The Tesla Cybertruck, once a highly anticipated EV, is facing significant sales challenges, prompting Tesla to offer leases and free upgrades to move its inventory.
Tesla Cybertruck appears to be facing significant sales challenges. After initial hype faded, and over a million reservations turned out to be as real as unicorns, Tesla is now enabling leasing options and free upgrades to move its inventory of the futuristic pickup truck. The company's recent silence on the Cybertruck, even omitting it from their earnings call, speaks volumes about the situation.
Tesla initially projected sales of 500,000 Cybertrucks annually and established production capacity at the Giga Texas for 250,000 units per year. After working through the initial reservation backlog with fewer than 40,000 deliveries, the automaker is now struggling to sell the remaining vehicles.
This should surprise no one. The reception was poor, delivery was poor. It’s a niche market item in an existing niche market. On top of that, the de facto spokesperson of Tesla isn’t well liked by a lot of potential buyers.
I don't think I'd call that thing a pickup. I'm not gonna run to the farm and pick up a 1000lb bale of hay in that thing. A Baja looks like it has more bed space.
I'd like a GTA singleplayer cheat making every police car a cybertruck that can't pursue you for long and would rather lose control and do a barrel roll than even get close to you.
"Isn't well liked" is quite the understatement. "Despised" is more like it. I actually like the way the cybertruck looks, I think the technology is interesting, and if I really wanted to, I could probably afford one.
I wouldn't drive one if it was given to me for free. I'd rather take a taxi every day than drive a public display of support for the treasonous fascist manchild that owns the company.
Tesla's second biggest problem is their shit standards and quality control. Their first biggest problem is their shit corporate leadership.
I swear that every time I saw one, the people around would point and laugh. 100k+ to drive a car that is always broken and mocked by everyone is quite expensive.
I mean off the bat that's one of the worse combinations of people/product I've ever seen. I mean off the bat electric car's target market is people that want to think they are doing something better for the environment.
So... then the guy making them goes loudly in the "fuck the environment" group.
To top it off though, Cybertruck itself always confuses me. I don't know who the target audience is. The original tesla's I could look at and think, that's a cool car, if they ever came down in price I'd be interested.
Cybertruck you look at and think... What a car would look like if you scaled up games from the 32/64 bit console era and made them HD without increasing the polygon count.
My problem with Tesla is that so many things seem half-unthinking, half-finished or half-assed:
Unthinking: I know! I'll put a ledge in from of the headlights, so snow can pile up while I'm driving!
Unfinished: all the seam mismatches and eternally unfinished-but-really-close! full self-driving (it ain't gonna happen).
Half-assed: that recall they had to do because sometimes the latch doesn't catch properly and the hood flies open when you're driving and blocks your view. Tesla's solution isn't to fix or replace the hood latch so this doesn't happen; they push a software up that monitors the hood latch and pops up a warning, telling you to pull over and check the hood latch. Because apparently fixing the issue that their poor design (see #1) and bad implementation (see #2) doesn't warrant an actual fix, they're just going to fob the risk , the cost and the work off to the customer.
We're not all buying EVs for the environment. I bought an EV because I think the car is cool and it's really enjoyable to drive. It's nice that the "gas" is also significantly cheaper, but that wasn't high on my list of reasons to get the thing, either.
The EV owners I've talked to didn't buy them for the environment, either, but I haven't talked to any Leaf owners or anything. Maybe they're more environmentally conscious. It being better for the environment long term is definitely nice, and I hope progress continues on batteries made with less toxic components.
Thankfully, I did not buy a Tesla and they were never on my list of options because of Elon. So he definitely alienated a customer due to him being an awful human being. I also won't use any of their charging stations, since I don't want them to profit off of me.
Plus the initial sales were to people who had already committed to preorders at a lower price for a truck that was hyped up to be far better than the end result.
Cybertrucks are basically No Man's Sky but without the possibility of being good in a half decade.
It is jaw dropping that only 40,000 of their one million+ reservations actually turned into sales. Thats 4% conversion!
Also, trucks are not a niche market. And there is pretty minimal overlap between the kind of douche who wants one of these and people who object to Musk’s behavior. It’s designed for his cult, especially.
Also have anyone who understands basic car design point out why shit like door opening buttons are a terrible idea in emergencies. Or why requiring the doors to lock during a software update is stupid. Or why putting electronics not designed for extreme heat is terrible. Or that trying to use cameras in bad weather isn't any better than human eyes....
