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(Mike Mareen/Adobe)
Elon Musk's Tesla Cybertruck may find a home in Austin.
Texas is the home of the pickup truck—roughly one in five sold in the U.S. is bought here. But the next model to be made here may be one unlike any seen before.
If Tesla decides to bring its next factory to Austin, the unique-looking Cybertruck would be one of two models produced, and the electric carmaker is pitching it as a natural fit.
"I think you guys will really enjoy it down in Texas," Rohan Patel, Tesla's director of public policy and business development, told Travis County commissioners.
(mrlewaynee/Wikimedia via Creative Commons)
Both the Del Valle ISD school board and Travis County Commissioners Court are considering tax breaks for Tesla, which has proposed the $1.1 billion "Gigafactory" for a site in Southeast Austin and plans to hire 5,000 people to work there.
Cybertruck
The vehicle features "a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton" made of stainless steel, "vault-like storage" and an "ability to pull near infinite mass," according to the company's website.
Now available for preorder, production of the Cybertruck is expected to begin in late 2022. The price ranges from $39,900 to $69,900, depending on the motor type, with a self-driving add-on available for $8,000.
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Cybertruck on Nov. 21 at an event in Los Angeles, it prompted much feedback on its design.
I don't understand what the fuss is about the Tesla #Cybertruck. It looks ok to me. https://t.co/8vBl1jS74T— dave appleby (@dave appleby)1574401722.0
But others are enamored with the vehicle.
First, I thought it was a joke, then I thought it was ugly, then I thought it was interesting, then I was obsessed… https://t.co/3SINCp1fhd— Michael Fink (@Michael Fink)1593316630.0
A Cybertruck recently went on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A.
We are honored to have @mayemusk and @ToscaMusk, and @drsabrinakay visit the @Tesla #Cybertruck during our reopenin… https://t.co/0qeawgWMaL— Petersen Museum (@Petersen Museum)1592864729.0
The proposed factory would also produce the company's Model Y, a midsize SUV, for East Coast markets, Musk tweeted on March 10.
Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA.— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk)1583885524.0
If approved by DVISD and Travis County commissioners, construction could begin on the factory as soon as this fall.
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House Bill 1325, which was signed in June 2019 by Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Farm Bill, signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018, legalized any hemp product containing less than .3% THC. The same bills were thought to have made Delta 8 legal, though the Texas Department of State Health Services added a notice on its website saying it was still a controlled substance as of Friday, Oct. 15.
Both the federal and state governments keep separate lists on what is considered a controlled substance. Marijuana is considered Schedule I, a category reserved for substances with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," both statewide and federally.
Austin-based CBD retailer Grassroots Harvest CEO Kemal Whyte, like many CBD shop retailers, was blindsided by the announcement. Many small businesses rely on Delta 8 for their sales—Green Herbal Care CBD said about 90% of its sales come from Delta 8—and Whyte said he is frustrated by the inconsistencies in the drug scheduling system.
(Grassroots Harvest/Instagram)
Since 87% of Texans support the legalization of marijuana, at least for medical use, per a recent poll, Whyte said he wonders who this legislation is for.
"It's gonna have a massive impact on small businesses—there's just no way around it," Whyte said. "The reality is, we don't want to push out anything bad for our customers, we want this to benefit our customers and to help them. If we can make money while doing it, that's the American dream. What are we doing, whose benefit is this for?"
Delta 8 surged in popularity after the perceived legalization—consumers enjoyed its lower psychotropic potency, decreased anxiety while using it and the peace of mind as a legal way to get high. So in order to protect their products and livelihoods, both Grassroots Harvest and Austin-based manufacturer Hometown Heroes are taking legal action.
Whyte said Grassroots Harvest is suing DSHS, saying their action is creating negative effects in the market. Meanwhile, a Hometown Heroes spokesperson said the company is in the process of filing a temporary restraining order that would pause the ban on Delta-8 in the state of Texas.
Threats against Delta 8 are not new—DSHS lost a lawsuit trying to make "smokable hemp products" illegal last year and Texas lawmakers had been considering a bill that would make Delta 8 illegal, though it was dropped after the clarification was made.
Hometown Heroes released a formal statement in response to the DSHS rule.
"I need to be clear—we love Texas, we're just choosing to fight for the will of the people in regards to cannabis in Texas," Hometown Hero CEO Lukas Gilkey said in a statement. "(Texas DSHS) are using backhanded ways to create legislation and go against the will of the people."
Whyte laments the fact that it would be easier legally to "open up a strip club that also sells guns," and said he can't post customer testimonials that mention the benefits of Delta 8 without getting hit with a cease and desist from the Food and Drug Administration. Whyte said he isn't opposed to regulation—far from it—he just wants to see it go through the correct channels.
"The fact that they're stunting our ability to communicate with our clients that want to learn about this, you're preventing us from communicating with them and teaching them, or spreading information that we know," Whyte said. "I think that that in and of itself opens up a lot of questions."
Grassroots Harvest still has Delta 8 products on its shelves for the time being but for how long, Whyte doesn't know.
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