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When and where to watch Tesla’s highly anticipated Cybertruck delivery event

Carmaker first unveiled its ‘armoured personal carrier from the future’ at much-publicised event in 2019

Vishwam Sankaran
Thursday 30 November 2023 06:40 GMT
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Related video: Tesla to hold Cybertruck event in Austin

Tesla’s first deliveries to customers of its highly-anticipated Cybertruck will take place at the company’s Austin, Texas headquarters later on Thursday.

The event is expected to see the first 10 customers taking their Cybertruck deliveries, and the Elon Musk-owned company will also announce more details about the electric pickup truck.

The event will be livestreamed on the electric carmaker’s website on Thursday. “Cybertruck deliveries start on Thursday,” Tesla chief Elon Musk said in a post on X the day before.

The company first unveiled the vehicle, which it dubbed “an armoured personal carrier from the future”, at a much-publicised but chaotic event in 2019 that offered people the chance to reserve a Cybertruck with a $100 deposit.

While Tesla received over 200,000 reservations for the vehicle within the first three days, production for the vehicle was delayed for years.

The carmaker had initially promised the vehicle would come towards the end of 2021 along with full production for 2022, but this schedule was pushed back by another year due to supply chain issues.

The company later said deliveries for the long-delayed vehicle would commence in the third quarter of 2023. In August, it said it had received 1.9 million $100 reservations to date.

Speaking to podcaster Joe Rogan last month, Mr Musk said the Cybertruck will be bulletproof.

He said the pickup truck will have bulletproof steel panels and an option for people to purchase bulletproof glass.

Mr Musk also said more features of the vehicle will be unveiled during Thursday’s event.

The upcoming demonstration of the Cybertruck will have the vehicle being shot at with a Tommy gun, a 45mm shotgun and a 9mm gun, according to the Tesla titan.

The bulletproof nature of the truck has been the subject of intense hype.

During the first demonstration of the Cybertruck’s toughness in 2019, the vehicle’s window immediately smashed after Mr Musk invited an audience member to throw a small metal ball at it.

“Well, maybe that was a little too hard,” the Tesla chief had said.

“It didn’t go through, so that’s a plus... room for improvement.”

Mr Musk claimed prior testing of the vehicle may have compromised the window.

“Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn’t bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door,” he said.

The multibillionaire also played down hopes that the Cybertruck will revive profits for the carmaker in the near future, announcing in an earnings call last month that it could take at least 18 months for the pickup truck to become profitable for Tesla.

“There will be enormous challenges in reaching volume production with Cybertruck and making the Cybertruck cash flow positive,” he told investors and analysts.

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