I definitely would've considered Tesla as my first EV but as of now they're dead to me. If he was completely gone then that actually becomes a selling point for me.
They’ve gone a long way on flash and sex appeal but I think a little straightforward practical value would help them a lot. The market is awash in good competition now so their novelty effect is gone. And the sex appeal has ended for everyone except for 40k cyberdouches.
All they had to do was build a solid, reliable truck, and not be fascist. Instead they build a poorly glued together piece of shit and sieg heil. I fucking hate this timeline.
Don't hate the timeline, hate the news.
There are real people out there still trying to make the world work, getting stepped on, pushed over, marginalized, silenced. They need you. They need all of us.
Do not let The Bastards win.
(I'm still workshopping the "don't hate the player hate the game" - suggestions are welcome. Words can still inspire people, even before coffee)
I keep seeing people say this. However, hate is what created this timeline. I don't believe it's what will get us into a new one.
I mean no offense towards you; I want you to know this. I guess I just finally realized what it is that bothers me about that statement. In fact, I share your sentiment. Because not only are they poorly made, common sense safety measures are removed and replaced with poorly engineered crap that traps people, while other badly designed components catch fire and burn them to death.
I still refuse to see it as a truck. The defining feature of a truck is its bed, and the bed on this thing is presented as an afterthought. Covered, undersized, impossible to access from the sides. It’s just a tank. A penis prosthesis for the undersized.
And SpaceX had such good publicity, also notably one aesthetically the very opposite of sieg heil.
I mean, aesthetics of Tesla advertising and design and everything were pretty different from SpaceX from the very beginning. I wonder how could Musk be the founder of both. Maybe they'll find traces of a brain worm in him too. Can't be solely ketamine.
He has never founded or invented anything. Every business he owns, he bought from others. In some cases he forced them to refrain from claiming to be founders at all. He's pathetic scum.
I’m betting high odds he will force the federal government to buy them under the guise of a green EV transition. With trump’s full blessing, of course.
Maybe he'll force their sale to Ukraine, so Trump can pretend he supports them even while the cybertrucks break down in the field faster than Russia's WWII era tanks.
Wow, it's beautiful and so futuristic! It's almost like living in the future today. I bet Tesla could sell twice as many as the Cybertrucks of those. Provided he makes it bulletproof of course. The great weakness and the reason for the disappointing sales of the Cybertruck is that the glass isn't bulletproof, I simply can't think of any other reason.
They just started rolling new postal trucks off the line so now seems like a good time to cancel that contract and sign a new one to replace them with Cyber trucks.
Both shitty visions of the future. Well the movie for Running Man took place 6-8 years ago, and the book takes place this year which could count as "future" since we're only in February.
Fire the CEO, for him to sell all his stock, recall all the trucks and go over them with a fine tooth comb for quality issues, force them all through safety tests and fix anything that's unsafe, lower the price by 40%..., get rid of the tracking bullshit, You'll still have a uglyAF "truck" but it might just be sellable.
Fixing safety issues would have to include that sharp front end. Maybe just ditch the entire "stainless" exterior and restyling the whole thing would help with that.
Pretty much start with the battery pack and drivetrain, start over after that.
Have they tried pulling out the "Make a vehicle that's not a massive and shitty death trap," or "Boot the Nazi from the company" stops? Because, I suspect doing those two might help it out.
The myth of Elon is still going strong. Now he's taking over government agencies. Not that it's the right move, but keeping him on might keep the stock at the insanely overvalued level it's at. That's all that matters.
Elon is all this company has, just like Trump is literally the only thing going on in the Republican Party. The republicans are going all the way with Trump, straight down the drain, and Tesla will do the same with Musk.
The massive, massive difference is that the VW Beetle wasn't a shitbox for rich people. It's okay to say that once in a great while. the Nazis, despite being horrific in most ways, did have an idea that wasn't bad and this was that. The VW Beetle was an affordable car and if something went wrong with it, you could probably fix it yourself with only a small amount of automotive knowledge. You really don't even need to give Hitler credit for that considering he basically just told Ferdinand Porsche to do all the hard work.
Not so much the Cybertruck. It was Elon's baby from the beginning and he took a very close personal interest in it.
The Cybertruck is a bad idea. Even for rich people. It's been demonstrated over and over again.
Nobody builds cars under slave like conditions. It’s just not possible. Modern car factories are highly automated plants that require skilled operators. In the case of the VW Xinjiang, that was QC inspectors. There’s no way a hole in the wall car factory using outdated labor practices can come close to competing against modern production.
