Tesla’s long-delayed Cybertruck will be priced starting at $60,990, over 50 per cent more than what CEO Elon Musk had touted in 2019, and cost analysts have said that they will draw select, affluent buyers. 

The truck, made of shiny stainless steel and shaped into flat planes, is partly inspired by a car-turned-submarine in the 1977 James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, Mr Musk has said. 

Its new body material and unconventional, futuristic styling has added complexity and costs to production and threatens to alienate traditional pickup truck buyers who focus on utility, experts say. 

But Mr Musk, who has priced the vehicle’s three variants between $60,990 and $99,990, has said that the Cybertruck has “more utility than a truck”" and is “faster than a sports car”. 

Mr Musk drove a Cybertruck onto a stage to cheers from the crowd and later handed over vehicles to about a dozen customers at an event in Austin, Texas. 

“Finally, the future will look like the future,” he said about the truck’s design, showing a video of the Cybertruck towing a Porsche 911 and beating another gasoline-powered 911 in a short race.