and thus, the more bizarre that CEO’s behavior, the more customers may not want to be associated with that statement.
At the very least, I can’t imagine it helps – and a 1.5% conversion rate certainly shows that some part of the strategy hasn’t been a tremendous commercial success.
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With the launch of the first-ever Class 8 vocational EV in the North American market, PACCAR Kenworth is raising the battery-electric bar and underscoring just how far the market has come since the Tesla Semi made its debut nearly a decade ago.
When Tesla pulled the wraps off its all electric Semi truck all the way back in November of 2017, the rest of the industry was hardly thinking about BEVs. Nearly a decade later, the world is still waiting for the Semi to begin regular production, and PACCAR is launching its second generation of HDEVs with the debut of this, the all-new Kenworth T880E vocational truck.
“The Kenworth T880E marks a groundbreaking milestone in Kenworth’s history as we bring to market the first Class 8 battery-electric solution built for vocational applications,” explains Kevin Haygood, Kenworth assistant general manager for sales and marketing. “The T880E is engineered to meet the evolving needs of operators and vocational fleets while still providing the durability, reliability and customization our customers expect.”
The new electric K-whopper is motivated by PACCAR’s in-house ePowertrain platform, capable of putting up to 605 hp and 1,850 lb-ft of peak torque to work, while delivering the same levels of drivability and dependability fleets expect from a Kenworth – but power and torque are only part of the T880E’s work-ready résumé.
Open to work
In addition to a stout, Class 8 electric chassis fitted with heavy-duty Kenworth brakes and axles, the T880E’s central drive eMotor allows for significant wheelbase flexibility so fleet buyers can spec out exactly the machine they need to get the job done. The T880E was also designed to enable lift axle installations from trusted Kenworth upfitters for a vocational-friendly BEV integration.
Additionally, the T880E features a wide selection of factory-installed options that include both high- and low-voltage ePTO (electric Power Take Off) ports, mechanical ePTOs, and the same wide array of body configurations as the ICE version.
Speaking of the ICE version, the electric T880E also can also be had in the same set-back front axle and set-forward front axle configurations with the same multi-piece hood construction. Inside the cab, the latest in driver-focused technology includes the Kenworth SmartWheel and a new 15″ DriverConnect digital touchscreen. Dash and vocational features like RAM Mounts and factory-installed PTO switches are available. The T880E is also offered with Kenworth ADAS packages for customers interested in DigitalVision Mirrors, Bendix Fusion, and Lane Keeping Assist.
It’s so big, you guys
The T880E was on static display at last week’s ACT Expo in Anaheim, California. Check with your local Kenworth dealer for availability.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Kenworth.
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The tire-blistering SU7 Ultra has been the Xiaomi brand’s flagship super sedan since its launch, but a controversial software setting has limited the car to “just” 900 hp in regular driving – resulting in an outcry from owners who ponied up for the big boy numbers. With its latest software update, that missing 648 hp is back on tap!
The SU7 Ultra made waves throughout the performance car world when a bright yellow striped example lined up alongside a white quarter mile king, the 1,000+ hp Tesla Model S Plaid, and promptly smoked it.
That wasn’t all. A preproduction SU7 Ultra prototype lapped the legendary Nürburgring circuit in just 6 minutes and 46.874 seconds, firmly stamping the 1,500+ hp Xiaomi’s alphanumeric into the track’s record books with a time nearly fifteen seconds quicker than a Rimac Nevera or, on the ICE front, either a Corvette ZR1, Viper ACR, or Porsche 918 (take your pick).
It’s hardly any wonder, then, that the customers who signed up – in droves, too – were disappointed to learn that the SU7 they were allowed to buy had been neutered by the safety nannies to the tune of nearly 650 hp. (!)
We’re so back
The outrage from SU7 Ultra owners was immediate. And, facing mounting pressure online and on social media, Xiaomi ultimately decided to withdraw the performance-limiting features while acknowledging the need for more transparent communication about future software updates they messed up, saying in a statement, “we appreciate the passionate feedback from our community and will ensure better transparency moving forward.”
So, rich people can rocket themselves down the road in 9 second hypercars again and all is right with the world. A happy ending – but one that sort of illuminates a fresh set challenges for automakers peddling “software-defined vehicles” to a market that still thinks of their cars as very much hardware defined products.
That’s evidenced by the resistance to pay for features by subscription and complaints by more informed customers that “software locked” range and convenience features just subsidize the cost of more expensive trim levels and pad profits for manufacturers and suppliers.
The new reality is playing out in real time now, and the Jeff Bezos-backed $20,000 electric compact pickup from Slate Auto is going the other way entirely – time will tell whether more, or less tech is the answer.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Xiaomi, via CarNewsChina.
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Tesla (TSLA) has started offering reduced interest rates on the new Model Y in the US — this equates to a direct discount on the brand new vehicle that was supposed to spark Tesla’s demand back.
The automaker has announced “1.99% APR or $0 Due at Signing available for well-qualified buyers” on the new Model Y in the US for the first time:
This amounts to a direct discount worth a few thousand dollars. It is the first widely available discount on the new Model Y coming just weeks after the cheaper non-Launch Edition launched in the US.
It follows a $2,000 direct discount that Tesla offered to early Model Y owners last week.
These discounts and subsidized financing point to soft demand for the updated best-selling vehicle in the US. Tesla just delivered a disastrous first quarter, which it mostly blamed on the Model Y changeover, resulting in lower inventory.
However, industry watchers, including Electrek, noted many signs that the Model Y changeover was not the only issue. Tesla added significantly to its inventory in the first quarter, and the wait times for the new Model Y were extremely short.
Now, the discount weeks after launching the new Model Y confirm the soft demand in the US.
It’s not as bad as Europe and China, where Tesla has already been offering 0% financing on the new Model Y for weeks.
Electrek’s Take
I think it’s clear by now: the new Model Y is not coming to save Tesla.
Let’s be honest: It will still be a significant vehicle program by volume. It just won’t help Tesla return to growth this year.
The RWD Model Y is still coming and has a chance to help in the US. It is already available in China, and it’s not helping Tesla much there, but that’s in a hyper-competitive market, especially at lower prices where the RWD Model Y operates.
Tesla’s performance in Q2 in China will be interesting since it is basically back to its regular lineup for the whole quarter.
The US appears to have been Tesla’s least affected market, but Q3 will be the real test with the full lineup and no backlog of demand for new Model Y.
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