Gary Zhou 
Elon Musk recently provided a brief update on the production of the widely awaited Cybertruck, with the Tesla CEO noting that the final design of the all-electric pickup looks good. Musk shared his thoughts on Twitter after seeing the vehicle at Tesla’s design studio.
Thanks in part to its unorthodox, brutalist design and angular exoskeleton, the Cybertruck is probably Tesla’s most radical vehicle to date. The Cybertruck has the opportunity to break into one of the most lucrative vehicle markets in the United States, beginning at less than $40,000. But the Cybertruck must have the requisite equilibrium between all-electric performance and classic pickup characteristics to achieve this.
This is perhaps the reason why the design team of Elon Musk and Tesla have been trying to improve the car as much as possible before it enters production. So far, Musk has been very positive about the production of the Cybertruck, mentioning that almost all of the engineering surrounding the vehicle was completed during the Q4 FY 2020 earnings call. Musk added that at the design stage, Tesla was no longer iterating, as the prototypes of the Cybertruck have already been fixed.
During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, these remarks were accompanied by the CEO’s comments, where Musk noted that the final version of the Cybertruck will be very similar to the all-electric pickup that was unveiled in late 2019, except for a 3 percent reduction in size. Musk noted this reduction would allow the Cybertruck to fit into a Boring Company tunnel without any issues.
Interestingly enough, Musk, with veteran talk show host Jay Leno at the wheel, took the Cybertruck through a Boring Company tunnel. Leno, for his part, noted in a later statement that while they were driving the all-electric pickup through it, the Cybertruck was running close to the tunnels’ walls.
With early entrants such as the Rivian R1T expected to begin deliveries later this year, the all-electric pickup market is poised to be very competitive. In the near future, other all-electric pickups such as the Ford F-150 Electric are also expected to be released, although legacy automakers relying on South Korean company SK Innovation’s batteries might find some challenges in their introduction. This is due to a recent US import ban on SK Innovation for 10 years, which was imposed due to a complaint by rival battery producer LG Chem.
