Cybertruck lovers longingly ready to see Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s futuristic tanks on the highway might have to attend a bit of longer—but once more.
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The newest bump within the highway for Cybertruck comes on the hand of Mustapha El Akkari, the Tesla group supervisor of uncooked supplies who performed a key position in provide chain administration for the Cybertruck and different Tesla autos. In accordance with a report in The Data, El Akkari stop to go to electrical truck producer Rivian, the place he’ll grow to be the senior director of constructions and uncooked supplies. Rivian’s R1T pickup truck, which is already available on the market, is a competitor to Tesla’s Cybertruck. El Akkari had been at Tesla for 4 and a half years, in accordance with his LinkedIn profile, and was liable for managing $16 billion in spend on uncooked supplies. Gizmodo reached out to Tesla for touch upon Tuesday morning however didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication.
As famous by The Data, El Akkari’s transfer comes at a pivotal time for Cybertruck, which has been delayed for years by Musk, a grasp of lacking deadlines. Nevertheless, that’s supposedly set to vary within the third quarter of 2023, once more, in accordance with Musk, the unreliable narrator.
El Akkari isn’t the one key Tesla government who has ended up at Rivian. In recent times, Charly Mwangi, Tesla’s former senior director of engineering, joined Rivian as nicely after spending greater than six years at Tesla. Nick Kalayjian, Tesla’s former vp of engineering who was on the firm for greater than a decade, additionally moved on to Rivian. Mwangi is now not at Rivian, however Kalayjian continues to be on the electrical automotive producer and at the moment serves at its chief product growth officer.
Later this 12 months, Tesla is aiming to host a supply occasion for the Cybertruck and start manufacturing of the automobile this summer time. Nonetheless, Musk acknowledged in April that quantity manufacturing of the Cybertruck gained’t start till 2024.
“It takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and that is actually a really radical product,” Musk advised traders in a name in April, as reported by The Verge. “It’s not made in the way in which that different vehicles are made.”
Whereas Musk has lengthy maintained that the Cybertruck is an “unbelievable product” and a “corridor of famer,” a lot of its precise capacities are nonetheless up within the air. As an illustration, again in September, Musk mentioned that the Cybertruck can be “waterproof sufficient” to behave as a ship and “cross rivers, lakes, and even seas that aren’t too uneven.”
We’d strongly advise you in opposition to utilizing your Cybertruck as a ship when you get your automobile, although. Bear in mind, that the assertion comes from the identical man who mentioned that Cybertruck can be bullet-proof—and everyone knows how that turned out. Spoiler: It was not. For proof, see photograph above this story.
It’s not but clear whether or not El Akkari’s departure will have an effect on Tesla’s deliberate supply occasion within the third quarter. Given what number of occasions Musk has delayed the Cybertruck, giving the impression that it’s held along with string and tape, very similar to his different firm, Twitter, one other delay would shock nobody.