Elon Musk is back in the driving seat of a Tesla Cybertruck, only this time the vehicle is not a beta prototype like the last time he drove the electric truck.
Tesla's CEO shared a photo on X (formerly Twitter) showing him behind the wheel of what he called a "production candidate" Cybertruck.
"Just drove the production candidate Cybertruck at Tesla Giga Texas!" Musk tweeted. After one of his followers commented that Musk's smile behind the wheel says it all, Tesla's head honcho replied, "I think this is our best product ever."
That is obviously great to hear if you're among those who have reportedly placed 1.9 million Cybertruck pre-orders or are simply rooting for Tesla's first electric pickup truck and for EVs in general.
That being said, Musk stopped short of revealing more details about the Cybertruck, despite many requests from followers, most of whom were curious about the start of deliveries.
Tesla last month announced that it had built the first Cybertruck at Giga Texas and later clarified that the vehicle was a "production candidate" truck, according to Electrek.
A production candidate vehicle is hopefully what EV makers also call a "release candidate" and traditional automakers typically refer to as a "production validation" vehicle.
Whatever the designation, it's good news because all these terms designate the same thing: the final version of a vehicle that is made (almost) entirely on the production line – unlike the hand-built beta prototypes used for development testing.
Given Musk's announcement, the Tesla Cybertruck vehicles we've seen in recent days being shipped and tested across the US are likely production validation units too.
This preview of the production validation Cybertruck coming from Musk bodes well for the start of initial deliveries. Tesla's CEO announced on the Q1 2023 earnings call in April that a Cybertruck handover event would be held toward "the end of the third quarter," which likely means September 2023. Tesla may actually surprise everyone by being on schedule this time.
If that proves to be the case, Tesla will probably announce the delivery event soon. The EV maker will likely use it to release long-awaited information about the Cybertruck, including final specifications and pricing.
After a wait of almost four years since the unveiling of the original Cybertruck concept, it looks like the world's most hyped EV ever is finally ready to take off. These are very exciting times for Tesla and EV enthusiasts.
