The first quarter of 2025 wasn’t a great one for Tesla. While it’s still the world’s second-largest electric carmaker, global sales are down 13 percent compared to the first quarter of 2024. Amid chatter about Model Y production changeover, it certainly appears like the Tesla Cybertruck is losing sales momentum, and it’s not hard to see why.
For context, industry analysts Cox Automotive reported that Tesla sold 12,991 examples of their stainless-clad truck in the fourth quarter of 2024, down 22.17 percent from third-quarter sales of 16,692 units. Keep in mind, these are just U.S.-market sales, whereas Tesla’s own sales reports aren’t just global, but they also have some model-grouping weirdness to them.
See, the Model 3 and Y are lumped together, and then all other models are lumped together, a vague and unusual way of reporting sales considering every other major manufacturer breaks it down model-by-model. However, global Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck sales combined last quarter totalled 12,881 units, a significant decline no matter how you break it down.
For one, it’s not like Tesla just stopped selling Model S sedans and Model X SUVs, so those products likely take a small chunk out of global sales. Then there’s the fact that the U.S.A isn’t the only place to get the Cybertruck. I’ve seen a fair few rolling around Toronto, although current Canadian sales volume is probably relatively low given Canada’s overall market size and everything that’s happened in recent months.
Ah yes, the happenings of recent months. Look, we try not to get too political here because this is a car site and just about every major automaker has skeletons in the closet. Henry Ford was no saint, Mitsubishi and Subaru made warplanes before cars, Mercedes-Benz’s history in the ’30s and ’40s is probably self-explanatory, GM played both sides, the list goes on. However, there is a difference in experience between reading about past actions and watching things play out in real time.
From breaking Twitter to sowing chaos with DOGE, Elon Musk is a particularly unpopular public figure, and the Cybertruck will forever be linked closely to him. It’s his brainchild, and with the cars we drive saying something about who we are, that link between creator and product makes it easy for some to draw conclusions about those who choose to drive Cybertrucks over F-150 Lightnings, Chevrolet Silverado EVs, Rivian R1Ts, and GMC Hummer EVs.
With incidents of vandalism, road rage, and general vitriol against the Cybertruck on the rise, it wouldn’t be surprising if some consumers are re-thinking whether they actually want to live with the truck. One writer from the Atlantic drove a rented Cybertruck for a day and reported “I had been flipped off at least 17 times, called a ‘motherfucker’ (in both English and Spanish), and a ‘fucking dork.'” Imagine putting up with that on a daily basis.
Granted, the Cybertruck’s image problem doesn’t paint the full picture of why sales might be dropping off. For one, it’s expensive. A dual-motor model starts at $81,985 including freight, and that sort of money gets you into all manner of other well-equipped electric pickup trucks. Then there’s the reputation of its build quality. It’s not particularly confidence-inspiring when a vehicle gets recalled for having panels fall off. Oh, and decisions like the tall sail panels and the tonneau cover that slides over the rear window hamper usability, and if you’re spending this sort of money on a car, it better be functional for its intended purpose.
Then again, I suspect few of those who’ve canceled their Cybertruck reservations have done so out of actual product concerns. I also suspect sales won’t drop to zero, since there’s likely a contingency of people who want a Cybertruck because of everything it stands for rather than in spite of it. The problem is that regardless of the product, whether a truck or a soap or a beverage, in order to sell in huge numbers, it needs to appeal to a massive number of people. The Cybertruck may simply be too controversial to ever do that.
Top graphic image: The Autopian/YouTube
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“CT is a technologically advanced truck,”
I have two problems with this statement. First is the last word. In my view, “truck” verbiage is a deeply miselading term that probably reflects some deep insecurities. To me a truck is a vehicle that is not allowed in the left lane. The rest are pick-ups. They need to stop cosplaying as actual trucks.
Second, the cybertruck is clad in steel, an ultimate 20th, if not 19th, century product. Its angular design fits neatly within the modernist tradition. It’s a deeply contradictory product that sits on a futuristic powertrain, but is built glorifying a modernist past. I see it as a reactionary impulse. Its most arduent proponents do not seem to be driven by a desire to use technology to better society as a whole. They seem to be the worst virtue signalers I have ever seen, simply satisfying immature in-your-face instincts. In my view, the CT can’t even touch the kind of disruption the modest Prius represented in its day.
