Tesla makes 1,000 Cybertrucks weekly as low 4680 cell cost means imminent price drop — at least for production

A recent Cybertruck recall revealed that Tesla has only been able to ship out 3,878 electric pickup trucks since the delivery event in November 2023, meaning production of the EV has been strained. Now, as part of Tesla's latest investor update, the company revealed that it is producing 1,000 Cybertrucks per week.

In addition to the first official Cybertruck production update since the electric pickup launched, Tesla's Vice President of Vehicle Engineering also revealed that production of the 4680 cells that power the Cybertruck has increased 18–20% in the last quarter. This has resulted in a reduction in the cost to produce EVs — the Cybertruck — that use the new cell tech.

4680 production increased about 18%, 20% over from Q4 – reaching greater than needed for Cybertruck, which is about 7-gigawatt hours per year as we posted on X. We expect to stay ahead of the Cybertruck ramp with the cell production throughout Q2 as we ramp the third and fourth lines in Phase 1, while maintaining multiple weeks of cell inventory to make sure we’re ahead of the ramp. Because we’re ramping, COGS continues to drop rapidly week over week, driven by yield improvements throughout the lines and production volume increases.

Tesla predicts the increased production of 4680 cells to provide enough of a cost reduction that by the end of 2024, it will be cheaper for Tesla to produce these 4680 cells than buying nickel-based (NMC and NCA) cells. This means that Cybertruck production cost should come down further towards the end of this year or start of next year.

If Tesla hopes to meet its estimated 2.3 million Cybertruck reservations anytime soon, it will need to drastically increase its 4680 cell production, because, at 1,000 units per week, it will take over 38 years to fulfill all the reservations. When the Cybertruck first launched, the production target was 200,000 units per year, which is almost five times as many as the 1,000 units per week Tesla is currently celebrating.

Read about the development of the Cybertruck in Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, available on Amazon.