I agree that much of the
I agree that much of the Cybertruck's engineering is focused on building a simple and rugged truck, so the cost savings of the exoskeleton design makes sense in order to meet their price points and still make a profit. The competing gasoline trucks start at a lower price, but BEV rivals like Rivian and Bollinger start at $69K and $125K respectively. The mid level Cybertruck is priced comparably to a mid level optioned Jeep Gladiator with the Eco Diesel engine, which looks to be fairly competitive overall. While the Rivian is die to come out this year, and rumors put the Tesla Model Y release ahead of schedule in mid-2020 despite a promised release date of 2021. The original announcement said that the first two levels of Cybertruck (starting at $39K and $49K) are due in late 2021, with the Tri-motor/Plaid top Cybertruck due in 2022. While I suspect that in the same way that the high number of preorders will probably bring the Model Y out early this year, the strong reception and pre-orders of Cybertrucks will likely accelerate it's production as well. Plus because of it's simpler design it will help to bring it out early, but it still would be very ambitious to expect to see Cybertruck production start any time this year.