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The Cybertruck is years behind schedule, so Tesla is launching a $30 beer
- threeseed 4y agoTesla needs to fire Musk, abandon the childish and already dated Cybertruck and just build a normal truck/SUV. One that can compete with popular offerings from Rivian, Ford etc. and soon to be Porsche, RangeRover etc. And that can be easily sold globally unlike Cybertruck which has concerns from Australian regulators (and likely others) about whether it would be street legal given its unique sharp metal corners at children height design.
- Avshalom 4y agoAs far as I can tell they still haven't added the third brake light, so I don't think it's street legal anywhere.
- marcosdumay 4y agoMany US SUVs can not be sold globally. If they make a "normal" one, they will have the same problem. Car manufacturers don't need to sell the same model everywhere anyway. Regional markets are large enough to absorb a full model's production.
- threeseed 4y agoAnd yet Porsche, Range Rover, Rivian etc manage to sell the same cars globally. I'm not a rocket science/engineering/business genius like Musk but pretty sure having one design that may require some minor regional modifications is going to be significantly cheaper than having two completely different cars.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoPorsche (~300k units/year) and Range Rover (~90k units/year) are niche brands, Rivian isn't even profitable and a volume manufacturer. Conversely, the Model Y was the US' 6th best selling vehicle last year [1], is currently the 4th best selling vehicle in 2023, and will likely the world's best selling car in 2023 [2] based on demand and supply forecasts. [1] https://insideevs.com/news/629993/tesla-model-y-6th-bestselling/ https://insideevs.com/news/629993/tesla-model-y-6th-bestsell... [2] https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/1177/tesla-model-y-set-to-take-top-spot-as-world-s-best-selling-car-in-2023 https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/1177/tesla-model-y-set-to-... > According to a report from Focus to Move, the Model Y is now the fourth best-selling vehicle worldwide after an astonishing 88 percent jump from 2021 to 2022. There were 759,000 Model Ys sold last year, just 28,000 units behind the third-place Ford F-150 which has been the best-selling truck for the previous 46 years. Toyota claimed the top two spots, with the RAV4 at 870,000 and the Corolla selling 1.12 million. (waiting on my cybertruck)
- matthewdgreen 4y agoThe Model Y has a very conventional style, so the fact that it sells well would seem to be a point in favor of the GP’s argument. It also sells in many continents, which Cybertruck might not be able to do.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoConsider Tesla did not copy existing manufacturers. They built their own markets (S->X->3->Y). People complain online loudly about the touchscreen, quality, but I'll be damned, these units get moved regardless (well on our way to almost 3M/year [1]). For example, Harley can't woo younger riders to the brand because their attempt to acquire them turns off older Harley fans who are slowly dying out. Tesla doesn't have to attract legacy truck owners (Ford, Ram, Chevy), they're targeting young buyers and then locking them into the brand [2]. Buying a car is an emotional purchase [3], they're not going to convert older folks, they're going entrench themselves in youth purchasers as older, sticky auto buyers age out with their legacy preferences. Cybertruck doesn't have to sell well, it just has to have greater demand than supply globally. Global pickup truck market is ~4M/units annually, so Tesla should do just fine carving out some of that for itself. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/03/tesla-sales-up-40-to-record-1-37-million-but-thats-not-seen-as-enough/ https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/03/tesla-sales-up-40-to-re... [2] https://electrek.co/2023/02/27/tesla-dominates-brand-loyalty-us-electric-cars-taking-over/ https://electrek.co/2023/02/27/tesla-dominates-brand-loyalty... [3] https://martecgroup.com/emotional-car-buying-journey/ https://martecgroup.com/emotional-car-buying-journey/
- philwelch 4y agoThe original Tesla Roadster was based on a Lotus chassis, and the models after that weren’t major deviations from the norm (aside from maybe the gull wings, but even those have some design heritage). Elon was a car guy before Tesla—one of his first splurges when he got rich was a McLaren F1, which he infamously crashed with Peter Thiel in the passenger seat—and as a result, Tesla cars all seem reminiscent of European sports cars. He’s not a truck guy, though. So while his personal tastes have been beneficial for Tesla in the past, I think they miss the mark with Cybertruck. Also, trucks are functional vehicles, and Cybertruck violates a lot of common functionality that most “legacy” trucks have. There are probably a lot of people who drive trucks who don’t need that functionality—i.e. poseurs—and maybe some of them will buy Cybertrucks. Cf. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23331546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23331546
- timeon 4y agoIs there a point to sell 'trucks' globally?
