Elon Musk confirms start of Cybertruck deliveries as price for dual-motor launch trim gets pegged at $60,000

UPDATE: Tesla has now announced the Cybertruck pricing and the dual-motor AWD version starts at US$79,990 before subsidies and "gas savings."

There are now only hours left to the grand Cybertruck release date event at Giga Texas on November 30 and Elon Musk just confirmed that the first Cybertruck deliveries will start on Thursday, with a handy countdown  timer appearing at the dedicated website. Tesla's CEO didn't elaborate further on what Cybertruck versions will launch first, or how much they will cost, but there are now reports that fill in both of those blanks.

All initial Cybertruck deliveries might be of the midrange dual-motor version with about 300-mile range that Tesla sent to more than 20 showroom floors and service centers around the US last week as display units. A Tesla team member at one of those locations reportedly also added there will be a tri-motor version that Elon teased as a Cybertuck Performance model not long ago, but it won't ship before Q2 or even Q3 of next year.

Cybertruck price

• Dual-motor AWD: $59,900 (est.)
• Tri-motor Performance: $79,900 (est.)

Those initial batches of the dual-motor AWD version of Tesla's first electric pickup fall squarely in the midrange category according to the nomenclature that Tesla listed when it announced the Cybertruck prices. At the time, the dual-motor trim was supposed to start at $49,900. Fast forward about four years, and storied Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives now predicts a 25% inflation of that price, with the dual- and tri-motor Cybertruck prices falling in the $60,000-$80,000 range. This jibes with a rumor that those Tesla employees and industry influencers who will be delivered a Cybertruck to, have reportedly been told a price range in the "mid to high 70s," most likely for the tri-motor Performance model.

Tesla has been trying to price the Cybertruck not as a luxury vehicle, but around the average pickup tag in the US, in order to make it a mass market vehicle in the category. According to Bloomberg estimates, the price inflation of the average pickup truck in the US for the 2019-2023 period is about 28%. The typical Ford F-150, for instance, which Tesla is reportedly using as a Cybertruck pricing benchmark, went from $49,700 at the time Elon Musk announced a similar midrange Cybertruck trim price, to $60,400 now.

The other popular American pickup trucks - the Ram 1500 or Chevy Silverado - underwent similar tag inflation in the past four years, so if Tesla wants to keep the Cybertruck price pegged to the level of the average pickup in the US, it will have to bump all of its trims up by at least ten grand. Thus, the inaugural dual-motor Cybertruck price may be pegged at $59,900, rather than the $49,900 it was announced with, while the tri-motor Cybertruck Performance price could very well hit $79,900, especially if it offers a giant battery with 500-mile range.

Tesla is reportedly hitting the 300-mile range mark with a 123 kWh battery pack in the dual-motor Cybertruck, so the tri-motor version's battery is likely to border on the 200 kWh mark. For now, Tesla has only registered VINs of those two dual- and tri-motor Cybertruck versions and it remains to be seen if the top-shelf energy efficiency that the automaker is famous with, will translate to the lowest cost per mile of Cybertruck range in the category, as it usually does.

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