Elon Musk’s memo about the challenges of manufacturing a Cybertruck

Tesla CEO Elon Musk promoted his much-anticipated sci-fi-inspired Cybertruck on social media this week. However, the electric automaker has yet to release final prices and specifications for the trapezoidal truck, which it first revealed in November 2019, and a company-wide email sent by Elon Musk indicates that it is concerned about the “accuracy” in manufacturing the truck because its “straight edges means that the differences appear “like a sore thumb.”

In its second-quarter financial filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said its plant in Austin, Texas, was working on “tooling” for the Cybertruck, and that production was in poor condition. Not active yet. The company also said in a statement to shareholders that it is “working to install equipment for production of the Cybertruck, which remains on track for initial delivery this year.”

The company did not say when it expects to be able to mass produce the car.

On Wednesday, Musk shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, with a photo of the Cybertruck, saying, “I just drove the production candidate Cybertruck in a Tesla Giga Texas!” In the automotive industry, a “candidate” is an early model of a vehicle that is used by the manufacturer to measure the quality of production systems and vehicle assembly lines.

Tesla promoter and fan compressed musk For more details on the social media platform Wednesday, write in a post, “Enough of the hype, let’s get to work. Please announce specs, pricing, and new estimated delivery date.”

“When we’re ready to do it, we’ll do it,” replied the Tesla CEO, who also owns and operates Company X after a $44 billion purchase last year. “And while I think it’s the best product we’ve ever had, it’s a very difficult product to build.” . We’re in uncharted territory, because it’s not like anything else.

Musk also sent an email to “everyone” at Tesla on Wednesday about the Cybertruck and the challenges of producing the vehicle. Tesla employees shared a copy of the email with CNBC and asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak with the press about internal matters. The news of the memorandum has been published earlier by electric.

What Musk said in the email indicates that Tesla is still struggling with Cybertruck quality. Tesla shares fell slightly early Thursday after Musk’s Cybertruck comments and email.

Here’s what the email said, as reported by CNBC.

From: Elon Musk

to all

Date: August 23, 2023 (time stamp removed)

Swb. Precision Cybertrack

Due to the nature of the Cybertruck, which is made of shiny metal with mostly straight edges, any discrepancy in dimensions appears like a sore thumb.

All parts of this vehicle, whether in-house or from suppliers, must be designed and manufactured to an accuracy of less than 10 microns.

This means that all part dimensions must be to the third decimal place in millimeters and tolerances must be specified in single-digit microns.

If super-low-cost LEGO and soda cans can do it, so can we.

Accuracy indicates perfection.

Which color