- Fuzzwah 4y agoProfit?
- rsynnott 4y agoI think their point is probably that the personal-use pickup truck (_presumably_ the Tesla truck isn't intended as an actual utility truck) is _mostly_ an American phenomenon; the idea of having a personal pickup truck is just far less common in most countries (I think it's somewhat a thing in Australia). So there may not be much of a global market for this _anyway_.
- nashashmi 4y agoMusk behavior is significantly weighing the stock down. I saw Tesla early on as a slam dunk investment. But at a certain point when everyone began to see them this way (vain hope!), I had serious doubt they could deliver. And 10 years later, I realize anyone else with industrial experience could have done a better job of delivering cars than Musk could. We are giving this guy more credit than he deserves. There have been far too many layoffs at Tesla, good employees with similar vision, all because this guy was a billionaire jerk, without the billionaire title.
- dingosity 4y agoAnd at the end of the month, Elon's got to sell another chunk to fund the Twitter debt payment. But I'm sure he's playing 11th dimension chess and knows what he's doing. I'm sure when he doesn't have cheap debt to do a stock buy-back TSLA will go up instead of down.
- asynchronous 4y agoYeah because Tesla is doing so poorly as of late /s The Model 3/Y’s success must be entirely independent of Musk’s leadership huh?
- rainsford 4y agoI don't disagree that Musk probably isn't doing Tesla any favors lately, but even absent Musk, does the company actually know how to directly compete against established car makers in the same market segment? Tesla benefited a lot from being first with the "electric cars are cool now" approach, and they've been able to ride that early momentum pretty far as the other automakers struggled to catch up. Now all the other companies are coming out with competing EVs, it's not obvious Tesla as a company has moved beyond a strategy based on being your only nice EV option to actually being better than the competition. The Cybertruck is an absolute joke for the truck market compared to competitor vehicles, which also have the advantage of being products you can actually purchase. But even beyond the Cybertruck, the rest of the Tesla product lineup isn't the obvious choice it was even a few years ago. You can get a lot of nice EVs these days made by companies that also have a long history of being good at building cars in general and that you're fairly confident will be around for decades to come. Early on, the basic argument for Tesla was obvious...they were basically the only option for a cool, upscale EV. What's their marketing pitch in 2023?
- dingosity 4y agoTesla's 2023 marketing pitch should be "Hey, look! We can make vehicles without government subsidies!"
- dingosity 4y agoNevermind. They're still getting the federal subsidies plus whatever tax deferral / forgiveness they negotiated with Texas. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vw-rivian-nissan-bmw-lose-140645246.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vw-rivian-nissan-bmw-lose-140...
- Server6 4y agoYeah, after new rule rollout Tesla in one of the few manufactures still eligible for the EV subsidy. Unfortunately they made the rules too stringent focused on US manufacturing. Which is great in theory, but in todays world of global supply chains isn't exactly practical.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago"Just build a normal truck" will mean adding an extra 2-5 years before production. I'm confident that will make things worse, not better.
- swalling 4y agoThe current product is not even remotely one that can compete in the market. It has to be redesigned, or they’re going to end up shipping the Pontiac Aztek of EV trucks.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoSays somebody who has never driven, never seen and never read a review of the cybertruck.
- swalling 4y agoWe have all seen one, it’s called YouTube. Jay Leno hit the nail on the head “this doesn’t look anything like a pickup truck” which is exactly what the problem was with the Aztek. Crossovers are a huge market but the totally ridiculous body style was a flop. If Tesla priced this more like a Raptor, in order to market it as a futuristic status car, it might work. That’s not what they’re doing. Rivian is eating their lunch here and will continue to do so.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoIf you're basing your criticism on looks, there are two responses: 1. it's an opinion, and there are a substantial number of people who like the cybertruck 2. a truck is a functional vehicle, and functionality is the primary consideration. Lots of people think the Ram is the best looking truck, but it's substantially outsold by F-150 & GM.