I just had a talk with a friend of mine in southern Ontario who lives in a farming rural area. He likes cars and often does searches for used vehicles in his area. In a 200km area around Brantford, there are over 200 used Teslas on sale down there over the past month or two because people are dumping them because they don't like the brand.
The well moneyed sort who buy Teslas also like to change cars more often than the rest of us. Some of them are going to even more expensive brands like Rivian, and there’s a huge array of less expensive, more practical options.
Here’s how I personally see the brand transformation. I don’t believe these people are so principled that they are dumping these cars in protest. It’s more that the appeal that used to be there: of being part of the future, of moving off gas and embracing clean tech to help save the world… that little halo just isn’t part of the brand anymore. I see Teslas all the time where I live with license plates like “BYE CO2” and “LOL GAS.” But no one is going to hop on board that Tesla hype train any longer. They are no longer novel, they no longer virtue-signal and yes have actually become a bit icky. But I think we’re just seeing the end of the mirage, not really any kind affirmative lashback.
Why isn't the puny, petulant man-thing that runs the Nazicar Factory not suing us all for not buying them? That's how you deal with advertisers who don't wanna advertise with him so why not consumers who don't want to consume?
It's the next stupid, asinine step.
I hope anyone who ever admired this fuck face is deeply embarrassed. Or losing money.
Give him some time. Once his cronies get everything working right he won't have to sue, he can just deny federal benefits to people who don't order a cybertuck and send their hearts out to him when they receive it.
The main reason I bought a truck was to tow heavy shit, and this piece of fuck trash Cyber truck can't even do that without the battery failing after less than 100 miles. Meanwhile an F150 can tow six times it's own weight thousands of miles.
The one person I know who owns a cyber truck was upset when I didn't call him when I had a truck needing emergency, my wife's car had broken down on a freeway offramp. The people that own these stupid things are cos playing as truck people even moreso than the average truck owner. The weirder part of his upsetness is, I was already driving a 3/4 ton truck because my commuter vehicle was not running. All I had to do was go get a uhaul trailer and go get her car. My mind is still boggled that he threw a fit about not calling him.
I was one of those that put down a deposit and happily waited for this truck to replace my 25 year old car. Then after he called the diver/rescuers pedophiles, I was instantly turned off. Now I actively push others to not buy a Tesla and refer to all Teslas as a Nazi mobile.
I will admit, when the first mentions of it came out, and it was going to be this cheap, capable, all-electric futuremachine, I was tempted to put down a deposit. At first I thought the design was functional, to keep manufacturing cheap and have a durable, Midwest-proof vehicle between the stainless and aluminum.
It turned out to be 100% the opposite of what I had imagined, so thankfully figured I’d wait. Decided keep my 10 year old car until it NEEDS replacement (which it does not).
Not OP, but regardless of it being ugly, it is novel and kind of goofy look, which has some appeal. Like buying a car designed by a child it’s sort of “fun”.
Otoh, I don’t have the cash to throw away on “fun”, and regardless, funding a nazi definitely ruins the fun, so even if I won the lottery, I’d have to find my fun elsewhere I suppose.
Also worth noting, ignoring all of that, the fact it was built so poorly and is clearly just flawed in ways that go well beyond the aesthetics also ruins it, even if musk wasn’t a nazi and the car wasn’t ridiculously expensive.
I honestly don't mind the design. Sure some people hate it, but I didn't care about others opinions on my car. That's why my current vehicle is 25 years old. At that time, I was looking for a larger EV and during that time large EVs were nonexistent.
What sold me was the functionality. The concept had bench front row seating so I could seat 6(which they removed in the final). It had a usable trunk unlike the EVs at the time. There was frunk which was only on Teslas at the time. Also Tesla at the time had the highest safety rating among all cars. A promising auto pilot (which is a lie).
It also claimed to have a bullet proof shell and glass. While Seattle is relatively safe, there have been many instances where people have been murdered for road rage or just existing at a red light
I honestly don't mind the design. Sure some people hate it, but I didn't care about others opinions on my car. That's why my current vehicle is 25 years old. At that time, I was looking for a larger EV and during that time large EVs were nonexistent.
What sold me was the functionality. The concept had bench front row seating so I could seat 6(which they removed in the final). It had a usable trunk unlike the EVs at the time. There was frunk which was only on Teslas at the time. Also Tesla at the time had the highest safety rating among all cars. A promising auto pilot (which is a lie).
