Last week a camouflaged Tesla Cybertruck was spotted on the streets of Palo Alto, California. It was the first time a Cybertruck in anything other than the signature stainless steel finish had been seen in public, suggesting it was the first Cybertruck to built with the finalized design. Elon Musk all but confirmed that later by commenting on a video of the camouflaged Cybertruck visiting an In-N-Out drive-thru, saying it was a tradition.
Tesla appears to be very close to the start of production as four more Cybertrucks have been spotted in California, this time both with and without camouflage.
In one sighting, shared by the Tesla Owners Club San Joaquin Valley Twitter account (@SjvTesla), two Cybertrucks were seen on the back of a trailer together. These Cybertrucks had no camouflage, with the vault cover closed on one of them. According to @SjvTesla, the photos were sent anonymously and without a location, but based on the surroundings it looks like they were travelling through Altamont Pass, about 30 miles (50km) to the east of Tesla’s Fremont factory.Â
No camo needed anymore…. Look ma, Cybertruck! What the? I’m more excited today than yesterday $tsla pic.twitter.com/Ux0EWBCxhn
— TOC San Joaquin Valley (@SjvTesla) June 22, 2023
In a separate sighting, two more camouflaged Cybertrucks were also spotted by Instagram user @bayarea_carbon. An exact location wasn’t provided, but the photo was tagged with the location of the Bay Area, but based on the previous sighting, this photo was likely taken in Palo Alto near Tesla’s new Global Engineering headquarters. (h/t: @SawyerMerritt)
As we noted production is scheduled to start this summer, and these recent sightings suggest Tesla is on track to meet that timeline. Supporting this theory is the Cybertruck castings that have been accumulating outside Giga Texas as of late. Originally these castings were just piled on the ground, but as of this week Tesla has been storing them in the same racks used to store Model Y castings, as seen in a drone flyover by Joe Tegtmeyer (full video at the end of this article).
This suggests that these castings are likely going to be used for production, whereas the previous ones were likely just test castings that will be scrapped or melted down to be reused in future castings.
We have also heard rumours that Tesla has removed the curtains from the windows at the casting area at Giga Texas. Tesla has previously covered up the windows to prevent drone pilots from seeing any progress of the installation and eventual firing up of the 9,000 ton Giga Press machines that create these castings.
All of this points to Tesla being very close to the start of production, possibly even ahead of schedule.
