Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, reportedly suggested that his firm had taken in 250,000 pre-orders for its “Blade Runner”-inspired electric Cybertruck pickup truck. Musk tweeted “250k,” which seemed to suggest, based on his Twitter report in that past, that the figure was the number of orders the company had received from prospective clients, CNBC reported.
Musk’s meaning of orders, however, might differ from what most people think. The automaker is currently only accepting pre-orders at the cost of $100. The pre-orders aren’t actually seen as deposits for the truck, which has a $39,900 starting price.
The Tesla executive has run into trouble in the past when it comes to his use of Twitter. In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Musk and his company $20 million each for Musk’s tweet that claimed he was mulling taking Tesla private for $420 per share – “Funding secured.”
Tesla’s all-electric Cybertruck comes in a tri-motor edition with a range of 500 miles, a dual-motor model with a range of 300 miles, and a single-motor variant with a range of 250 miles. The models range from $69,900 at the top end down to $39,900 at the low end.
News surfaced that “pre-orders” were rolling in – per Musk’s Twitter feed – days after a shattered glass incident embarrassed Tesla at the launch of its Cybertruck. The Cybertruck’s supposedly bulletproof glass was shattered by a metal ball thrown by Franz von Holzhausen, the design lead, to show off the material’s strength. Although the product launch was anything but smooth, it gained viral attention via YouTube.
Tesla is hardly alone when it comes to failed or less-than-stellar product launches and marketing stunts, but few such failures have led to so much interest in the product at hand.
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