It also claimed to have a bullet proof shell and glass. While Seattle is relatively safe, there have been many instances where people have been murdered for road rage or just existing at a red light
The thing is, for a truck that’s used for truck shit, functionality, practicality, and reliability are probably the most important. Styling will always be relevant to customers, but should be a secondary concern for a tough utilitarian vehicle.
It’s too bad they flipped those priorities and made an overpriced junky status symbol. I think Elon wanting people to see the “amazing” design was one of the main drivers behind it getting released when it did. It was clearly not ready 5 years ago since it’s still not ready now.
Seriously, why the fuck is he still CEO of that company? He's actively undermining them in every way on a global scale. Tesla shareholders are idiots...
You're being ridiculous, why would you seriously think that? That kind of internet opinion doesn't hold up in real life. I would absolutely take a free Cybertruck, I've long dreamed of making my own car bomb.
I'm generally all for that idea. Everything is the same gravel color now, and oversized and shitty. They could have made something that looked different but was still useful. They just failed.
Pretty amazing how much you can milk fragile masculinity. Like actually astounding how badly these people need the vague idea of manliness to survive. It kinda makes me feel bad for them, that's learned behavior.
Even if you ignore the politics it's just a terrible car that is way too expensive. I'm honestly surprised it sold any units at all but I guess people just like vanity toys.
It's hard to find insurance for it, it's objectively terrible at its job, that's very few mechanics that can service it, It isn't available in Europe, it has terrible quality control issues, It is made by a company with terrible customer service, and it is made by Nazi
Tesla fan here, this is kind of accurate. I wouldn't call it terrible, but the aluminum chassis means it has towing limitations, the small battery doesn't have nearly as much range as most other Tesla's and it gets worse if you're towing, plus not everybody wants to drive the Halo truck.
Double the range or cut the price by 30% and you have an interesting car, as it is now I look at it as a first generation attempt.
The car is objectively terrible. It's ha heavy duty car that can't do heavy duty things. The cybertruck has two things that it does well. It goes fast when you hit the accelerator and the sound system is really good. Everything else is extremely shitty, and a complete lie
I think the reason Cybertruck sales have ground to a halt has to do with their CEO Department's way of managing things and breaking into Governmental Agency's Private Information. It's also the reason you will find "FUCK ELON MUSK" being spray-painted onto Cybertrucks.
If you do not revolt against the government, you will receive a free cybertruck as a replacement for your house, which will be too expensive to live in.
Each immigrant willing to leave voluntarily will receive a free cybertruck.
The US military, firefighters, EMT's and police force will get new vehicles! They will all start to use cybertrucks.
I certainly find it funny that Tesla's waiting list went from five years down to zero. Even Tesla's biggest fans who actually stumped money on this thing produced video after video griping about its price & brokenness.
But frankly it was kind of obvious from the get-go that it would be an expensive, uninsurable, lemony asshole death mobile. I wonder if the next time Tesla announces something and Musk spews lie after lie about it that people will start to cotton on that nothing he says can be taken at face value.
If somebody like Trump’s words still get reported like they mean anything, Musk has a long way to go.
If things stay normal, I would expect anything Tesla announces to get reproduced in the news in full with a little caveat somewhere that says musk is known for optimistic or aggressive timelines.
Musk aside, it looks so goddamn stupid, I'd be embarrassed to drive around in it regardless. Like a cheap 80s movie version of what a futuristic car would look like.
And as Others have noted, why would you want a truck that looks like it can carry less stuff than a motorcycle can?
Tesla initially projected sales of 500,000 Cybertrucks annually and established production capacity at the Giga Texas for 250,000 units per year.
I’d have guessed coke, not ketamine, as drug of choice to make these estimates. Maybe he’s already counting federal agencies to be stiffed with the cyberwanker?
It's the price. I want a truck, not a Cadillac with a bed. A truck is meant for work not be a pavement princess. $50k was already high and the truck market is still stupid on price with most trucks going over $60k and Cybertruck starts at $75.5k. If the price was what Elon said when he announced the Cybertruck, it would be flying off the shelves $40k
As and when announced, it would have been one of the cheapest EVs. I’m not interested in a truck, but that announced price and done of the technology they promised, were very tempting. However now we see how preorders based on just an announcement are risky
Turns out the group of people who look at mid nineties Laura Croft and think “that low polygon count asthenic is exactly how I like my women and trucks, I’ve got lots of disposable income to buy a truck that can’t do many truck things well, and I’m glad a far right ketamine fueled tech bro is running the company!” Is a small number of people.
