There was great fanfare when deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck finally began in earnest in late 2023. Influencers and die-hard fans fought for the first trucks off the line, while flippers made out big by reselling in the early days. However, it appears demand may have cooled significantly based on new photos out of Texas.
These photos come to us from Zerin Dube, auto writer and photographer extraordinaire. He regularly finds himself passing Tesla’s delivery center down in Houston, and he’s spotted something odd of late. For some reason, there are a ton of Cybertrucks just sitting around—and the mass seems to be growing at a rapid rate.
We’re not just talking about a parking lot full of trucks that are waiting for eager buyers. The Cybertrucks long ago spilled over onto the surrounding bare land. Some have been sitting long enough that they have grass growing up around the tires. It begs the question—why is Tesla storing its prime stock in this way?
CTRL+C, CTRL+V pic.twitter.com/jlHXDVkYem
— Zerin Dube (@SpeedSportLife) August 11, 2024
Tesla doesn’t have a PR department anymore, but we like to do our due diligence. Thus, we sent a note to their last valid PR email address asking them for comment on the matter anyway. We don’t expect a response, given Elon Musk shut the department down in 2020, so that leaves us to speculate. Absent any standing recall or technical issue with the vehicles, it simply suggests Tesla’s production has outstripped demand.
Zerin’s take is very much along the same lines. “I reckon all those people who ordered aren’t taking delivery when push comes to shove,” says Zerin. He notes that it only cost $100 to get on Tesla’s list until December 2023, when the price jumped to $1000. “How many ordered for the lulz?” he asks.
Tesla recently stopped taking orders for the cheaper, and as-of-yet unreleased $61,000 version with a 250-mile range that’s scheduled to be delivered in 2025. A recent report from Reuters suggests that demand for the more expensive models is waning:
“It shows that demand is a lot less than a million trucks,” Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid told Reuters.
[…]
“They’re sitting on a lot of inventory of two-motor and three-motor trucks right now,” Abuelsamid said.
While models can pile up for various reasons (Ford had to hold a bunch of new F-150s to do quality checks recently), it’s always a bad look for an automaker when a major new model is seen piling up in parking lots. It’s another thing entirely when they’re dumped in great numbers on grass because there simply isn’t anywhere else to put them.
The Cybertruck isn’t the only Tesla model with excess inventory piling up. As can be seen in the video below from July, the parking lot is full of Tesla sedans and SUVs, too. Perhaps it’s simply that Cybertrucks are the easiest to store off pavement. Alternatively, they might just be the most recent vehicles trucked into the already-full parking lot.
Every time I drive by there’s more and more CyberTrucks piling up. Some have grass growing up the tires lol pic.twitter.com/opCZMbXlRZ
— Zerin Dube (@SpeedSportLife) July 16, 2024
Word on the street is that this isn’t just happening in Texas. In June, a user named benzblogger posted footage from Atlanta, Georgia showing huge numbers of Teslas parked by a distribution center at a local mall. As she filmed, a car carrier rolled in hauling four additional Cybertrucks into the lot. Around the same time, Road & Track reported that “dozens” of Cybertrucks had been vandalized in an unattended lot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were no surveillance cameras in the area.
Meanwhile, others have reported similar scenes at other Tesla locations. Twitter users have noted Tesla stock, particularly Cybertrucks, building up in parking lots at Tesla Collision Houston and Tesla League City, both in Texas.
@benzblogger am I wrong? #tesla #cybertruck #EV #gwinnett #ATL #newcars #cartok
♬ Clown, wonder, fairy tale, clown waltz(1326760) – kaedemusics
Tesla’s unsold inventory made the news earlier this year, with some outlets even noting you could spot the cars “from space.” That’s not particularly hard with modern satellite imaging, but the articles all revealed huge amounts of inventory that was seemingly languishing without buyers.
Still, not every Tesla facility is bursting at the seams with excess product. Back in May, Tesla Fremont had cars squeezed into every last bit of available space, with hundreds overflowing onto grassed areas. A drone overflight in early August, however, showed the factory’s lots to be far emptier by comparison. It suggests that the California factory may have slowed output in response to slower sales for the brand.
Tesla’s Fremont factory is one facility that is looking less overstocked in recent months.
The overstock problem isn’t just limited to the US. In Germany, Tesla has rented an entire airport to store overflow stock. In Australia, parking lots at Port Melbourne are overflowing with Teslas that simply aren’t moving. It follows a 44% slump for Tesla’s Australian sales in April.
