Electric car maker Tesla has recalled for the fourth time in seven months thousands of Cybertrucks, its pickups that went on sale late last year with a highly recognizable boxy design. The recall affects 11,688 vehicles produced this year and according to various commentators it is a confirmation of how much the putting on sale of the new product was accelerated, after the company had accumulated delays in its development. Cybertruck production itself has proven more complex than expected, and Tesla is struggling to scale it up to meet demand.
Cybertruck is 5.7 meters long and 2 meters wide, while at its highest point it reaches a height of 1.8 meters. Its overall mass is around 3 tons, it is among the largest pick-ups on sale in the United States and certainly one of the most discussed in recent years. It was first presented by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, in 2019 as a vehicle inspired by the aesthetics of the film Blade Runner, with a gleaming stainless steel body. Musk announced that the first models would be produced by 2021, but the deadline was revised and the first deliveries date back to the end of November 2023.
Since then, Cybertruck has received reviews that are not always generous, especially for the quality of the materials and assembly, which is lower than that of other models produced by Tesla, despite the starting price of around 60 thousand dollars (it is only sold in North America). The bodywork resists bullets, at least up to a certain point, but it tends to rust and some owners recommend not exposing it to the sun immediately after washing it or drying the vehicle after rain.
Over time, safety problems were added to these problems, which made it necessary to recall thousands of Cybertrucks for various repairs and updates to be paid by the company. The recently announced recall concerns the vehicle’s large windshield wiper which in some cases may stop working due to incorrect management of the electrical power supply to its engine. The fault could occur at any time blocking part of the visibility through the windscreen. For this reason, over 11 thousand Cybertrucks will have to be taken to Tesla workshops for a free replacement of the motor that drives the windshield wiper.
At the same time as that recall, Tesla issued another which concerns a piece of the pickup’s floor covering. Since it is not adequately secured, in some cases it could come loose and crash into other vehicles. The company explained that the liner is secured to the floor with an adhesive and that there may have been some error in the factory assembly phase.
Tesla will provide repairs free of charge, but it can take a long time and some owners have complained about a previous recall with long waiting lists for an accelerator problem. In that case, Tesla had recalled 4,000 Cybertrucks because a component of the accelerator pedal could loosen, causing driving safety problems. The repair took a few minutes to carry out, but there were still complaints from owners about waiting days when they would not be able to use their vehicle.
Despite the problems that have emerged in just a few months of commercialization, demand for the Cybertruck does not appear to have diminished, at least judging by the two million reservations that the company had collected in recent years when it was still developing the pickup. However, Tesla does not provide sales figures for its various models when it presents quarterly figures, so the actual number of Cybertrucks sold so far is not known.
In early June, Musk said Tesla had reached peak production, with about 1,300 Cybertrucks being produced each week in its plants. By the end of the year, it plans to reach a weekly production of 2,500 Cybertrucks, with a full production of at least 125,000 pickups per year.