Who would've thought that a very expensive truck in an ev market that is lukewarm at best, add in a good amount of weird looks and unreliability, wouldn't be a big seller? I could pick a conventional truck for a fraction of the price or this. People who bought it were doing it for show and now that market is tapped out.
Tesla made 2.8 billion last year from selling regulatory credits. So they really didn't have to care how many cars they sold. But those surely are going away, so they are going to have to do some other government handout, which Elon is probably hand picking right now.
I saw my first cybertruck in traffic yesterday, I initially thought that some redneck had every part you need to make a car except for the frame and body, and was like "I don't need none of that fancy shit, I got square tube and steel plate!" and welded together the laziest design they could think of. Then I realized it was just a cybertruck, and promptly laughed at it.
If it was part of a trend of Redneck shit mobiles itd be respectable but stupid, the fact that they are built out of a factory and not Bubba'd out of scrap metal and random parts in a garage makes them thoroughly stupid and infinitely trashy.
Probably would have helped if it didn't look cobbled together out of sheet metal for a low-budget post-apocalypse movie. I picture Humungus standing up in it chasing Mel Gibson.
I knew they should have built a real smoke and engine noise generator into the cyber truck. So that all those who insist on polluting, don't have to be left out.
I can't buy one, they are not available in NZ yet. Despite what anyone else says, I like the look, it looks like the bastard child of a delorian and a countach, but in a good way.
I wouldn't buy one despite the fact that I like it. It is far too big for NZ roads, I may have overlooked that. But I can't overlook the fact that Elon has, for me at least, destroyed any good will that was built up. Tesla and all the people who work there have been tarred with the Nazi brush that Elon is wielding.
The only way that Tesla could claw back any respect from me (and hopefully the rest of the world) would be to oust Elon, and all his family from any decision making in the company. It will not happen so my respect for them is gone!
Will they ever be available?
Completely illegal in the UK as it'd never pass the safety tests. After all, that front hitting someone would be insta-death.
Maybe they should include free Nazi salute lessons with each purchase and a bottle of Kentucky bourbon to get all the backwater inbred hicks on board to help spur sales of the swastitruck?
I do, and even the bougie "conservative" assholes aren't that interested. They're more the decked out F-whatever and gas guzzler types.
I don't like to say it but a third party dealership was selling some painted ones that actually looked pretty nice. Nice enough to make me think that maybe the plan was always to pass on the cost to the buyer, it's so much better.
Or maybe it was just a talented... car painter? Is that a thing when they're just working with flat panels and no design?
I think they do/will make a lot of sense. Being able to drive to a job site and run your welder or other tools from the truck's battery seems like a game changer for certain applications. The Chevy Silverado EV and the F-150 Lightning seem pretty nice to me. They'll both be much more appealing once battery tech, charging speed, and charging infrastructure improve. I'm pretty stoked about this new company called Telo, I hope they make it. It's a pretty small truck with an 8' bed that's about as long as a Mini Cooper, plus it has the solar tech from Aptera.
Edit: and I imagine the Rivian R2T and R3T will be pretty sweet.
I think a generator for that purpose would likely make a lot more sense. I can't see buying an electric truck just so you can use its battery to weld. Maybe that's a nice to have at best.
The Silverado EV and F150 lightning seem pretty decent from the specs, but towing anything they still seriously suck. But for most people they're actually already pretty good... Unlike the cyber truck.
I've been following Edison Motors. EV and Hybrid both make sense and can work depending on the application. They managed some real work tests towing log trailers without the genset kicking on.
Personally, I would have a model line with the option to either have an all EV or hybrid drivetrain. Share parts from the battery to the wheel, but more batteries where the engine/generator would go if it's the pure EV option.
You hit the nail on the head. If it can't tow it's pretty useless as a truck. If someone doesnt tow they probably dont need a truck in the first place otherwise they are better off with a gas model. The unfortunate thing is that regulations have forced manufacturers to implement shitty ICE drivetrains. Everything is a turbo now which is "more efficient" but there is no way they will last as long as the naturally aspirated V6 or V8s that would go for 400-500k miles.
Electic motors are unmatched for torque and response time. No debate there but if you need to tow a big ass camper your range is going to suck if you dont have some hybrid config.