Source: Tesla
More than ten months after deliveries began, Tesla is now taking configurations for the non-Foundation Cybertruck series.
Cybertruck's first delivery took place on November 30 last year, so we're just over ten months away from that date.
As it often does, Tesla began to fill the delivery from top to bottom – it sent selected high-end, limited models first, expecting to send cheaper versions later. It has done this before with the Roadster, Model S and Model X, for example.
With the Cybertruck, this took the form of the fully loaded “Foundation Series”, which is a package that includes several options and costs an additional $20k.
But unlike Tesla's previous “Founder” or “Signature” series vehicles that had hundreds or even thousands of vehicles in them, the Base series has lasted longer, with tens of thousands of trucks delivered with the optional Base package.
Initially, Tesla said it would begin delivering non-Foundation vehicles months ago, but in July pushed that timeline back to “late 2024”.
Well, now that time has come, as Tesla has started sending emails to reservation managers inviting them to prepare their non-Foundation cars, with an expected delivery timeline of Oct-Nov 2024 – so, within the next month or two.
The website's Build Your Own Cybertruck page only shows the Foundation series so far, but for those with existing reservations, it should be possible to set up a non-Foundation truck at this point, or soon, so keep an eye on your email.
Without the Base package, the All-Wheel Drive model starts at $79,990, and the Beast model starts at $99,990.
Despite the low price, below the $80,000 MSRP for the US Federal EV Tax Credit, Tesla makes no mention of the tax credit on its website. This could be just a clerical problem to be solved, or it could be a real problem that is preventing the availability of credit on Cybertruck. We could ask Tesla to clarify this, but, well…
The new base price of just under $80k is a nice ratchet down from the truck's previous high, six-digit minimum price, but it's still a far cry from what the truck was originally advertised for.
Back in 2019, when the truck was first introduced, it was promised a starting price of $39,900 – a fraction of today's base prices. Even the AWD version of the top tri-motor was predicted to cost $69,900, $10k less than the current base price. These models were supposed to be available in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Tesla has said in the past that it intends to release another rear-wheel-drive-only version of the Cybertruck in the future, but it recently removed the single-vehicle option from its website. So it's possible that the “twice the promised amount” is the lowest we'll ever see. Stay tuned.
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