Tesla Cybertruck Foundation Series ends after 11 months

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Tesla has formally concluded the Cybertruck Foundation Series. A look at the all-electric pickup truck’s order page online shows that the Cybertruck could now be ordered on its base form. Any references to the Foundation Series have also been removed from the vehicle’s order page. 

With the Foundation Series over, the Tesla Cybertruck now starts at $79,990 for the All Wheel Drive (AWD) variant. This still makes the Cybertruck a very premium-priced vehicle, but the retirement of the Foundation Series means that the all-electric pickup truck can now be acquired for a significantly lower price. 

In its base form, the Cybertruck AWD offers 325 miles of EPA-estimated range, a towing capacity of 11,000 pounds, and a 0-60 mph time of 4.1 seconds. In its tri-motor Cyberbeast trim, the Cybertruck gets an EPA-estimated range of 301 miles, 11,000 pounds of towing capacity, and a 0-60 mph time of 2.6 seconds. 

Ultimately, the Cybertruck Foundation Series lasted nearly 11 months, considering that the first deliveries of the vehicle were held at the end of November 2023. This is quite impressive considering that buyers of the all-electric pickup truck are well aware that a more affordable version of the Cybertruck will be available after the Foundation Series ends. 

Tesla has not released detailed sales figures for the Cybertruck Foundation Series, though Kelley Blue Book’s EV Sales Report for Q3 2024 noted that a total of 28,250 Cybertrucks were sold from January to September 2024. From this number, 16,692 Cybertrucks were sold in the third quarter. This was enough to make the all-electric pickup truck the United States’ third best-selling EV in Q3 2024. 

With the Foundation Series now finished, and with customers now freely able to order the Cybertruck from Tesla’s official website, the true test for the vehicle’s sales would begin. Tesla skeptics claim that the company has exhausted the Cybertruck’s pre-orders and the vehicle now has a demand problem, but such sentiments seem premature. If any, it would be interesting to see how many more customers the Cybertruck could attract with its lower entry price. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Tesla Cybertruck Foundation Series ends after 11 months





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Tesla Cybertruck launches in Canada

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Tesla Cybertruck has officially launched in Canada, the company announced today.

The Cybertruck initially started deliveries in the United States last November, and it took ten months for it to be available in an additional country, as Tesla launched the all-electric pickup in Mexico last month.

As it was launching the Cybertruck in Mexico, the Vehicle Program Manager, Siddhant Awasthi, confirmed on X that the pickup would make its way to Canada in late October.

Tesla has reached this timeline, as it confirmed the Cybertruck is officially for sale in Canada:

The sale price on the Monoroney sticker in the image Tesla shared is $168,740, which equates to $122,282 in the United States. The trim is the Cyberbeast Foundation Series, which was the first trim level of the vehicle available in any market, let alone Canada.

This particular Cybertruck also features Full Self-Driving Capability and a Light Bar.

The Cybertruck is now officially available in three countries, all within North America. There is still some speculation on whether the vehicle will ever make it to other markets outside of the continent, as CEO Elon Musk has hinted in the past that the Cybertruck could be revised with an “international version” that would be more suitable for European and Asian markets.

This has not stopped some buyers in European countries from picking up units and having them shipped across the Ocean.

Some European groups are pushing back against the Cybertruck being brought to their region because of the weight and size of the pickup. Just recently, groups like the European Transport Safety Council and the European Cyclists’ Foundation said the vehicle’s design, including its sharp edges and its weight, make it a hazard for pedestrians.

Tesla Cybertruck gets pushback in Europe, increasing need for ‘international’ version

Tesla has yet to confirm that it will build a smaller version or revise the Cybertruck for other markets, but Musk has seemed to show interest in the idea.

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Tesla Cybertruck launches in Canada





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Tesla names Milan Kovac as VP, Head of Engineering for Optimus

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Tesla’s Director of Optimus and Autopilot Engineering Milan Kovac has been promoted to Vice President of Optimus (Tesla Bot). The update was posted on the executive’s personal LinkedIn page. 

Similar to Tesla’s Director of Autopilot Software Ashok Elluswamy, who was promoted to Vice President of AI Software recently, Kovac is a veteran of the electric vehicle maker’s Autopilot team. A look at Kovac’s LinkedIn page shows that he has been working for the electric vehicle maker for 8 years and 7 months. That’s an impressive amount of time considering Tesla’s reputation for being a demanding workplace. 

Kovac started his tenure at Tesla back in April 2016, when he was hired as a Staff Software Engineer for the Autopilot team. He only held this post for three months as he was quickly promoted to Engineering Manager of Autopilot Software in June 2016. He was further promoted to Senior Engineering Manager of Autopilot Software on January 2018, less than two years after he joined the company. 

Kovac would be promoted once more to Director of Autopilot Software Engineering in May 2019, and he would hold this post for 2 years and 9 months before he was promoted to Director of Optimus and Autopilot Engineering. Under his leadership, Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot evolved from a concept to a full blown Gen 2 bipedal machine capable of working autonomously in the company’s factories. 

Interestingly enough, Kovac’s personal LinkedIn page indicates that he was promoted to Vice President of Optimus (Tesla Bot) back in September 2024. This is quite interesting as his promotion seemed to have been kept under wraps. This also means that Kovac was already promoted to his current post when Tesla held its “We, Robot” event last week. 

As per Bloomberg News‘ Ed Ludlow, there were reportedly discussions about Elluswamy and Kovac taking the stage at the “We, Robot” event, and pitches were reportedly made to Musk about this. Musk, however, reportedly wanted to keep the event high level. This was quite unsurprising, as Musk previously stated that competitors tend to closely watch Tesla’s events for potential information or innovations that can be emulated. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Tesla names Milan Kovac as VP, Head of Engineering for Optimus





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