Automakers generally try to keep production levels fairly close to expected demand, but it’s not a perfect science. Production lines only work in a cost sense if they’re kept running to a certain degree, and there’s a lag in how responsive they can be to market changes. Plus, once a glut of product builds up, it can take time to shift. Dealerships can help in this regard, with astute dealers able to run discount programs and cut deals to move product. Tesla has to do all that by itself, operating out of mall parking lots across the country.
The former German military airbase is overflowing with Teslas of all kinds.
Ultimately, automakers don’t want stock sitting around. Cars that sit don’t make money, they cost money. It’s all the more shocking that Tesla is having this problem with the Cybertruck. It was a heavily-hyped vehicle that was long-awaited by the brand’s diehard fans, with reports of reservations well into the seven-figure range.
After less than a year on sale, we’re seeing Cybertrucks en masse, but not on the road. They’re sitting around outside Tesla distribution centers and on grass verges in Texas, presumably waiting for someone, anyone, to take them home. Back in February, scoring a scalped Cybertruck might have cost you over $240,000. Now it appears there are plenty to spare.
Image credits: Zerin Dube
Top graphic Elon Musk image via YouTube
I know the truck is an American problem because they are too heavy to use in Europe without a heavy goods licence (which very few people have), but whisper is that sales of other Teslas are falling especially in France and Germany with the Musk’s alliance with the Trump.
People do not forget that the “Trump taxes” on wine and cheese, led to producers getting into financial shit, and having to swap markets.
And there is of course the total contradiction of electric vehicles, which for all their problems do reduce CO2 and “dig, baby dig,” oil.
Cars are a big ticket item and choice is not always rational — my family (and I) refuse to buy German because they dropped a bomb on granny and grandpa….
Are they selling the Cybertruck at all in Europe? It was my understanding that it wouldn’t pass pedestrian impact standards, which we don’t have in the US. Or are those not a thing if it’s sold as a “commercial” vehicle?
Don’t think they even looked to see if it could be certified. Not only pedestrian impact but things like no sharp bits. Plus have to be crash tested, which costs a bomb.
Looks like they have a few to spare
Tesla indeed looked at it but given small market and the mentioned pedestrian safety and no sharp bits rules, they did not bother to make a EU model. So the only ones to see are (1) 1-2 Tesla demo vehicles for marketing purposes in several cities and (2) a few grey imports from the above mentioned Youtubers/gym bros etc which are either on dealer plates or require a single certification… which will not happen as it can cost 20+k and it is unlikely to be given to anyone
Slap a Sears sign outside and we can bring back some dead malls! Just think: “Com’on down to local Sears- we’ve got Vinfast, Fisker, and fresh off the factory floor Cyber Trucks. We’ll take any price above scrape value. We’re always in a going out of business sale, because we’ve never should of been in business!”
Too damn funny! The old Sears my me is literally a Tesla service center!
The Tesla center in this story used to be a Gander Mountain.
In its death throes my local Sears looked like something out of a zombie movie. Almost no customers, no employees, and merchandise scattered around otherwise empty shelves that looked like they had been ransacked.
They were ransacked, I think, by corporate. I went repeatedly hoping to find deals on Craftsman tools. Everything good was stripped out of the store before the first going out of business sale started. The only things left were crappy chinese tools that were marked up to Craftsman prices and then discounted so they were only about 20% more expensive than Harbor Freight.
That’s pretty much the SOP for going out of business sales. The entire operation is turned over to a liquidator, and they set the prices. So the big discounts they advertise often mean you’re paying more than you would have before the sale.
Same. Walked in and the entire store looked like looters had ransacked the place.
For info on Sears and K Mart’s untimely deaths, google Eddie Lampert.
The poster boy for Hedge Fund crooks and assholes…
About 6 months before Sears officially called it quits, I picked up a 20 gallon upright Ingersoll Rand compressor for $75 dollars. I think at the time they were like $400. I ordered online and figured that the order wouldn’t go through or when i went to pick it up, they’d tell me to pay more. 3 weeks later I had a new IR compressor for $75 sitting in my garage.
I asked at the store why it was so cheap. He said that for the past 6 months there were weird pricing errors galore. He said in a low voice, “Since Sears is going under, I think people just don’t give a f*** when they price stuff.” From the inside, I guess they could see the writing on the wall better than most people.
I actually saw a VinFast on the road here in NC yesterday. I have to assume it’s a company official 🙂
What, fleeing towards the east coast so they can keep driving through Wilmington, onto Wrightsville Beach, and right into the Fisker?
