The Tesla Cybertruck was one of the most hyped and most overdue vehicle launches in recent memory. Earlier this year, prices were sky-high as every two-bit YouTuber and influencer rushed to get their hands on the shiny silver triangle. Fast forward to August, and things were looking more bleak. With the Cybertruck now rounding out its first full year on sale, it’s worth taking a look at where it stands.
In some regards, it appears ill winds are blowing Tesla’s way. There was huge public interest and controversy early on. The Cybertruck story grew ever bigger with each subsequent delay, and anticipation reached a fever pitch. But the initial novelty of the truck, to many, wore off once it hit the streets, especially since pricing/performance wasn’t what was initially claimed. The truck now has to sell in real numbers, quarter after quarter, if it’s to live up to its real promise. It’s not clear if it’s measuring up to expectations, though at the same, Tesla remains head of the pack in the US EV market, and the Cybertruck is streaking ahead of its competitors in the marketplace.
It’s a complex situation, which leads us to ask the obvious question. Is the Cybertruck a hit or not?
Demand Problems?
The Cybertruck’s sales numbers were brought to our attention this week by Troy Teslike over on Twitter. He’s a data-cruncher who reports on Tesla’s delivery and production numbers, and shares his findings via Patreon. Sourcing his figures from vehicle registrations and production VIN data, he estimates that the company has produced 30,582 Cybertrucks in total as of Q3 2024. In that same time, the company has delivered just 21,450 examples.
Do the math, and you’re left with 9,132 Cybertrucks sitting in inventory. Given there have been just over 20,000 sales thus far, that seems like quite a lot of Cybertrucks left over, especially given that Tesla CEO Elon Musk boasted that the company received over one million reservations in an earnings call last year. Indeed, it was claimed that Tesla had capacity to sell 125,000 trucks in 2024, with the potential to boost that to 250,000 units in 2025. That’s a lot of trucks.
As it stands, it’s not clear that that level of demand still exists. Part of this is likely due to Tesla’s early sales strategy. It has focused on selling the most expensive models first, with a $20,000 premium on the Foundation Series models. As Business Insider wrote in October: “Starting at this higher price point likely helped Cybertruck deliver its first profitable quarter, helping Tesla’s overall margins. Still, the introduction of more affordable trims will be crucial to the truck’s continued success.”
Hi everyone. Based on vehicle registration data for sales and VIN data for production, Tesla had produced 30,582 Cybertrucks by the end of Q3 2024 and delivered 21,450, leaving 9,132 in inventory. Some of these were likely used as showroom models, so I estimate around 9,067… pic.twitter.com/YMqNBAEdji
— Troy Teslike (@TroyTeslike) December 14, 2024
It does appear that wobbles in customer interest could be at play here. “It looks like Tesla intentionally built up this inventory, expecting to sell most of it after cutting prices by $20,000 in early October when they discontinued the Foundation Series and launched the regular version,” said Troy on Twitter. “However, there seem to be some demand challenges this quarter, as production was paused for a few days earlier this month.”
Indeed, Business Insider reported earlier this month that Tesla had asked employees to take multiple days off this month, with workers claiming their schedules had been inconsistent since October. However, other outlets have claimed that the time off was merely due to a tunnel construction project on the site.
Troy isn’t the only one that has noticed something is amiss, either. This week, InsideEVs published an article entitled “The Tesla Cybertruck Might Have An Inventory Problem.” The outlet notes that “dozens” of limited-edition Foundation Series models currently languish in Tesla’s inventory. The Foundation Series was officially only available up until October. As the name suggests, it was specifically targeted at early adopters of the polarizing model. It cost a premium of $20,000 on top of a regular Cybertruck to get one, with Tesla throwing in Foundation Series badging, full access to Tesla’s Full-Self Driving driver assist, and various other add-ons. Despite its supposed exclusivity, it appears plenty of Foundation Models are still in stock. InsideEVs noted that new examples were available in at least seven states across the country, using Tesla’s own inventory page.