- swalling 4y agoUnless it massively changes between now and launch (which is possible) Tesla is only going to outperform traditional trucks on one functional vector, which is speed and acceleration, but they don't outperform other EVs on that front. The Ford F-150 Lightning, Hummer EV, and Rivian's truck are all among the most powerful EVs you can buy. On other functional vectors like reliability and towing capacity they either don't really matter or Tesla won't win. Rivian's truck in particular has solidly beaten them to market with a highly functional vehicle that has a ton of incredible design details and has some of the highest driver satisfaction ratings of any new car models on the market. They have already captured a significant chunk of the market in luxury SUV and truck EVs, also partially due to the fact that a lot of rich liberals don't want to be associated with Elon Musk in any way now, and Tesla has moved downmarket pretty hard. Separately, a big part of the reason Ford massively outsells Dodge or other brands is because Ford is particularly loved by fleet buyers. Expect them to continue to do so with the Lightning. So that leaves the Cybertruck to pin its whole hopes on style/appearance, selling to the same type of bros that might buy a Ford Raptor or higher end Tacoma/Tundra model at similar price points. Not exactly a move poised to win the EV truck market overall, given how polarizing the design is.
- LesZedCB 4y agosilicon valley tv show once again too accurate for comfort with its tres comas tequila.
- adoxyz 4y agosad 2020 Roadster noises
- akmarinov 4y agoYou mean the 2040 Roadster
- steveBK123 4y agoPorsche is going to ship an EV roadster before that thing ever sees a showroom..
- reducesuffering 4y agoIt's been 5 years, wow... On the other hand, I actually believe Tesla is right to prioritize scaling production for their existing Model 3 / Y demand. Their problem is not generating more demand (things like Cybertruck, Roadster, etc.) but in producing the supply for existing demand. They've always been short on that, for good reason (hard to scale production fast, huge organic demand).
- jonnycat 4y agoThe "blue checkmark" of beers. This bottle certifies that the person holding it has $30.
- xracy 4y agoI mean, if I could make money by announcing a limited run of any product. I would definitely keep announcing them. Certainly seems easier than building out a Truck with all of the promised capabilities.
- artificial 4y agoI see you're familiar with Star Citizen! Hurry, these ships won't be on sale for long!
- frob 4y agoWhen you open the bottles, it's just beer vapor.
- yamtaddle 4y agoBottle's empty. Label inside the cap reads "self-drinking".
- bottlepalm 4y agoNot existing? They built an entire factory for it in Texas, is in going through crash testing, qualification, and the truck is regularly seen on test runs around their offices. This just seems like a lazy hit piece with little actual information even though there is a lot out there if you actually follow the development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvy19pEVs1M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvy19pEVs1M
- zactato 4y agoI'm not sure that video is evidence for anything more than a single cybertruck existing.
- bottlepalm 4y agoThat was in California, plus we know at least one crash tested, and here's one in Texas in a wind tunnel - so at least 3 .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOtH-ao7b8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOtH-ao7b8 Seriously you think this is vaporware? They're building an entire factory for something else?
- andrewmcwatters 4y agoIt doesn’t matter. You can’t buy it. This is like reading developers say, “We’re almost done!” and you’ve only now pushed to the test environment. No QA, no UAT, nothing. If it’s not in production, it doesn’t exist.
- BitwiseFool 4y agoThat's our secret, we were working in production the whole time.
- bottlepalm 4y agoI see so a vaporware product and a product with immense resources going into it, but not yet released are equal in your eyes. You remind me of the people who laughed about reusable rockets, starlink, private crew, and every tesla model. They laugh right up to the point it is released, and then they move the goal posts to the next product.
- jimnotgym 4y agoThe cyber truck is such a miss. If they had built a normal truck, but electric, they could have tapped a huge market. Instead they went super niche with the sci fi truck. I hope for Tesla's sake that Tesla have enough fanboys.
