Nearly four years after it was first unveiled, the Tesla Cybertruck finally got a release date on Wednesday: delivery launch is set for November 30.
And yet, after hundreds of thousands of customers have been stuck in pre-order limbo since the truck’s reveal, Tesla CEO Elon Musk still warned, in a recent earnings call with investors, that he wanted to “temper expectations” and “enormous challenges” lie ahead for production…
In a leaked company email dated August and published by CNBC, Musk wrote that the Cybertruck’s design with “bright metal with mostly straight edges” makes “any dimensional variation” appear “like a sore thumb…”
The truck’s stainless steel body presents another challenge for manufacturing.
Raj Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, told Wired that the material does not provide as much flexibility, which is critical for vehicles during an accident and will require special welding techniques.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