Meanwhile, Electrek has reported Tesla has allegedly been de-badging Foundation Series models to sell them in Canada. The differences between the Foundation Series and the regular Cybertruck are pretty much just badging and software access to certain features. Thus, a mere cosmetic change would allow the company to sell the trucks at a more attractive price point sans the expected $20,000 markup on the Foundation series. This could make sense, as merely discounting Foundation Series models would see serious blowback for Tesla from its die-hard fans that paid a premium to get in first.
Reports from the ground seem to support some of the inventory issue reports. Head over to Twitter, and you’ll find a smattering of posts over the last few months from people spotting masses of Cybertrucks holed up in parking lots.
Todays look at the Stagnant CyberTruck corral at the Tesla location I pass daily pic.twitter.com/8LmEVrvT9I
— Zerin "Happy Honda Days" Dube (@SpeedSportLife) December 4, 2024
This is the 4th or 5th parking lot I've seen full of Cybertrucks since the beginning of October, or the start of Q4.
I think it's safe to say that the Cybertruck is a flop & could be a loss leader for Tesla. $TSLA https://t.co/oEPRB0ZWcD
— Motorhead (@BradMunchen) October 30, 2024
[Ed Note: It’s worth quoting Reuters’ story from this morning titled “Tesla’s 2024 deliveries growth might hinge on Musk’s unorthodox Cybertruck.” Here are a few quotes from it:
Tesla does not break out sales of Cybertruck – but the S&P data showed U.S. registrations of the pickup falling to 4,335 in September and 4,039 in October, from 5,428 in August. Through October, the total was 31,451. Analysts at Bernstein expect 50,000 of them by the end of the year.“The Cybertruck is not doing enough to bring the brand up,” said Tom Libby, S&P Global Mobility’s associate director of industry analysis.
Two versions currently available for sale are the Cyberbeast at close to $100,000 and an all-wheel-drive at about $75,000.Tesla has also stopped taking reservations, instead allowing buyers to place orders directly. Some Cybertrucks are even available in its inventory for immediate delivery – moves that according to analysts suggest a problem with demand.
The company also started offering the Cybertruck on lease starting at $999 a month in November, before reducing the price to $899 a month.
“When you see those types of deals, they are basically an indication of softening demand,” S&P’s Libby said. But he said it was too early to conclude there was a long-term demand challenge.
All that sounds bleak, right? And yet, at the same time, the Cybertruck has also become somewhat of a trailblazer. While it seems it’s not quite living up to its promised potential, cheaper models aren’t yet available and also, the stats below show us just how well it’s doing versus its rivals.
In October, The Cybertruck became the third best-selling EV in the country, eclipsing the Ford Mustang Mach-E on its way to the podium. It sits behind—you guessed it—the Model 3 and Model Y, both from the Tesla stable. It might not be selling in the six-figure range yet, but it’s apparently making the most of the limited market for EVs in America right now.
More than that, it’s also the best-selling EV pickup truck currently on sale. Tesla sold 16,692 Cybertrucks in Q3, the model’s biggest quarter yet. Contrast that to the Rivian R1T, which sold 7,245 units, or the Ford F-150 Lighting, which sold just 7,162 examples. The Chevrolet Silverado EV lags even further behind, with just 1,995 units sold in the same period.
By those measures, you could call the Cybertruck a solid success. Doubling the sales your nearest rival is not bad at all. Even if Tesla has seen some wobbles in demand, they’ve been minor compared to its competitors. It may have stopped production for three days earlier this month, but that’s nothing compared to the 6 week shutdown in F-150 Lightning production.
Overall, it’s a funny state of affairs. On the one hand, the Cybertruck is, for now, the best-selling EV pickup in the US. At the same time, it seems outwardly that Tesla is not selling as many as it would have hoped.
Before the production pause, Tesla's order page showed the Cybertruck was available for immediate delivery in most of the US. It still shows December delivery for new orders, which suggests there is no order backlog.https://t.co/RoT1D63LsV
— Troy Teslike (@TroyTeslike) December 14, 2024
I ordered my base spec in Seattle on 11/19 and took delivery on 12/7. The VIN was assigned on 11/20 but the truck was just built and still in TX. Seattle did have Multiple foundation series trucks in the storage lot.
