Tesla delivery delays strike again! 2022 Tesla Cybertruck wait time extended as new Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T rival has release date pushed back

Electric vehicle (EV) specialist Tesla has all but confirmed that deliveries of the divisive Cybertruck full-size pick-up will begin later than originally planned.

When the Cybertruck was revealed in prototype form in November 2019, US deliveries were scheduled to start late this year, but during its Q2 2021 update this week, Tesla heavily hinted that the full-size pick-up’s production start date will now take place in 2022.

Tesla noted that the new Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T rival will roll off the line at its new plant in Austin, Texas, but only after the Model Y mid-size SUV does so first, with the latter still “on track” to do so this year.

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But given there are only five months left in 2021, the Model Y’s production start date is likely to take place late in the year, meaning the Cybertruck won’t start rolling off the line until 2022.

Adding fuel to the fire are follow-up comments from Tesla vice-president of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, who confessed “the Cybertruck is currently in its alpha stages”, although his team has “finished basic engineering (of) the architecture.”

“It carries much of the structural pack and large casting designs of the Model Y being built in Berlin and Austin,” he added.

“Obviously, those take priority over the Cybertruck, but we are moving into the beta phases of Cybertruck later this year, and we will be looking to ramp that in production and take it to Texas after Model Y is up and going.”

Then Tesla founder and CEO chimed in and said: “In order for Cybertruck and Semi to scale to volume that’s meaningful for customer deliveries, we’ve got to solve the chip shortage working with our suppliers.”

He added the Cybertruck and the similarly delayed Semi truck are “heavy users of cell capacity, so we’ve got to make sure we have the cell capacity for those two vehicles, or it’s kind of pointless”.

Mr Musk confirmed Tesla will have a “pretty massive increase in cell availability next year” to help with that issue and won’t build the Cybertruck in small numbers as “they would literally cost $1 million apiece or more” at this stage.

For reference, the Cybertruck is listed as available to order on the Tesla Australia website, with a fully refundable $150 deposit able to be placed for a spot in the queue. This is despite doubts surrounding whether it will be sold outside of North America (see related story link above).