Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that supply chain issues can slow rollout of new vehicles.
The electric carmaker, which scored an 87 percent jump in auto deliveries last year in spite of the global semiconductor shortage, reported a 71 percent rise in revenues to $53.8 billion.
He said plans for its Cybertruck, Tesla’s first pickup, would be pushed back to at least 2023, along with a new Roadster and a semi-truck.
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“The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, operational efficiency and the capacity and stability of the supply chain,” Tesla said.
“Our own factories have been running below capacity for several quarters as supply chain became the main limiting factor, which is likely to continue through 2022.”
Musk said, ”I hopes Tesla will be ready to bring those to production hopefully next year. That is most likely.”
“We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year. It would not make any sense because we’ll still be parts constrained,” Musk said on a call with analysts.
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He said additional products “would then require a bunch of attention and resources on that increased complexity of the additional product, resulting in fewer vehicles actually being delivered this year.”
Musk said he hopes to produce a quarter-million Cybertrucks annually but achieving this will take time because of a lot of new technology to be introduced.
“Batteries will probably not be the limiting factor in Cybertruck production,” he said.
“I worry more about like how do we make the Cybertruck affordable despite having awesome technology,” he said.
Earlier in January, Reuters reported Tesla delayed its Cybertruck production as it changes features and functions in the face of rising competition in the electric pickup market.
Tesla, which began making electric vehicles with the premium sedan, Model S, and later introduced a more affordable car, the Model 3, has yet to launch in the highly profitable pickup truck segment currently dominated by fuel-guzzling vehicles from the US automakers.
(With inputs from agencies)
