Billionaire and investor Elon Musk unveiled the Cybertruck, an electric pick-up with a futuristic design from his company Tesla, on Thursday amidst great fanfare, with already a million reservations made. With loud music and an excited audience, the billionaire arrived like a rock star in a leather jacket behind the wheel of his Cybertruck at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.
– I think this is our best product – Musk said, boasting that it is ‘the most extraordinary object on the road’.
– The future will finally look like the future – Musk added.
The Cybertruck is a cross between a model from the movie ‘Blade Runner’ (1982) and the ‘Wet Nellie’, an amphibious vehicle seen in the film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, Elon Musk said.
– It’s better than a pick-up and better than a sports car; it’s everything in one – described the owner, not holding back on praising the performance of his vehicle.
Musk staged a grand spectacle for the promotion: shooting a machine gun at the vehicle’s doors which left no holes, a race with a Porsche 911 (which he won), and towing a construction machine or a rocket reactor.
However, the market for electric pick-up vehicles is already competitive, and Musk’s vehicle will have to compete with models from manufacturers such as Rivian, General Motors, or Ford. Just over 18 months ago, Ford introduced the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-selling vehicle in the United States. The American market highly values pick-up vehicles, and manufacturers reap the highest margins from them.
The base model of the Cybertruck is sold at a price of $60,990, significantly higher than the F-150 Lightning, which can be purchased for $50,000.
