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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has suggested that the Cybertruck will have a starting price below $50,000. Musk made this revelation in a tweet writing, “The Ford Lightning is a good vehicle, just somewhat expensive, especially given the high-interest rates these days for any kind of loan."
Musk’s tweet on its own might not say a lot about the Cybertruck’s expected pricing however, Musk made this comment hours after Ford lowered the starting price of the F-150 Lightning by $10,000 to $50,000.
Not only that but, Musk also made these comments directly in response to a CNBC news article reporting on Ford cutting the starting price of the F-150 Lightning.
Elon Musk suggests the Cybertruck will be less expensive than the Ford F-150 Lightning, even after the Lightning just dropped the price by $10,000. pic.twitter.com/1n1djztL2E
— Torque News (@torquenewsauto) July 17, 2023
The Cybertruck starting below $50,000 might not seem like major news for anyone who remembers the truck was originally announced in November 2019 with a starting price of $39,900.
Related News: Breaking: Tesla Shares Picture of 1st Production Cybertruck Built at Giga Texas, Confirms Giga Wiper & Yoke
However, due to several major reasons, almost everyone who has been following Tesla closely is expecting the Cybertruck to start significantly higher than the quoted $39,900 starting price. Current estimates in the Tesla community are in the $70,000 range.
The first and probably the main reason is that within months of the Cybertruck’s unveiling, Musk announced that Tesla is scrapping plans for the single-motor rear-wheel drive Cybertruck variant which was expected to start at $39,900.
With the single-motor version out, the dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant is now the base Cybertruck which Tesla said even back in 2019 will have a starting price of $49,900.
This brings us to the second reason Tesla watchers think that the Cybertruck will have a starting price closer to $70,000. With the high inflation rate the world has seen over the past three and a half years, even if Tesla honored the $49,900 starting price for the dual motor AWD Cybertruck, adjusted for inflation, in today’s dollars, that comes out to over $59,000.
And the third reason for Cybertruck’s expected high starting price is that since the truck was announced, the Cybertruck has seen several improvements beyond what was promised back in 2019.
From the information we have so far, we know that the Cybertruck’s design has seen some fundamental improvements including a 48-volt low-voltage system, 4-wheel steering, front and rear giga castings, 1000-volt high-voltage architecture, hardware 4 autopilot computer and cameras, 4680 batteries with structural pack, and so on.
These major improvements add up to make the Cybertruck a fundamentally better vehicle than what was promised and suggest Tesla will likely ask more for the vehicle pushing the expected starting price all the way to $70,000.
However, Musk’s recent comments about the F-150 Lighting being expensive give renewed hope that Tesla might honor the $49,900 starting price of the dual-motor Cybertruck.
Given the inflation rate in the past few years, this might be a tall order for Tesla, however, one possible way the EV maker might release the Cybertruck below $50,000 is through the major architectural improvements listed above.
With the one exception which is 4-wheel steering, all the improvements listed above in addition to making the vehicle better, have the potential to decrease the truck’s manufacturing cost.
The front and rear giga castings make the vehicle lighter and stiffer which improves performance and handling. However, the giga castings at the same time allow Tesla to eliminate hundreds of vehicle components, with the robots used to weld them together, the factory floor used to house the robots, the engineers and technicians operating everything, the production time necessary, and raw material waste created through all those processes.
This is just one component of the Cybertruck, however, all the other improvements including the 48-volt and 1000-volt architectures, the hardware 4 autopilot system, and 4680 batteries all have the potential to decrease the cost of manufacturing the Cybertruck while at the same time improving the vehicle.
Even if the vehicle has a $70,000 starting price, considering all the advanced technology the Cybertruck comes with, the truck will be a winner for Tesla, however, as Musk’s recent tweet suggests, if the Cybertruck indeed has a sub-$50,000 starting price, the vehicle will be a once in a generation vehicle.
Currently, with Tesla having already produced the first production Cybertruck at Giga Texas, it shouldn’t be long till we get the updated pricing and full details of the Cybertruck. And we’ll be sure to keep you posted once we get further information.
Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Are you excited to see Elon Musk’s comments regarding the Ford F-150 Lightinging’s price? Do you think this means the Cybertruck will have a sub-$50,000 starting price? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image: Courtesy of Tesla
For more information check out: A Look at Tesla Leaked Documents Showing Cybertruck Production Numbers
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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