— Peter Benson (@pbensonsea) December 14, 2024
In some areas, it appears possible to get a Cybertruck very quickly—suggesting demand has dried up.
Still delivering Foundation only here in Canada. No words about my reservation yet. So demand, I dont think so…
— MathG ????⚡️???? (@Mathg13) December 14, 2024
In other areas, some claim to still be holding unmet reservations, suggesting there are still new customers out there.
That could change in time—particularly if Tesla starts selling the cheaper single-motor trucks at an attractive price. For now, that’s not happening for reasons of practicality. As Tesla has demonstrated before, though, it knows how to ramp production and produce popular EVs en masse. If more Cybertruck buyers are out there, it will almost certainly deliver.
I’m not sure you can call the Cybertruck an outright hit. It hasn’t been a total gamechanger, it’s not the perfect truck, and there are subtle signs that demand of the rather polarizing truck is nowhere near what the reservations would have implied. Still, the market says it’s the best-performing electric truck out right now, and that can’t be ignored. If I can’t call it a hit, I’ll call it a solid top-ten single. It has its fans, and it’s absolutely memorable—it just hasn’t quite taken the world by storm just yet.
Image credits: Tesla, Ford
Top graphic image: Cars and Bids
ND/Crackpipe…the ugly CYbErJuNkTrUcK is total TRASH…it’s a DUMPSTER on fire.
Melon Husk/Leon Mush melonhead dipshit belongs in jail w/ Trump
Jail?! Wut?
Well, actually prison…since Tesla/Melon Husk have tons of lawsuits against it/him(Wikipedia has a whole separate page of TONS of lawsuits; also all the people who died in TRASH EV’S due to the stupid electric door handles…so I consider Leon Mush a mass murderer)…Trump was found guilty of all those cases in NY and will be the first ever felon President. Plus in my opinion both dipshits should be in prison since they’re both total dipshits for so many reasons, oh here’s another one: Melonhead was trying to buy people’s votes which is illegal. Basically, they were both trying to buy their way into government and are trying to change things for the worse to fit their asinine ideas. Of course parts of this is just my opinion/not liking them but it’s absurd how so many sheep/stans can’t see how terrible people they are and blinded by propaganda. That’s my current “conspiracy theory” if you wanna call it that. To me, I call it wanting common sense and a society that functions well like it used to. Also, I just wanted to reply and normally am not political on this site since I love it and like to keep politics separate. This is the best site on the net!
Fair enough, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but it’s about if you see the CT a hit or miss.. I say miss if it’s short of sales targets.
That is what he does.
Yeah, these are going to start popping up in Russia sometime after Jan. 21st.
All the kids on my street love it when my neighbor’s brother stops over with his, so the 18 and under might think it’s a hit.
The kids love it for the same reason they’ll see the Hot Wheels shelf and go straight for the cartoonishly ugly stuff instead of the awesome JDMs. They have no taste.
I would say “Hit” only because they’re actually managing to sell some. ( I really didn’t think people would actually buy this monstrosity )
Have you met people in ‘Murica?
Hey, Elon says that they’re not a car company they’re an automation company so the sales don’t even matter anymore right? The markets seem to be along for the ride for now at least anyway.
Maybe the CT becomes a hit once he starts to flood in Europe…
Oh wait, it’s not approved in Europe
Creating a EV with little market potential in the biggest EV markets was surely some 5 dimensional chess genius move we just don’t have the mental capacity to figure out yet.
🙂
Just like hitting 1/6 of the baseline sales target. It’s all on purpose, let’s not forget the guy’s a genius.
Are we absolutely certain a lot of those Cybertruck sales aren’t being made to Definitely Not Elon, LLC?
“Why are 420,069 of these orders for some guy named Adrian Dittmann?”
