Tesla is still struggling to get production going.

Pull Over Now

A Tesla Cybertruck prototype decided to stop and smell the roses during a test journey.

The oddly shaped vehicle was spotted by eagle-eyed onlookers outside Corpus Christi, Texas, earlier this week, Electrek reports, near where the company celebrated the opening of its new lithium refining facility on Monday.

A video shows a number of employees surrounding the stranded truck.

While we're still not sure what exactly was wrong with the truck — or if it was just stuck in the mud — it's not exactly a promising sign, especially considering the Cybertruck is already way behind schedule. When Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the brutalist vehicle well over three years ago, after all, he promised it would be available by "late 2022."

And we're already well into 2023, with Musk promising during last month's earnings call that the handover event will happen toward "the end of the third quarter." That means it's roughly a year behind schedule, which shouldn't exactly surprise anybody at this point given Musk's abysmal track record when it comes to setting deadlines. In a sense, it feels like the whole project is stuck on the side of the road.

More Delays

Even the lithium refining facility, which is meant to support battery cell production at Giga Texas, was meant to open at the end of last year, according to Electrek.

What we've seen of the brutalist truck so far hasn't been confidence-inducing, from busted up prototypes to extremely janky ones being shown off to the public.

Given the fact that Tesla's previous events involved only a tiny amount of vehicles being made available, as InsideEVs points out, customers will likely have to wait even longer until they get their delivery.

And that's gotta sting, considering the number of delays so far.

"As with all new products, it will follow an S-curve, so production starts out slow and then accelerates," Musk said during last month's earnings call. "The Cybertruck is no different."

"But as with all new products, it takes time to get the manufacturing line going," he added. "And this is really a very radical product. It's not made in the way that other cars are made."

More on the truck: Of Course Elon Musk Is Pushing The Cybertruck Back Again, What Did You Expect?


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