I saw a truck load of Oceans in NC earlier this year.
This is such a good comment.
There is one living in my neighborhood in Seattle!
Or just add south park theme song
I will make Afrikaner Cartman. Oh wait, he already exists.
I’m not surprised Cybertrucks aren’t selling well, and I’m not surprised people are celebrating Tesla’s failure. My concern is that Tesla employs over 100,000 people in the US that are not named Elon Musk. A lot of people rely on the paychecks they receive from this company. Elon will be fine if Tesla fails, but the other 100,000 won’t do as well. Is the failure of a large American company really something we should be celebrating??
This. Despite the BS Elon’s thumbs constantly spew it’s a new American car company employing lots of Americans that we should be cheering for. That said, if I had the $$$$$ to even consider buying one of these…I’d probably buy a Rivian.
Tesla is not “to big to fail” and I reject the entire concept. Tesla failing would be unfortunate for those workers, certainly, but risks and childish management has to have consequences. If the board wants to make money for their shareholders, and thereby accidentally also preserve jobs, they should stop supporting the current man-child CEO.
I care about the workers, but not enough to buy a Tesla.
Tesla would not just evaporate. It would at worst be liquidated and bought out by another car company. That would be disruptive for its employees and certainly many would lose their jobs, but many would keep theirs and all of that EV expertise and manufacturing capability would be in the hands of somebody who cared enough to do a B+ job instead of the “incomplete” Elon is earning, with a special note “please seek psychiatric help”.
Obviously, Tesla management has made a lot of bad decisions and brought this on themselves. I’m not sure why anyone ever thought the Cybertruck was a good idea. Firing the Supercharger network staff was also a catastrophically stupid decision, since the Supercharger network is the primary reason to buy a Tesla product.
I’m just reacting to the enthusiasm a lot of people have for bad Tesla news. Tesla has already laid off thousands of workers, and it appears layoffs will be ongoing. That is not a good thing.
Totally agreed, but those are all reasons Elon should just shut his trap. He is actively causing this.
I don’t dispute this at all. At this point, Tesla would be better off if Elon went away. I think it is a bit too late for him to merely shut up.
An important step in a businesses life cycle is when the entrepreneur has to step aside and let the businessmen run things.
One could even say he is pouring gas on a battery fire?
We all know who actually gets the biggest cut from buying a Tesla and it’s not the employees. Musk has gotten fully in bed with the side that despises EVs and is anti-union, likely to his own benefit. Do you buy My pillows for the employees?
Side note: have you ever felt a My Pillow? My parents unfortunately bought some and they are the most comically lumpy low-quality feeling pillows I’ve ever experienced. It feels like a garbage bag stuffed with torn up kitchen sponges.
Tesla shouldn’t fail, it should be sold to someone who wants to run a car company and not a meme stock.
A large ‘Un-American company’
From what I’ve heard about Tesla’s working conditions, they might be better off at another company.
That said, if Tesla implodes it’s going to do bad things to everyone’s retirement because with their inclusion in the S&P they are almost certainly in everyone’s portfolio.
I just looked at VOO (the s&p 500 index fund I use); fortunately, Tesla is only 1.19% of their portfolio. I assume other s&p 500 funds are similar. I thought that would be higher. So at least Tesla not doing well shouldn’t substantially affect retirement account balances.
I don’t know what possessed me of the thought, but when I saw the pics of all of those Cyber Trucks parked in a row I had a sudden urge to fire up my MX dirt bike and ride on the top of the trucks like I’m riding on a dirt trail.
I can imagine that riding dirt bike across the bed, roof and hood of the Cyber truck would make them perfect for an off road experience! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ
Sure, until they cut your tires to shreds :/
It does look like a very primitive trials course in profile!
It would be like the game NES Excitebike, the jumps in that game look like Cybertrucks!
Ha! they sure do look like Cybertrucks.
Somebody get Whistlin Diesel on the line. We just found his next viral video. 😉
☜╮(´ิ∀´ิ☜╮)
This lot is right by my house and I drove past that cluster of trucks this morning like I do every morning. There are gaps in the line up and those gaps move from time to time so I assume they’re selling off the trucks here and there or at least getting out there and moving them around from time to time. When the trucks were first released they had less than a dozen and they were all lined up on the pavement, shortly after that they spread out onto the grass.
The grass being grown up between them isn’t too concerning to me. This is southeast Texas after all, it would only take 2-3 of weeks for it to grow that much especially if it hadn’t been freshly mowed right before the parked the trucks up there.
