The factory for the innovative and polarising Cybertruck will be in central USA, and there will be another new plant on the east coast at which the Model Y will be built, Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk said on Wednesday (Australian time) via Twitter.
The Cybertruck, with its 30x cold rolled steel exoskeleton and armoured glass, takes a completely new tack on utility trucks (known as pickups in the US and utes in Australia) and is slated for release from 2021.
Its angular and outlandish “cyberpunk” design turned heads and divided opinions at its launch in November, but nevertheless attracted huge interest – even despite a test of the armoured glass by head designer Franz von Holzhausen that ended up smashing the side window.
Anywhere between 300-500,000 $US100 ($A150 in Australia) fully refundable deposits have been taken so far for the Cybertruck. Although Australians may need to wait until 2022-23 to get their hands on one, there have been 16,000 Australian reservations so far added to this Cybertruck reservation tracker.
The Cybertruck is being offered in three variants, starting with a single motor at $US39,900 ($A61,451 converted), a dual motor at $US49,900 ($A76,853 converted) and a trimotor for $US69,900 ($A107,656 converted). Australian pricing has not yet been released although it is available for order locally.
Musk had previously said in an interview with Recode Decode’s Kara Swisher that he didn’t mind if the Cybertruck, the design of which had been inspired by cult sci-fi film Bladerunner, would be a commercial success.
“You know, I actually don’t know if a lot of people will buy this pickup truck or not, but I don’t care,” he said at the time.
But it appears that it just may be – enough to warrant building another factory, at any rate.
Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2020
Of course, the Cybertruck would need a completely new approach to assembly than its conservatively designed predecessors.
For a start, the angular exoskeleton is made from the same stainless steel alloy that Musk’s other company, SpaceX, uses in the construction of its rockets.
It uses a folding process to create the exoskeleton design that, as engineer Peter Thompson explains, makes it very strong, but in particular it is also a type known as “Type 301” which goes through a cold-rolled process to give it high strength and make it very resistant to corrosion.
Musk teased Twitter with a possible location for fifth gigafactory in Texas, in early February. At the time it was speculated that this may be for the Cybertruck and, in light of this week’s update, Texas might just squeak in as “central USA.”
In addition to the announcement of a ballpark location for the Cybertruck factory, Musk also said that a sixth gigafactory would be built on the east coast, for the Model Y.
Model Y production for east coast too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2020
Tesla has begun preparations for the construction of its fourth EV factory near Berlin, with Musk joking on Twitter on Tuesday (Australian time) that Tesla should build a “mega rave cave” under the German site – gaining a 90% approval for the idea at the time of writing.
Tesla should have a mega rave cave under the Berlin Gigafatory
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
There has been no timeline given for the construction of either new US factory yet.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.