The Cybertruck pre-release buzz was in high gear until Elon Musk spoke on Wednesday.
The buzz-kill came when Musk made a series of grim statements during the third-quarter earnings conference call about the future of the pick-up and how Tesla “dug its own grave.”
Musk’s decidedly pessimistic comments boiled down to this: expect only a trickle of trucks from the Austin, Texas factory for the next year or so.
Competitors should be happy.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s wishful thinking might actually come true now: the Cybertruck may indeed not compete with the Rivan R1T or R1S because Tesla won’t be manufacturing the pickup in significant enough numbers.
Given “lengthy production delays…that sentiment might hold true,” Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights, told me recently, referring to Scaringe’s comments. Though he did add that when/if the Cybertruck production ramps up all bets are off for competitors.
The Rivian R1T has been outselling the Ford F-150 Lightning Electric this year, beating the F-150 in the first, second, and third quarters. For example, during the second quarter Rivian sold 10,239 pickups versus 4,466 for the Lightning, according to Kelley Blue Book.
It is unfortunate, however, that Rivian isn’t ready with a pickup that starts at less than $70K. This would be an ideal time for Rivian to start cranking out $40K pickups based on its R2 platform but unfortunately that technology isn’t due until 2026.
(Rivian did say, via AP, this past week that it will move ahead with construction of a factory in Georgia early next year. The first phase of Rivian’s factory is slated to make 200,000 vehicles a year, starting in 2024.)
No Celebrating at Ford: F-150 Lightning Hits Speed Bumps
The slow start for the Cybertruck should also mean more opportunity for Ford — if the company wasn’t facing challenges of its own.
Ford sold just 933 F-150 Lightning (via InsideEVs) trucks in the U.S. in September and 3,503 in the third quarter, which is a 51 percent and 46 percent drop year-over-year respectively.
More bad news: about 700 employees who build the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning will be laid off temporarily, Ford told the Detroit Free Press. The layoffs, which have nothing to do with the UAW strike, at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center are due to “multiple constraints, including the supply chain and working through processing and delivering vehicles held for quality checks after restarting production in August,” Ford told the newspaper.
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