The Cybertruck is years behind schedule, so Tesla is launching a $30 beer

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No matter how many companies he’s micromanaging, no matter how many beefs he’s engaged in, no matter how many lawsuits he’s fending off, Elon Musk always seems to have time for an absurd promotional product.



The latest case in point: Tesla GigaBier, a “limited edition pilsner-style beer brewed in Berlin with our exclusive strain of Cyberhops and notes of citrus, bergamot, and sweet fruit.” It comes in a bottle designed to mimic the look of Tesla’s long-promised Cybertruck, an electric pickup that resembles a cubist rendering of a DeLorean. GigaBier is sold in packs of three 330-ml bottles for 89 euros (close to $100—or about $30 a beer). Whatever “Cyberhops” may be, the packaging seems to be the attraction: “Each bottle,” the promo copy continues, “features a seamless gloss black sleeve with a glow-in-the-dark Giga watermark.”



[Image: Tesla]



If this sounds silly, well, that’s surely part of the idea. Musk, who clearly fancies himself a wit (and, in fairness, once actually hosted Saturday Night Live), now has a long track record of limited-run products designed mostly to gain attention and sometimes to make a (usually snarky) point. He’s been doing it for so long, in fact, that he almost seems to be trying to compete in yet another realm—maybe as a rival to arty and tech-savvy creative agencies, a one-man version of late-capitalist art collective Mschf.



Consider Musk’s portfolio to date. In 2018, his tunnel-construction Boring Company produced 20,000 branded flamethrowers, which sold out (at $500 a pop) in a matter of days. The initial point of this exercise was never very clear—although its official name, Not A Flamethrower, seemed designed to troll alarmed regulators and politicians—but it helped establish Musk’s reputation for, basically, self-expression through promotional merch. Often by turning what sounds like a joke into something real.



In 2020, Tesla sold $70 red, satin “short-shorts”—a jokey dig at short sellers of the automaker’s stock. It was another tweet-level gag converted into an IRL product, and it quickly sold out. That same year, Tesla also offered a limited run of Tesla Tequila ($250 a bottle), which literally started as part of an earlier April Fools’ joke: Musk tweeting that the company was bankrupt, and he had been found passed out and “surrounded by ‘Teslaquilla’ bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks.” Again, a taunt aimed at doubters. And again, it quickly sold out.



Last year, the Boring Company announced a fragrance called Burnt Hair (“the essence of repugnant desire”) at $100 a bottle. The messaging on this one was harder to parse—the point seemed to be to test just how dumb a product Musk enthusiasts would buy, as if he had resorted to trolling his own fans. In any case, he claimed to sell 20,000 bottles.



GigaBier seems comparatively tame. Musk first mentioned the idea last year while describing the amenities associated with Tesla’s “Gigafactory” production facility in Berlin: “We’re going to have a beer,” he said, showing off an image of a bottle with the same all-angles look of the Cybertruck.



That aesthetic may be the point, since the sci-fi appearance of the light-duty pickup truck—a category with a customer base not immediately associated with edgy design—has gotten mixed reactions. While some, including designers, praise the bold look, many mocked the design online. (“It looks like somebody should be pulling it out of a men’s size-10 loafer in a shoe store in Times Square,” noted one memorable assessment in Defector. “It looks like a beard trimmer that plays Phil Collins songs.” “It looks like it should come free with a Sports Illustrated print subscription in 1987.”) The GigaBier bottle serves as a double down on the controversial look.



Still, a promotional stunt for the Cybertruck feels strange, given that at this point, the vehicle is mostly known for not existing. To be sure, it’s been promised for years. A prototype of the Cybertruck was unveiled in 2019, in an instantly notorious demo: In an attempt to show off the vehicle’s “unbreakable” windows, metal balls were tossed at them . . . and they shattered. Twice. (And that was definitely not a planned prank.) Mass production was originally planned for 2021 but was pushed back to 2022, then early 2023, then late 2023. So it’s at least two years behind schedule while Musk fiddles with Twitter—and continues to launch gimmicky joke products. In January, Musk said that while production might begin this year, it would be gradual, not kicking into mass production until 2024.



Meanwhile . . . we have this beer. Or at least we have it in 17 countries in Europe, where it went on sale at the end of March. It’s not currently available in the U.S. (though you can find it on eBay selling for upwards of $300), and at the moment it does not appear to be sold out. Perhaps the idea is to lean into the critiques and celebrate exactly what the haters are hating, making the style into a fetish among continental tastemakers. Or perhaps the idea is just to steer the Cybertruck conversation away from the absence of actual Cybertrucks (which has, anecdotally at least, been a frustration to erstwhile fans).



Some jokes make a point. Others are perhaps designed to distract. At least the estimated 1.5 million Cybertruck enthusiasts who have put down a refundable $100 deposit to reserve a Tesla truck can enjoy a cold one while they wait.