Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that the automaker likely will build between 250,000 and 300,000 Cybertruck pickups annually once the electric vehicle goes into production next year.
Musk, speaking on the sidelines of Tesla's Battery Day presentation, offered a volume projection for the first time. The pickup will be built in a new factory Tesla is building outside Austin, Texas.
"There's probably room for at least unit volume of 250,000 to 300,000 a year, maybe more," Musk said.
He noted that Tesla has booked "well over half a million" orders in the form of $100 refundable deposits. That's a much higher number than the "couple hundred thousand" orders he told Automotive News last month.
"It's a lot, basically," he said Tuesday. "We stopped counting."
If Tesla sells all the Cybertrucks that Musk says it will build, it would rank well below the competition. Ford Motor Co. sold more than 896,000 F-Series pickups in 2019. Fiat Chrysler was second, selling more than 633,000 Ram pickups.
Tesla has said the Cybertruck is "very likely" to be classified as a medium-duty pickup, on par with vehicles such as Ford's F-250 Super Duty.
Musk said Tuesday that Tesla likely will build a smaller variant to sell overseas.
"We'll probably make an international version that's smaller," he said. "It will still be cooler, it will just be smaller, because you can't just make a giant truck like that for international markets."