“That’s Customer of the Year Adrian Dittmann.”
I don’t have anything to say about the article, I just wanted to say “Thanks!” to the Autopian team for not writing a rage bait article every time a CyberTruck owner farts in an elevator.
I hate tech in vehicles and one of these costs more than my entire household makes in a year.
I will not be buying one.
I think it’s definitely a polarizing design that will be extremely memorable and iconic.
My son hates it with a passion I can’t comprehend so I thought it would be funny to put the Hot Wheels version in his Christmas stocking. Turns out one of those is $40 on Amazon so I won’t be going for the laughs, but that certainly supports your view that it’s iconic.
My son is too young to care about style, but we wanted to get him a Cybertruck Hot Wheels for Christmas also. Only because it’s one of the few EV Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars he doesn’t have yet. The people buying the “desirable” Hot Wheels and reselling them can eat a bowl of dicks.
I’ve usually heard it described as a bag, but “bowl” brought a laugh to my day. Bowl works, it makes it like some kind of awful 1950’s “salad”
100 comments in and I’m too tired to read them all.
It looked fugly in pictures, and the pictures didn’t do it justice. It’s EVEN fuglier in person.
And all the engineering/manufacturing flaws that are manifesting now that they are out in the wild and encountering stuff that happens in the real world…
I’ll take a late 80’s 4×4 Toyota or Nissan Hard Body over a CT any day. Every day.
I don’t care if I have to make two trips.
How would you classify a Jeep Gladiator? Is that a hit or a miss? Is it a sales success? – Not really, but most everyone who bought theirs, loves it. I think its the same issue for the Cybertruck. Everyone who bought a Jeep Gladiator already did and everyone else moved on with their lives. Those who were buying Colorados and Rangers were never going to buy a Gladiator and I think that’s where Stellantis missed the market survey.
I think the same is evident here. I think the Cybertruck is dumb but I don’t hate it because I like anything that screams “My inner child won this argument.” But I would never cross shop it with my F-150. To me it was designed for people who wanted a Tesla pick-up and nothing else would suffice (And How big was that market REALLY) It wasn’t designed for the average truck buyer, nor do I believe that Tesla expected to really steal sales from Ford or Chevy. I’d argue it was even a bit smart; Instead of going head-to-head like Toyota and Nissan did (and then becoming an also-ran), they made their own thing. My guess here is that Tesla expected a higher conversion to sales from their reservation system (With 2 million reservations and 20K sales, its only a 1% conversion rate.)
The real question is how many sales did they loose to people who couldnt wait for the truck after multiple delays? How many sales did they loose because the truck was $30K more expensive than originally forcasted and also, how many sales were lost after the excitement for electric cars died down and people realized they weren’t ready for them?
I’d argue that even if the Cybertruck isn’t a hit based on pure numbers, its mere existence and the innovations it brought to the industry will be the true markers of its legacy (48V architecture, Computer networking, Giga-Casting).
Having said that, I still don’t want one
Let’s analyze this simply:
A product that’s poorly designed – Check
And poorly assembled – Check
And quite expensive – Check
From a company that has proven it’s ambivalence to buyer’s satisfaction and safety – Check
And the CEO is, for brevity’s sake, eminently punchable – Check.
Gee – I wonder why it’s not selling?
And the line for punching him is now 6 miles long
I’d gladly wait in that line if it was real.
I’d pay extra to jump the line
Backpfeifengesicht Blue! Where your punches get priority.
Business idea: the equivalent of Known Traveler, TSA Pre-check, and Nexus programs so you can bypass security and get to punching distance before most people.
How long a line is at least 60 million people?
To infinity and beyond
Enough about the jeep truck, the elmodrumph is even worse. AND even less of a truck.
I think Tesla has exhausted the supply of fan boys and influencers and is now trying to sell the incEl Camino to people don’t stan Elon and don’t care about their follower count.
