Yes,???? ??????? ???????? ?? ??? Tesla's newly announced Cybertruck looks more like an old Apple mouse than it does an automobile. But that apparently hasn't put people off from lining up to buy one.
Elon Musk took to Twitter on Saturday to share some stats on Cybertruck orders. And while I don't personally have any insight into what qualifies as "good" for order numbers, I'm pretty sure 146,000 people stepping up to buy a vehicle that starts selling at almost $40,000 reaches the "good" bar.
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And yes, all of it apparently happened in a grassroots sort of fashion, with online buzz and word-of-mouth following the Cybertruck reveal propelling all the orders received so far.
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The single-motor option that apparently has the smallest percentage of orders so far is actually the cheap option, with the rear-wheel drive model starting at $39,900. The dual-motor all-wheel drive Cybertruck tacks on an additional $10,000, which gets you more towing capacity and an extra 50 miles of range (300 instead of 250).
The priciest Cybertruck sports three electric motors that up the range to 500 miles and the towing capacity to 14,000 pounds, which is 6,500 pounds more than the single-motor option.
Note that orders aren't the same as purchases, but some money still changes hands. Reserving a Cybertruck requires a $100 refundable deposit. The vehicles won't be available until late 2021, so who can really say how many of those deposits will convert to purchases when all is said and done? With the Cybertruck's release so far out at this point, people likely just want to reserve their place in line.
Still, 146,000 worth of $100 deposits means Tesla raked in $14.6 million in less than 24 hours. Those deposits are refundable, sure, but if all you want to know at this point is if people are interested in the weird-looking vehicle, it's safe to say they are.
Back in 2016, Tesla took in 134,000 pre-orders for the then-newly-revealed Model 3. But that was a similarly long-in-advance reveal, with customers waiting until late 2017 before they could actually purchase the vehicle. By Aug. 2017, 63,000 of those pre-orders – which, it's worth noting, carried a higher $1,000 deposit – had been canceled.
Topics Tesla Elon Musk