Tesla’s Smashing New Cybertruck!
At a launch event on Friday, a confident Elon Musk felt like daring his design lead, Franz von Holzhausen, to show the audience just how “bulletproof” Tesla’s new ‘Cybertruck’ was. So, he did!
Upon hurling a metal ball at the pickup’s futuristic tinted windows, an unexpected smash left hundreds of journalists gasping in unison. The scene had echoes Steve Jobs’ slow internet nightmares in his Apple demos, as well as, of course, those cringe-worthy Shark Tank blunders. Then again, this sort of thing is just par for the course when you’re trying things that have never been done before!
Barring that minor design flaw, the affordable ‘Cybertruck’ looks to be a spectacular electric vehicle (EV) to rival Ford’s F-150, with sci-fi stainless steel bodywork, a 14,000 pound towing capacity, and speeds of 0mph-60mph in just 2.9 seconds. The crowd got loud for Musk, the demo gaffe proved great viral marketing with pre-orders notching over 200,000, but investors were harder to please. “Truck?” More like a Mars Rover! And how can Elon have remembered to include a slide-out electric stove, but forgotten windshield wipers and door mirrors? Shares fell 6%.
But don’t let that fool you! In only a year, Tesla’s stock has doubled with recent earnings reports showing the company to be as financially robust as any unprofitable company could be. Autopilot, clean energy storage, clean energy generation, and even in-car entertainment could all make for standalone enterprises on their own.
However, this incident reminded market players that without positive cash flows, a legit debate could be had over whether Tesla is genuinely ahead in its ventures, or simply more willing to put beta products in cars. It’s time to build some momentum!