I see an occasional Cybertruck on the road but Rivians are far more common. The people who still buy tons of Model Ys and Model 3s are not the people buying a six figure self propelled barbecue grill.
incEl Camino… I like that! I’ve also heard it called a Deploean
Deplorean is genius
incEl Camino. Brilliant.
I have to confess I found that elsewhere, the other name I like is wank panzer.
I think incEl Camino originated from a post that went viral on reddit. It’s the best nickname by far.
Up until his heel turn, Elon was a liberal hero saving the planet by making mass market EVs far ahead of the rest of the industry.
Now he’s aligned with a vehemently anti EV political movement and taking political stances which the large majority of his don’t want to be associated with.
And Trumps anti-China worldview is going to torch the one market which could potentially save him.
Add that his cars are getting pretty long in the tooth with no affordable model ever coming out…. and I really just don’t see how Tesla is going to make it out of this over the next few years.
All of this because he got mad that Biden supported unions. He was never a “liberal hero”, he just stole someone else’s money-making idea. (He did not found Tesla Motors, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning did, rich boy just bought them out.)
I saw on tv where he said you can buy gas, hybrid, or ev. Not anti ev. Choices are good . Cybertruck is not what I cross shopped against my RAM but I’m seeing them everywhere so, hey – that’s fine, people want to buy them. Who cares. Free market is correct. Let people spend the $ where they want. Politics are exhausting when brought into every aspect and argued about.
The sales numbers don’t negate the automatic branding you have given yourself if you own one of these.
Yuuuuuuup. You know exactly who you’re enriching if you buy one of these. It’s basically a rolling MAGA hat at this point.
Can I get a f150 hybrid instead? It doesn’t get stuck on a wet lawn. Also can fill it up in nowhere az when power is low.
They sell hybrid F150s, you can go buy one today if that’s your hearts desire
But you can’t get it in XL standard cab, which is a shame.
Considering the time, effort, and money that went into the program, it is an undeniable flop. It is funny though that there’s a “stagnant Cybertruck corral”, but there are many, many more other Teslas in that lot. Just like anything CT related, there’s going to be hyperbole. I just think the opportunity cost of the CT has been very large for Tesla
The fact that they went for this instead of redesigning the Model S and Y or just doing what every car maker does- make a full size pickup and then releasing an SUV version of the same platform- is just astounding.
Not to mention all of the promises it failed to deliver on! It was supposed to have a much longer range and cost less than the production version they released.
Remember the facelift the last couple years of GM “Dustbuster” minivans had where they basically grafted the nose of a Bonneville on them? Or how they stuck a 3-dimensional typically mid-30s prow grille on the second year Chrysler Airflow?
We need The Bishop to come up with that sort of “fer chrissakes at least try to make it look a little more normal, but do it cheap so we aren’t throwing too much good money after bad” facelift for the Cybertruck.
Actually those were different platforms. The “dustbuster” (also know as the “plastic pachyderm” inside of GM because of the weight) was the GMT 199. You’re thinking of the GMT 200 which was an all steel unibody that morphed into the GMT 201 with the snout.
No, that was the next generation launched in 1997. I’m thinking of the stopgap facelift for the 1994 model year.
800px-94-96_Chevrolet_Lumina_APV.jpg (800×513)
I remembered it but I don’t think many of us do… love it’s halfassedness.
I have zero memory of this having ever existed! I agree! I love its halfassedness but also love that it totally works!!
It’s like the final year Pontiac Azteks that actually look prettty good despite just basically being “uncladded “
I think all that stainless steel would make any redesign too expensive.
Tesla doesn’t do facelifts until 10 years have passed since the initial PR rollout.
(So the Roadster is about due for it’s facelift, isn’t it?)
Oh! But you can now wrap your cybertruck in a litany of colors from the factory to differentiate you from the *other* cybertruck drivers
I don’t think that Musk going full Cable Guy on the president elect is going to do sales any favors, either. There’s a reason why most major corporations just make namby-pamby vanilla statements about politics… It’s not good business to anger 40% of your potential customer base…
And the 30% that eats up the rhetoric can only spend so much on your offerings, not enough to justify alienating all the rest.
