Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday the automaker will likely build between 250,000 to 300,000 Cybertruck pickups per year once the electric vehicle goes into production next year.
Musk, speaking on the sidelines of its Battery Day presentation, offered a volume projection for the first time. The pickup will be built out of a new factory Tesla’s is building outside Austin, Texas.
“I think there’s probably room for at least unit volume of 250,000 to 300,000 a year, maybe more,” Musk said.
He noted Tesla has booked “well over half a million” orders in the form of $100 refundable deposits. That’s a much higher number than the “couple hundred thousand” orders he told Automotive News last month.
“It’s a lot, basically,” he said Tuesday. “We stopped counting.”
If Tesla sells all the Cybertrucks Musk says it will build, it would rank well below the competition. Ford Motor Co. sold more than 896,000 F-Series pickups in 2019. Fiat Chrysler was second, selling more than 633,000 Ram pickups.
Tesla has said the Cybertruck is “very likely” to be classified as a medium-duty pickup, on par with vehicles like Ford’s F-250 Super Duty.
Musk said Tuesday Tesla will likely build a smaller variant to sell overseas.
“We’ll probably make an international version that’s smaller,” he said. “It will still be cooler, it will just be smaller, because you can’t just make a giant truck like that for international markets.”