Tesla Pickup Truck Release: Rivals Causing Further Delay?

As Tesla is nearing the finish line with its Cybertruck pickup truck, Tesla enthusiasts and automobile aficionados alike are eagerly waiting in the sidelines for the much-delayed truck’s actual release date. But what did cause the many delays in the production of the Cybertruck? Are its competitors to blame?

According to a report, the competition’s pretty tough thus far, although there are only three serious contenders for the electric pickup truck race. Aside from Tesla, there’s American car manufacturer Ford, who isn’t much of a slouch in the automobile industry. And then there’s the much-younger Rivian, whose shorter years belie a tech-savvy to rival that of Musk’s own company.

Ford is coming out with a pickup truck follow up to its electric Mustang offering, the Mach-E. Officially part of the F-series of trucks, the company announced the release of an all-electric truck in January of 2019, after the lukewarm reception of its hybrid series of trucks.

There isn’t an official timeline for the Ford offering, though. This means that the longer Tesla delays its launch, the better it is for the company.

Rivian, meanwhile, is giving Tesla some heavy competition via its R1T pickup truck that promises to be just as futuristic as the Cybertruck is going to be. The R1T promises to be large, larger than the Ford Ranger. Add the fact that it also boasts a driving capacity of 400 miles–we’re assuming this is unencumbered with cargo and passenger weight–and you’ve got a monster of an electric vehicle.

The company started accepting pre-orders of the truck just fairly recently, but the very first R1T is expected to roll out of the factory sometime in 2021–again, plenty of time for Tesla to overtake them in the electric pickup truck race.

However, Tesla still remains to be one of the strongest contenders in the EV market, with a whopping 57% market share. Both Ford and Rivian have a lot of ground to cover if they want to dethrone Musk’s company from first place.

While it isn’t clear that either company wouldn’t be below sabotaging Tesla before their big reveal next week in order to gain some ground, there’s been no evidence to show otherwise. In any case, when Tesla does roll out the Cybertruck in California before the end of November, there’s only one thing for both Ford and Rivian to do: catch up.