Faced with rivals already positioned in this market, Elon Musk wants to regain control with the launch, Thursday, of Tesla’s first electric pick-up, a futuristic object that stands out in the automotive landscape.
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Four years after presenting the first images of its Cybertruck, the entrepreneur will unveil this angled vehicle during an event organized at the company’s headquarters in Austin (Texas), at 8:00 p.m. GMT, which will mark the delivery of the first copy.
The car is intended to be a cross between a model from the film “Blade Runner” (1982) and the “Wet Nellie”, an amphibious vehicle inspired by the Lotus Esprit, seen in “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977), according to Elon Musk.
“This is another historic moment for Tesla and Musk,” according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. “This launch is important to fuel the vision of a growing group.”
Often considered a pioneer, the manufacturer is entering an electric pick-up market already occupied, notably by its rival Rivian, but also General Motors and Ford.
The latter thus launched, more than 18 months ago, the F-150 Lightning, an electric version of its best-selling model in the United States.
Very popular with American customers, pick-ups are cars on which manufacturers achieve some of the highest margins.
If Tesla has not yet communicated a selling price, many, notably Garrett Nelson of CFRA, cite the figure of $50,000 for the base version, a price equivalent to the F-150 Lightning.
The Cybertruck has a range of 400 to 800 km depending on the model and a towing capacity of more than 6 tonnes.
“Draw attention”
For the analyst, this launch presents “a much higher risk” than for the Texan manufacturer’s other cars, even if he recognizes that Elon Musk “managed to calm expectations” after announcing his newborn with fanfare .
The entrepreneur notably estimated that sales of the Cybertruck could be significantly lower than those of other models in the range, due to its atypical appearance, even if the order book has already exceeded one million.
Elon Musk plans to reach production of 250,000 copies in 2025.
“We dug our grave with the Cybertruck,” the billionaire joked last month.
“The Cybertruck is a special product, one of those that we rarely see and which are very difficult to launch on the market, to sell in quantity, to make prosper,” described the fifty-year-old.
The vehicle body is made of stainless steel plates, used to ensure its strength.
“It looks cool, but it’s extremely difficult to build,” according to Art Wheaton, a transportation industry expert at Cornell University.
The academic doubts that this Cybertruck will ever generate considerable sales, because of its “divisive” design.
But he sees the promise of a niche product, sufficiently differentiated to enhance the image of the Tesla brand, citing, as an example, the Chevrolet Corvette.
“It’s a way to attract attention,” he says, for its owners but also for the Texan manufacturer.
For Elon Musk, this is also an opportunity to turn a page after a new controversy in mid-November. The owner of X (formerly Twitter) then relayed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on the platform.
The businessman traveled to Israel earlier this week, where he visited, in the company of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Kibbutz Kfar Aza, attacked on October 7 by fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. .
“We don’t think the Tesla brand has been negatively impacted,” Dan Ives told AFP, “but the balance is fragile for Elon, who is walking on a tightrope.”
