Oh, Tesla Cybertruck. Like fully autonomous vehicles, for a car that feels like it will never actually come out, we sure do talk about it a lot. At least in the most recent Cybertruck news, Elon Musk gives us a real reason why the fabled moon buggy won’t be coming out anytime soon. Apparently, if the Cybertruck were to come out now, Elon Musk says they would have to cost at least $1 million each. 

Why isn’t the Tesla Cybertruck out yet? 

According to Yahoo News, Tesla is putting the semi-truck and Cybertruck on hold for the time being. The semi is being pushed back to 2022. However, the Cybertruck is pushed back for what feels like indefinitely, or at least until Tesla can get the Tesla Model Y production up to speed at the Texas gigafactory. 

The Model Y production needs to get underway first because the Tesla pickup truck is also meant to be produced in the same factory in Texas. Simply because the Model Y takes priority, Tesla is pushing the Cybertruck back until the time is right – whenever that may be. Also, due to parts shortages, building it too early would make it impossibly expensive. 

Maybe waiting for the Cybertruck isn’t such a bad idea

Elon Musk says that technically, Tesla could start building the Cybertruck now, but if they were to rush it and do it now, the highly anticipated future truck would have to cost 1 million dollars each. The reason being, it and the Tesla semi-truck are going to be based on the next-generation 4680 battery pack. The new Model Y is also meant to use the battery pack, but for the time being, it can use the backup plan, which is the packs currently used in the California and China plants. 

The 4680 battery pack is the future of Tesla, but it isn’t finished yet. Apparently, these bigger vehicles are “heavy users of cell capacity,” says Musk, so they won’t be financially viable options until the supply is strong and steady. As a result, Musk said if Tesla started building the Cybertruck in small batches, the space-age electric pickup truck could cost “$1 million apiece.” For once, a Cybertruck delay is much appreciated. 

What’s the plan for the Cybertruck?

Tesla was originally planning for its pickup to come out sometime toward the end of 2021. That seems difficult to pull off at this point. Tesla has to finish the Texas plant and begin production of the Tesla Model Y before starting Cybertruck production. As of now, Tesla has not changed the Cybertruck’s release date.

The Tesla Cybertruck also is not exactly the world’s simplest vehicle. Over the years, Elon Musk has mentioned a laundry list of sci-fi/complicated features like being bulletproof, crab-walk mode, blinding speeds, and biometric reading to open the handleless doors. Normal new car production has kinks that need working out, but this is far from any “normal” car production. 

More than any other upcoming car, the Cybertruck seems like the most complicated and unlikely to be made with any kind of quickness. As with any other Elon Musk futuristic plans, we will just have to wait and see what happens.