A mayor in San Luis Potosí has announced the purchase of 15 of the modernistic new Cybertrucks manufactured by Tesla Inc.
Adrián Esper Cárdenas of Ciudad Valles said he reserved the trucks by making a deposit of US $1,500 with his own money, equal to a month’s salary.
“I reserved 10 two-motor and five three-motor models,” he said at a press conference after placing the order. “We’ll take a photo and send it to [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk, see if he gives us a discount.”
Esper said he did not consult his constituents about the purchase but said his decision to buy the electric vehicles for police, trash collection and other uses was “common sense.”
“It’s not about speed, because we don’t want speed. What we’re looking for is torque in order to haul water pipes, the garbage trailers. They’ll have twice the loads of a normal truck,” he said.
Although the models Esper ordered come with price tags of $49,900 and $69,900, he claimed they would generate savings as high as 24 million pesos ($1.2 million) annually, since the trucks require little maintenance and no gasoline to operate.
“The important thing is that regardless of the fact that the cost can be a little high, the benefit is that if you don’t have to perform maintenance or put gas in them, you’ll be able to save 24 million pesos a year, and with that you’ve paid back half of the investment,” he said.
Tesla founder Elon Musk unveiled the Cybertruck on November 21, and despite a gaffe in which the vehicle’s windows failed to be as unbreakable as he claimed, orders for the truck are reportedly in the hundreds of thousands.
A reserve price of just US $100 has driven preorder numbers as high as 250,000, according to a tweet by Musk on Tuesday.
The Cybertruck launch included a video of the truck winning a tug of war against a Ford F-150 and dragging the competition up a hill. A Ford executive responded by challenging the Cybertruck to an “apples to apples” rematch, and Musk said he would be happy to oblige.
Although Tesla’s market share is down around 7% since the unveiling of the Cybertruck, the gambling community likes Tesla’s chances in the rematch with Ford. Online bookmakers were offering five to two odds that the Cybertruck would win out again over the F-150.
Ford later responded that the tweet was a joke and said it plans to release a hybrid F-150 next year and an all-electric version in the next few years.
Sources: El Universal (sp), Mediotiempo (sp), Reuters (en)
