Elon Musk is a marketing whiz.
In addition to his duties as CEO and engineer-in-chief, he is also the best salesperson of the products and services that his companies develop.
Until recently, Tesla (TSLA), for example, did not advertise in the media, which allows the Austin, Texas-based vehicle maker to make significant savings as rivals General Motors (GM), Ford (F) spend millions of dollars to extol the merits of their vehicles.
The company can afford this zero-ads strategy because it has Musk and his millions of followers. The billionaire has created a mystique around the manufacturer of the SUV Model Y to the point that consumers identify any electric vehicle with Tesla. Model 3, Model Y and Model S are now part of the language and vocabulary of EV buyers.
The strength of Musk, whose tweets are regularly covered by the media and liked by millions of Twitter users, is to create hype around a product or a service and to announce crazy goals concerning it. It thus sparks strong reactions. But above all it maintains the buzz around the product or the service.
Maintain the Excitement Around the Cybertruck
He is in the process of deploying this successful strategy for the highly anticipated Cybertruck, the very first pickup/truck developed by Tesla. The production of this vehicle with a futuristic design is scheduled to start late this year after delays.
Musk has chosen to feed the expectation by distilling drop by drop, and almost every day, information on the Cybertruck. Over the past few days, the whimsical entrepreneur has, for example, indicated that the Cybertruck is "incredible," and his favorite vehicle. And that he was going to drive it every day.
He confirmed that the shape of the mirrors will be triangular. He also said that the Cybertruck will come with Tesla's "Hardware 4" full-self-driving computer, the company's advanced driver-assistance system. The main difference between Hardware 3 and Hardware 4 is in security, Musk told analysts on Jan. 25.
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He has again just revealed a new feature: The Cybertruck will have a red light bar, he said on Feb. 4.
"Production will have red light bar," he said.
The billionaire explained above all that the Cybertruck is the vehicle that was the most difficult for Tesla to manufacture. These revelations were made during threads on Twitter.
"Very hard car to build, as it is unlike any other," he told a Tesla fan who had posted a video of the Cybertruck. "but, as stated publicly, Cybertruck production starts this year."
The Competition
The Tesla Cybertruck was unveiled at a promotional event in Los Angeles in November 2019. Musk said at the time that he had been "influenced partly by 'The Spy Who Loved Me'" and the amphibious Lotus Esprit S1 featured in the 1977 James Bond film.
The vehicle also has been described as something out of the films "Mad Max" and "Blade Runner."
The Cybertruck promises up to 500 miles of electric range, a maximum tow rating of 14,000 pounds, and a base price under $40,000. Buyers will also have to add Tesla driver assistance system Full Self-Driving for $15,000.
It will mark Tesla's foray into the most profitable segment of the automotive industry, namely pickups/trucks. Musk is aware that Tesla cannot miss the debut of the Cybertruck, which will be in direct competition with the Ford F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the iconic F-150 pickup, the best-selling vehicle in the United States for many decades.
In addition to the F-150 Lightning, the Cybertruck will also face the Rivian (RIVN) R1T and probably the electric version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup from General Motors (GM).