But, well, this time 50% of voters knew exactly what they were doing and voted for him anyway, maybe Musk is on something here after all :-/
Musk was a democrat a few years ago. He just supports whoever he thinks will benefit him more.
My guess would be that pre twitter his potential customer base on the center and center left was more likely 75% of buyers. Smooth move Ex-Lax
“Republicans buy shoes, too.” Michael Jordan
I suspect that he’s angering far more than 40%. The market for EVs skews towards higher educated folks that are concerned about the climate and are generally leftish since the conservative media has been attacking EVs for years.
The red hats were never going to buy EVs, without kicking and screaming, so I’d say it’s closer to 90% than 40%.
Yeah, I’m out. Bye.
Drop the prices and the demand will be there. Keep in mind this was a truck supposed to start at $39,999 . That’s a totally different tax bracket from buyers who spend $120,000 on a truck. Lets get back to that $59,999 price point for the single motor, and there will be buyers.
Exactly, it’s a price problem.
If I needed a truck and wanted it to be an EV, my #1 choice is the F150 Lightning. It’s the best value. If I had $100k to spend, it’s the Silverado EV because it has the best capabilities. If I wanted the coolest looking truck, it’s the Rivian R1T. The Cybertruck isn’t on the list at all, unless it gets cheaper than the Lightning.
I don’t think it is possible to separate the car and the company from the politics anymore. Up until mid-2024 one could argue that only us in the Internet cared about any of this, but Musk has since put his money where his mouth was.
It is sad to see this car effectively pulling a reverse VW Beetle, becoming some bizarre “KdF-truck” with each passing day.
Incredibly well-put.
I personally like their aesthetic…but, well, let’s face it:
https://thehardtimes.net/blog/calling-bullshit-this-guy-put-one-of-those-bought-it-before-we-knew-he-was-crazy-bumper-stickers-on-his-cybertruck/
I like the style too, although I concede is far from practical, and a bit hypocritical. It says “look how spartan I am, design is a afterthought”, but it actually makes the engineering bend backwards to achieve the looks. It didn’t “earn” those looks, it is a poser.
As for everything else regarding Tesla and Elmo, I honestly find it tiresome to beat this dead horse again and again, but said expired equine keeps trashing all over the place, again and again…
Man, it’s insane how crowded these rooms are getting with elephants and zombie horses competing for attention.
SUB-MICRON TOLERANCES
Man, The Hard Times has been spot-on as hell lately with their roasts of this rolling dumpster: https://thehardtimes.net/blog/opinion-the-thing-i-love-the-most-about-my-cybertruck-is-how-it-helped-to-usher-in-the-most-embarrassing-authoritarian-state-the-world-has-ever-seen/
I’m not the least bit sad to see this boat. Anchor sink.
“As it stands, it’s not clear that that level of demand still exists”
Plenty of demand exists… at the prices and lower trims they initially announced.
The lack of demand only exists for the fully loaded Cyberbeast and reasonably loaded dual motor versions.
They could easily increase demand by introducing more affordable versions like they initially said they would.
Exactly. The million or so orders were for the base model. Not a $120k 800 horsepower vehicle.
Cybertruck : Trump era :: Hummer H2 : Dubya era
Perhaps, but I think they have enough differences to not be directly comparable–to name the two biggest differences that come to mind, 1) the H2 did not feel like a mobile shrine to a particular person, and 2) the CT, in theory, can be used to do actual, practical truck things.
The Hummer H2 was an immensely stupid vehicle, but I don’t think it ever was as nakedly “man, I love deep-throating the boots of con men” as the Cybertruck is nowadays. The H2 at least had its blinged-out time on MTV Cribs before becoming the Official Vehicle of the Great Recession, y’know?
If you buy a Cybertruck today, though, you’re directly supporting someone lodged directly in Trump’s earholes. The Hummer brand may have been birthed out of War-on-Terror-era jingoism, but you weren’t boosting the paycheck of someone playing a major role in the Bush administration with it.