Tesla VP Says 4680 Cell Production Not Leading To Cybertruck Production Delays, Says Reservation To Order Rate 'Encouraging'

Tesla Inc TSLA Supply Chain Vice President Karn Budhiraj on Wednesday denied reports of 4680 cell production limiting Cybertruck delivery ramp.

What Happened: The executive said that 4680 production is ahead of the ramp with weeks of finished cell inventory and that the goal is to keep it that way. The company will continue to ramp up its 4680 production while also ramping up orders from suppliers, company CEO Elon Musk added, on the heels of recent media reports stating otherwise.

In December, Reuters reported that the EV giant is struggling to make 4680 cells fast enough to meet its targeted annual production rate of a quarter million Cybertrucks. Tesla’s gigafactory in Texas is making only enough cells for about 24,000 Cybertrucks a year, the report said.

Cybertruck Orders: Regarding the number of Cybertruck orders received, Budhiraj said that the conversion of reservations to orders for the vehicle has been ‘very encouraging.’ The company is also receiving new orders since the vehicle’s launch in late November, he added.

During Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call in October, a month before the Cybertruck's delivery event, Musk had said that over a million people had already reserved the vehicle.

“If the trend continues as it very likely to be, we will soon [sell] out all the builds in 2024,” the executive said. Musk also noted that the trouble with the Cybertruck is not demand but production.

“Obviously, we could dramatically raise the price, but that doesn’t feel right to us to sort of gouge people for early delivery,” Musk said while reiterating his target of delivering 250,000 Cybertrucks in North America ultimately. The CEO had previously said that the delivery target would be met in 2025.

Photo courtesy: Tesla

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