Without having a way to uniquely ID each vehicle, we can’t really say how many are leaving and being replaced by new stock. But it’s normal procedure for marshalled vehicles to be periodically moved around. So either or both of those could contribute to what you’re seeing.
But given the supposed demand and the fact that they are still in early days of production (and therefore low volume), there should be a minimal number of these sitting around.
As of this morning there were 4 orderly rows of CTs with no gaps and an empty row in the middle so they could get trucks out from left or right of any row. So, they’re actively moving them around it seems.
The Emperor has no clothes!
I’m sure that Apple could sell some special edition iPhones that weighed 50 pounds with a 1 inch screen but had Steve Jobs’ signature recreated on the back. Would they sell enough to make producing the thing worthwhile? Ehh…
Somebody should tag cybertruck on the side of these and save the eventual owners the cost of the sticker.
Frankly, Elon… we don’t give a truck!
Not a fan of EVs but Tesla had something going (like the Modern now Henry Ford-should bought stock early on) News of a Tesla TRUCK intrigued me and when it debuted- I was shocked! (I showed my 14 yr old son at the time and he instantly said “looks like my first cubscout pinewood derby car”. Yes different but WTF!!! Then it took 4 yrs to get it out after delays etc-like all tesla cars that get hyped up. I admire Elon Tesla for his ambition/vision and the money he has to do all but this truck just sucks! I hate it and hope it fails.
“Oh no! Anyway-“
-J.C.
At least someone is taking these rugged, robust, capable, bigly strong machines off-roading.
And they fail
That’s an awful lotta trucks stuck in a field.
Raising the price will help!
I think the bloom is off the turd.
Fun fact: a group of those vehicles is called a “cluster”. They are cluster trucks.
Damnit A. Barth. You show up, you put together the best words, and you post them. I won’t stand for your quick wit and insights any longer.
I’m gonna get a chair.
Thanks, Mechjaz, I appreciate that!
Enjoy the chair 🙂
COTD
Well done!
I have a few friends where we come up with collective nouns for things, the ruder the better, and this one popped up: “An Incel of Cybertrucks”
“Cluster” is perfect, I’ve already put this terminology to use in the comment I just posted 😉
Chef’s kiss perfection sir
Good thing Tesla moved major portions of their manufacturing to Texas. They don’t like you parking on the grass in California.
As happy as I am that the Cybertruck is struggling, I’m going to play a bit of Devil’s advocate. All the Big 3 have had parking lots FULL of trucks before. Just drive around greater Detroit and you’ll see it. Even in the last year. The cost to shutdown a profitable line is seen as more expensive then letting a truck sit in a parking lot for a while.
So while I think the Cybertruck is UGLY, I don’t know if this is the doomsday news as it seems.
It’s a reasonable point. The big 3 are moving significant numbers of trucks though. I hardly ever see cybertrucks. Is there enough published info to determine how many days supply Tesla’s got?
I feel like they conceal every metric they can.
I do wonder if theres something like a missing/backordered part, or a potential recall item caught that needs repair, or something else that’s contributing to the pile up.
I doubt it. Those reservations were sold when new model 3s were being flipped for a profit at $100k+. I know multiple people who put the $100 down just to hold a place in line in hopes of making a buck. I know more who did it because the original sub-$40k price represented actual value as compared to the legacy half-tons. I’m sure they’re getting lots of “Sir, I only wanted ONE truck” at the real price.
Its crazy, I see “a” or maybe a few different Cybertrucks, its hard to tell, almost daily around here in PHL. In fact, I just noticed yesterday evening as we walked to get dinner out at the pub there is one parked in my neighborhood with a Gary Barbera dealership wrap
You should have seen the parking lots around Boeing when the 737 Max was grounded. They never stopped production. Those are harder to tow with a dead battery.
Those must take a REALLY BIG parking lot ha
https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-grounded-seattle-parking-lot-boeing-field-2019-8?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar
Literally parked in the employee lots after the local airport taxiways filled up. You could see them for blocks when you drove by. What was interesting was the array of different liveries that you don’t see in the US. A lot of these planes were built for domestic use by overseas carriers we’ve never heard of.
Especially if you compare photos. The Tesla photos don’t seem to have many trucks at all there. The big three had thousands.
Not at all uncommon for large numbers to be sitting for a time. But at this point in time, if the CT were a success, they should have very few marshalled. The fact that you can now jump in, place an order, and get a quick delivery date shows that the supposed demand predicted by pre-orders simply isn’t there.