- slashdev 4y agoThe number of cybertruck reservations say otherwise. It’s riskier, yes, but might payoff. I wouldn’t buy a normal truck, but a cybertruck is my dream vehicle. I’d rather own that than anything else, even if money was no object. And I’m far from a Tesla fanboy.
- at-fates-hands 4y ago>> I wouldn’t buy a normal truck, but a cybertruck is my dream vehicle. Honest question. What is it that makes it your dream vehicle?
- slashdev 4y agoLarge, extremely safe, no paint to maintain, no body that gets easily dented, impact resistant glass, electric, high performance, long range, great torque and acceleration, can haul stuff, can fit a family, can be used in a pinch for power, and looks awesome. And maybe the self driving stuff will turn out to be useful too. Too soon to say. Electric vehicles are coming much more slowly where I am and they cost 1.5-2x what they do in the US. So I bought a ICE car this year. But I hope one day a cybertruck will be a practical option for me.
- dingosity 4y agoUm... the impact resistant glass was not especially impact resistant at the unveiling, but you just go on believing that it was. Life is too short to get bummed out by consensus reality.
- 4y ago
- nashashmi 4y agoThis is incredibly messed up. If I'm a shareholder with a conscience against alcohol and beer, this goes against every nerve in my body. It's like Tesla announcing hemp CBD smoke vapor. Since when did I agree to become a drug dealer? Or a black water vendor?
- dingosity 4y agoSince you gave money to Elon Musk.
- nashashmi 4y agoBuying shares is not giving him money. Buying Tesla is like giving him money. Tesla fanboys all over this.
- dingosity 4y agoIt is technically equivalent because if you buy shares you increase the value of an elastic commodity that directly benefits the company when they issue more shares (or offer for sale shares which have been authorized but unissued.)
- antibasilisk 4y agoa perfume with this sort of branding could work pretty well tbh
- gamblor956 4y agoMost companies would call something like this "marketing" and associated costs would be characterized as "marketing expenses." But sure, let's maintain the fiction that Tesla spends nothing on marketing.
- terminatornet 4y agocybertruck looks like someone with a concussion drew a delorean from memory.
- terminatornet 4y agoit doesn't even look futuristic. something like honda's EV concept cars look way interesting to me and look like they could actually function as vehicles https://global.honda/innovation/design/topics/TMS2017/Honda-Sports-EV-Concept.html https://global.honda/innovation/design/topics/TMS2017/Honda-... https://global.honda/innovation/design/topics/TMS2017/Honda-Urban-EV-Concept.html https://global.honda/innovation/design/topics/TMS2017/Honda-...
- mrwnmonm 4y ago[flagged]
- senectus1 4y agoThis article is missing a point. This is capitalism at work. there is a market, so Elon is tapping it. This goes for both products the truck and the beer. YOU might not like it, but enough people are willing to pour millions into it that it will be profitable for him.
- honeybadger1 4y agoI have a model Y performance and love it. I reserved the cybertruck within the first 5 minutes of being able to. I will enjoy rolling around in bleeding edge technology while people have their opinions.
- GaryNumanVevo 4y agoIn this case literally bleeding edge! The cybertruck is heavy enough to not be required to have airbags and they literally don't have airbags!
- DemocracyFTW2 4y ago> Tesla GigaBier [is] a “limited edition pilsner-style beer brewed in Berlin with our exclusive strain of Cyberhops and notes of citrus, bergamot, and sweet fruit.” [...] GigaBier is sold in packs of three 330-ml bottles for 89 euros (close to $100—or about $30 a beer) Fuck off Elon fuck off together with all those dimwits who find it stylish or funny to shell out 30€ for a can of beer. Please take all your buddies with you too, and you can take those politicians with you who bypassed democratic institutions to secretly strike a deal with Tesla to build a factory near Berlin, then went to TV to brag about it. When you came around for opening day and got asked by the public about groundwater concerns and you broke out into inane laughter I finally understood what a dangerous and mad person you are. Go to hell and stay there.