Elon Musk unveils $30,000 Tesla Cybercab with 2026 production, but details lacking

Elon Musk’s unveiling of self-driving taxi prototypes let down some Tesla Inc. investors, with many expecting more particulars on how the carmaker can possibly pull off his latest robocar predictions.

The Tesla chief executive officer unveiled a slick two-seat sedan called Cybercab late Thursday, saying production may start in 2026 and that the vehicle could cost less than $30,000.

Musk hitched a ride in one of the cars on his way to the stage at the automaker’s event in Burbank, California. He also showcased a futuristic-looking Robovan concept that he said could transport as many as 20 people, plus updated versions of Tesla’s humanoid robot, called Optimus.

But the event didn’t address how Tesla will make the leap from selling advanced driver-assistance features to fully autonomous vehicles. Musk’s presentation lacked technical details and glossed over topics including regulation or whether the company will own and operate its own fleet of Cybercabs.

The lack of specifics sent Tesla shares down as much 6.9 per cent before the start of regular trading Friday. The stock had soared almost 70 per cent since mid-April, largely in anticipation of the robotaxi event.

Tesla has a track record of blowing past timelines Musk has offered for all manner of future products, and has had a particularly difficult time following through on his self-driving forecasts. The CEO told investors in 2019 that Tesla would have more than 1 million robotaxis on the road by the following year. The company hasn’t deployed a single autonomous vehicle in the years since.

“The only specific was the US$30,000 for a Cybercab,” said Nancy Tengler, the chief executive of Laffer Tengler Investments and a Tesla investor who attended the event. “The concepts were all grand. Is the idea super cool? Absolutely.”

Tesla has for years been selling a suite of features it’s marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD, that require constant supervision and don’t make its vehicles autonomous.

Musk said Thursday the company expects to be able to allow Model 3 and Model Y owners in Texas and California to no longer need to supervise those features sometime next year. While the CEO offered a rough sense of when the Cybercab may be ready, he didn’t say when Tesla will make the Robovan.

“Investors we spoke to at the event thought the event was light of real numbers and timelines,” Tom Narayan, an RBC Capital Markets who rates Tesla the equivalent of a hold, said in a note. “We would expect shares to trade lower.”

Design and Timeline

The robotaxi event itself was postponed by two months after Musk ordered changes to the prototype’s design, Bloomberg first reported in July. The Cybercab features doors that open upward like butterfly wings and lacks a steering wheel or pedals.

“They nailed the form factor,” said Gene Munster, managing partner of growth-investment firm Deepwater Asset Management, who went for a ride in one of the prototypes. “But the investor reaction is probably going to be muted because it’s still a long ways away, in terms of the time frame.”

Musk told the crowd gathered at a Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. movie studio lot that consumers will be able to buy the Cybercab, then offered a hedged answer when an attendee asked when it will be available.

“Probably, well I tend to be little optimistic on time frames, but in 2026,” Musk said. “Before 2027, let me put it that way.”

Trump’s Skepticism

United States presidential candidate Donald Trump provided fresh indication of the potential for Tesla’s robotaxi to run into regulatory snags in the lead up to Tesla’s party.

Speaking at a Detroit Economic Club event, the Republican nominee questioned whether anybody likes autonomous vehicles and said they were “concerning” to him. It was unclear from his remarks whether he was only singling out cars from China.

“The autonomous vehicles, we’re going to stop from operating on American roads, remember this,” Trump said. Musk endorsed Trump for president in July and has been spending millions of dollars supporting his candidacy.

Missing Models

Analysts said ahead of the event that they hoped Tesla would share additional information about the more affordable models Musk has teased for the first half of next year.

The CEO didn’t offer any such updates, casting further doubt on the company’s vehicle sales prospects. The carmaker needs to deliver a record number of cars and trucks in the coming months to avoid its first ever annual decline.

“We were disappointed by the lack of detail regarding Tesla’s near-term product roadmap,” Garrett Nelson, a CFRA Research analyst, said in a note. “We think the event did little to change an opaque intermediate-term earnings outlook.”

— With assistance from Mayumi Negishi, Natalie Choy, Yi Wei Wong and Michael Sin.

Bloomberg.com