Over ten months after deliveries started, Tesla is now taking configurations for the non-Foundation series Cybertruck.
The first Cybertruck deliveries occurred on November 30th last year, so we’re just over ten months past that date.
As it often does, Tesla started fulfilling deliveries from the top down – it shipped higher-optioned, limited-edition models first, expecting to ship cheaper versions later. It did this previously with the Roadster, Model S and Model X, for example.
With the Cybertruck, this took the form of the fully-loaded “Foundation Series,” which is a package that includes several options and costs an additional $20k.
But unlike Tesla’s previous “Founders” or “Signature” series vehicles which had hundreds or a thousand vehicles in them, the Foundation series lasted much longer, with tens of thousands of trucks delivered with the optional Foundation package.
Originally, Tesla said that it would start delivering non-Foundation series vehicles months ago, but in July it pushed that timeline back to “late 2024”.
Well, now that time is here, as Tesla has started sending emails to reservation holders inviting them to configure their non-Foundation series vehicles, with an expected delivery timeline of Oct-Nov 2024 – so, within the next month or two.
The website’s standard Design your Cybertruck page only shows the Foundation series so far, but for those who have existing reservations, emails have started going out inviting them to configure.
It looks like these will likely be sent out in batches, and it’s likely that those who reserved earlier will get access first. So it may still be some time before everyone gets invited, depending on how long the mythical million-Cybertruck order backlog actually is.
Without the Foundation package, the All-Wheel Drive model starts at $79,990, and the Beast model starts at $99,990.
Despite the lower base price, which is under the $80,000 MSRP cap for the US Federal EV Tax Credit, Tesla makes no mention of the tax credit on its website. This could be just a clerical issue that will be sorted out, or it could be an actual issue preventing credit availability on the Cybertruck. We’d ask Tesla to clear this up, but, well…
The new base price of just under $80k is a nice ratchet downwards from the previously sky-high, six-digit-minimum price for the truck, but it’s still a far cry from what the truck was originally announced at.
Back in 2019, when the truck was first unveiled, it was promised at a starting price of $39,900 – half of today’s base pricing. Even the top-end tri-motor AWD version was predicted to cost $69,900, $10k less than the current base price. These models were supposed to be available in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
The eventually-delivered model also missed on several promised specs like bed size, range, and payload.
Tesla said in the past that it intends to release a further lower-end rear-wheel-drive-only version of the Cybertruck in the future, but it recently removed the single-motor option from its website. So it could be that “double the promised price” is the lowest we’ll ever see. Stay tuned.
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