Electric car company Tesla has received 200 000 pre-orders for its electric Cybertruck, which was unveiled last week.
The pickup truck, launched at an event in Los Angeles, California, has a starting price of $39 900, with a prospective owner required to pay a refundable $100 “pre-order fee”.
According to Tesla, the “futuristic” truck can out-pace a Ford F-150 and outperform a Porsche 911.
While the Cybertruck won’t officially be available until late 2021, pre-orders have been flooding in via the Tesla Web site, according to Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who took to Twitter a few hours ago to announce the latest pre-order tally.
On Saturday, Musk tweeted: “146k Cybertruck orders so far, with 42% choosing dual, 41% tri & 17% single motor.”
On Sunday, he wrote Tesla had received “187 000 orders” for the Cybertruck.
The launch of the vehicle kicked off with a rocky start last week, after Tesla’s chief of design, Franz von Holzhausen, hit the door of the truck with a sledgehammer to demonstrate its bullet-proof capabilities, unexpectedly resulting in shattered windows.
The “cyberpunk” styled truck promises mind-blowing performance, with the ability to tow items weighing more than six tons, and carrying a payload of nearly 1.6 tons, a greater load capacity than the average diesel truck, while costing significantly less to maintain, according to Tesla.
Musk says with an unpainted wedge-shaped, steel exoskeleton, its design draws influences from two movies, James Bond's "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Blade Runner 2049" (2017).
“Blade Runner” art director Syd Mead has praised the vehicle, saying it is “stylistically breath-taking” and has “completely changed the vocabulary of personal truck market design”.
The Cybertruck has the ability to go off-road, has enough space for six adults, and features a futuristic steering wheel and 17-inch touch-screen.
According to Tesla, a single motor rear-wheel drive will cost $39 900, a dual motor all-wheel drive is priced at $49 900, and the tri motor all-wheel drive will go for $69 900, although there may be additional costs depending on the features selected by the purchaser.
Share