I went on a ride throughout Bloomfield Hills/Oakland County yesterday AM, and I saw 4 of them, so someone’s buying them.
As I write this, I realize “How can you tell that they were not all the same one?”
Two were parked, and two were coming from the same direction…
These things seem to be everywhere around DFW.. I didn’t like the styling originally and it only gets worse once the shock of seeing one in the wild wears off.
They always say the grass is greener on the other side, but man that grass is covered in stainless shit.
Sucks to suck, lol.
What? Seriously?
I am shocked, shocked I say!
Just because it’s an ugly, overpriced, flesh cutting piece of shit?
Are you seriously telling me that some people have better ways or things to spend hard earned cash on?
Good thing Musk butt is a stable well respected guy. If he was a ranting, crazy fuck, well then sales might really suck…lol!
Look at all the Lewin posts. It’s Lewin Day day times 2. That’s day squared.
https://youtu.be/h4UqMyldS7Q?si=6AKvz4ZVGk604aS5
Today was a good Day day… day……. day
Gonna have to give this my best shocked Pikachu face.
This was a very predictable outcome. Those $100 deposits couldn’t really be taken seriously, and many of them were made when Tesla (like many other manufacturers to be fair) claimed that this thing would start at 35k. Now, nobody with a brain thought they would ever sell within tens of thousands of that price, but again, if you want an 80k EV, you sure do have a crap ton of options.
Oh and also Elon is a moron that pissed off his entire potential market. That can’t be helping.
This. I see folks on social media flocking to other EVs in droves because of Musk directly. People love to say “Do you think other CEOs don’t think the same way?” That’s fine and all, but the difference is that those other CEOs know to keep their mouths shut (most of the time) for the sake of their business and/or businesses.
It’s one thing to assume you’re supporting someone you find to be unsavory but deal with it. It’s another thing to buy a car from someone who actively spends his time telling you to fuck off. Most people don’t want to directly enrich the prick any further.
I know a number of people who are either considering plug in or full EV for their next car. Not a single one of them would ever consider a Tesla at this point. That’s going to be hard to overcome as it becomes increasingly obvious that Tesla isn’t the tech company they have wanted to be treated as.
Exactly. I’m sure Mary Barra has unpleasant views but she isn’t spending all of her free time ranting about how treating people with respect is tyranny.
Yes
And Mary Barra has enough stability and sense of humor to not take herself too seriously, and to participate in the latest “The Dealership” episode on YouTube. That goes a long way for me.
Yeah, I always knew the reservation number was BS, a $100 deposit on a really expensive vehicle that wasn’t going to even be available until several years in the future was always meaningless as a gauge of real demand. Even a lot of people who were totally sincere and not putting down the hundred just for the hell of it ended up buying something else in the interim
That said, I think there are still people with actual orders in who are still waiting to take delivery, Tesla still seems to be having trouble filling them on a timely basis, so some of this could be related to some sort of logistical issue where they just can’t ship them out to customers for whatever reason, or are building the wrong versions that don’t match up with what buyers are waiting for
I think it’s a combination, waning demand/overproduction combined with shipping/delivery issues that make the inventory situation appear even worse
Yeah I don’t necessarily think this means that Tesla suddenly can’t sell any more cybertrucks. It’s likely a combination of factors. But unfortunately for Tesla, none of those excuses are particularly good things.
I wonder how real the “pissed off market” thing is. I live in the Puget Sound area, a huge Tesla concentration. Seems like every other car is a Tesla. Mild weather, wealth concentration, expensive gas but the nation’s cheapest electricity rates. Politically blue.
These are often techy people with money and very little mechanical interest, even a fear of cars. There are other EV options but Tesla is the only one that positions itself as a technology/mobility company. They can relate to that better than to Tesla’s competitors.
Certainly my experience is anecdotal, but Id have to imagine it’s somewhat reliable. I will say, I live in the somewhat rural northeast, and liberals out here HATE the tech sector. So Musk is sort of a double whammy of undesirable out here.
We all experience only our view of the elephant. Out here, the tech sector fuels the economy and stuff that “moves fast and breaks things” is more tolerated.
Eastern WA, totally different story. More like your area. Except that’s hard core Trumpistan, so would actually bolster Tesla.
How many of those Tesla’s are recent purchases? Its basically impossible to tell an old one from a new one. I know several Tesla owners in Seattle who bought before Musk became openly fascist, and they will never buy another Tesla.
At least they stack easily.