"We dug our own grave" - Tesla delivers Cybertruck and fears for its future

Stainless steel SUV - "We dug our own grave" - Tesla delivers Cybertruck and fears for its future

"S3XY" - for many years, Tesla only offered four models. All vehicles were united by a common design language, ultimately differing only in size, performance and equipment. The Cybertruck breaks with this strategy - in fact, it breaks with everything previously known in the automotive industry. For Tesla, although the company is the most valuable automotive group in the world according to its share price, this is probably about more than just a fun field test.

There are many reasons for this. If you look at the picture of the car, there are a few that immediately catch the eye. The Cybertruck is an extremely special car whose design has yet to prove itself. In addition, the body is made of stainless steel. This is actually a rather unfavorable material for a car because you can immediately see water stains, fingerprints, bird droppings and other dirt that inevitably comes into contact with the car on the road.

The Tesla Cybertruck is a difficult product

The stainless steel is also what makes the Cybertruck a major challenge for the factory. According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, there were already numerous problems during production of the prototype. Bloomberg also reports on this.

According to the report, it is expensive and very complicated to shape and weld stainless steel. Added to this is the high weight of the material. For an electric car with an already heavy battery, this is a burden that every manufacturer should actually avoid.

But more visible than the high weight, which puts a spanner in the works of a vehicle that is actually suitable for hilly off-road routes, are the problems during production. With stainless steel, you can see every gap, every protrusion and every flaw. Even more so than with other Tesla vehicles, which are not known for their perfect workmanship anyway.

Company boss Elon Musk is also aware of this, having warned about the vehicle internally on several occasions. As far as production is concerned, Musk ordered the utmost precision - and the engineers had to somehow find a way to comply. Even the prototypes proved that this was obviously not easy.

In the meantime, finished cars that meet the standard of production vehicles are also available at dealerships in the USA. Fred Lambert, a well-known Tesla expert, recently took a look around New York. His conclusion: even though the vehicle on display was "the best-looking Cybertruck" he had ever seen, the car is not perfect. There are irregular gaps on the vehicle, for example on the front mudguard. And Lambert confirmed: "You can see everything. Immediately.

Tesla has already warned that the coming period will be very tough for the company. In an investor meeting at the end of September, Elon Musk didn't mince his words either.

When asked about the high complexity of the Cybertruck, he said: "I mean, we dug our own grave with the Cybertruck. You know, nobody digs their own grave better than you. And special products that only come onto the market once in a blue moon are incredibly difficult to launch and produce in sufficient quantities from the start. Success is also not guaranteed."

Tesla expects an 18-month financial dry spell

Tesla assumes that it will take around 18 months before the company is out of the woods and no longer burning huge amounts of money with the Cybertruck. According to Musk, Tesla will probably not be able to bring mass production up to the targeted level before 2025.

However, this is not due to a lack of demand, Musk emphasized. "We have over a million people who have reserved the car," he explained.

This is all too bold for the financial world. Philippe Houchois, an analyst at Jefferies, said that the Cybertruck has already cost Tesla a year of growth and believes that the car manufacturer would be better off if the Cybertruck were to be completely removed from the program even now.

The expert also argues that Tesla is jeopardizing the lead that has always driven the company up on the stock market with the Cybertruck.

Houchois summarizes: "It looks like Tesla is stuck in the slow lane for another 12 to 18 months, unable to capitalize on the delays of its competitors, while European OEMs are launching 25,000-euro electric cars next year and Chinese automakers are setting a new pace with shorter product cycles."

There is also a bit of hope in the Cybertruck

For Tesla, however, the Cybertruck is also a technology carrier. And so we could see a repeat of what happened with the Model X. Tesla didn't sell very much of the large SUV either, but learned a lot from its production and the technology used. This knowledge was later applied to the Model 3 and created what is probably the brand's biggest success to date.

Originally - and possibly still - Tesla also wanted to use the Cybertruck to attack a huge market in the USA in which the company had no place until now - light commercial vehicles. The Cybertruck is set to take on the likes of the F-150 Lightning or the Silverado EV - and with the alleged pre-orders, it would have a real chance.

Provided that every pre-order customer still wants to get one after years of waiting. After all, the pre-order could be made with just 100 US dollars - whether you then add tens of thousands of dollars is a completely different matter.

However, if Tesla does not manage to roll the car out of the factories in sufficient quantities and with good quality, Musk and his company have a lot at stake.

Sources: Handelsblatt, Bloomberg, Electrek, Motley Fool, Teslarati