July 15 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA.O) built its first Cybertruck at the electric-vehicle marker’s plant in Austin, Texas, the company said in a tweet on Saturday, after two years of delays.
Tesla founder Elon Musk introduced the pickup truck in a 2019 reveal where the vehicle’s designer cracked the vehicle’s supposedly unbreakable “armor glass” windows.
The company has pushed back production timing since then and Musk had last year cited shortages in sourcing components as the reason for pushing the launch of Cybertruck into 2023.
In a May shareholder meeting, Musk said that Tesla would like to produce a quarter-million Cybertrucks a year, depending on demand.
The Cybertruck launch will give Tesla an EV entrant in one of the most profitable segments of the U.S. market and a competitor to electric pickups from the likes of Ford Motor(F.N) and Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O), both of which have launched models in still-limited numbers.
Reuters reported last year that Tesla aims to start mass production of Cybertruck at the end of 2023.