Seen from Europe : the level of power Musk has now inside USA top management is the real achievemnt. He doesn’t care for the CT. After all, TESLA is not a car company (as I read here)
Musk could have done a reasonable pickup truck and made a lot of money on them. The bizarro design they did produce only showed the idiocy of his crew of Musketeers trying to convince the world on social media that this monstrosity was something people would want/need.
The design has absolutely nothing to do with the failure of this product. It is polarizing, and I actually like it.
Like mostly everyone else though, I will never support this company again, and I’ll be waiting, champagne in hand, for the day they close up shop.
While politics are a major factor, I think the design and expense has a lot to do with it. As a professional carpenter for 30 years, I don’t see how you do any real work with it. I’ve never seen even s picture of one with a ladder rack or tool box, and don’t really see how either can be easily mounted. As a result, you can’t carry lumber or plywood easily, if at all, and your tools are in a deep bed with high sloped sides. It’s much more useless as an actual work vehicle than even a Suburban or Tahoe, and far more clumsy and impractical than something like a Subaru Baja or Hyundai Santa Cruz. It is, as you note, really effective at being offensive though.
I wasn’t trying to make it sound like I’m in love with this thing, and I’m not claiming that it’s a good Commercial or work truck. I just personally like the funky design.
It has many issues in regards to practicality, and I would say it’s more suited to the luxury SUV crowd.
Enough people would have bought one for it to be a successful product, were it not for Elon doing all the stupid shit he did.
The Model 3 has a boring mundane design, and was one of the best selling cars ever, but I believe that future sales will plummet similarly to the Cybertruck.
Yeah, I can absolutely attest to both factors being a major problem for me. The connection to Musk/his politics is big, and the stupidity of the design is almost equal. Not because, as you point out, the design isn’t interesting, but because it was clearly executed without consideration of practicality/functionality/physics.
For example, you could (as every other major manufacturer has done with other boxy designs) give the appearance of totally flat shapes and sharp angles without insisting that they be literally flat, which compromises the strength of the body panels and makes warps and bumps basically impossible to eliminate. This is even a problem in the plastic parts, which I never realized would be an issue: look at the black trim under the door of a CT and you’ll see that it’s really wavy. Stamped and casted materials are not polygons. They just aren’t!
Oh, and it will hurt you just trying to use it. That’s objectively bad.
The Cybertruck is the most poorly designed vehicle of the modern era.
The shape is dysfunctional, and stainless steel is a terrible choice for a volume production vehicle. If any other carmaker had launched a vehicle that with a hood that was capable of clipping a child’s finger off, and frequently cut people using the doors and tailgate, public outrage and goverment authorities would have demanded an immediate recall and stop production.
But because Elon Musk and Tesla are special snowflakes, reviewers twisted themselves in knots to find something nice to say, and safety regulators looked the other way.
Regardless of whether or not I agree with Tesla CEO’s politics, I wouldn’t drive a CT because I think the styling is hideous. I like its technology, and I tried to like the looks, but I just can’t. But none of that really matters because I can’t afford one anyways.
Yes… ha ha ha… YES! (Insert sickos haha yes meme)
Yeah, go fash go crash.
If this keeps up then it might be time to borrow a well-known word from the language of Elon’s fatherland: schadenfreude.
Let me discard all politics and hurt feelings. My reaction to the Cybertruck was the same reaction I had to the original Hummer. What a gargantuan waste of resources just to stroke egos.
You said that about the original AM General Hummer? It was made solely for military use, and it had so many awesome features and abilities never seen before, and you loathed it that much?
As an auto enthusaist, the OG Hummer will always be cool to me.
Slapping the name onto run of the mill rebodied Chevy pickups was where they really went wrong.
I wasn’t speaking of the military Hummer. I meant the original civilian giganotosaurus Hummer.
The “original civilian gigantosaurus Hummer” was a military Hummer with a fancy interior. Maybe you mean the H2 which was a Tahoe for clowns.
No, he means the military hummer when it started showing up in civilian use.
Why not both? Pretending that as a private citizen you need to drive an H1 around town or buying an H2 both imply a certain level of macho clown-ness IMO.
But there are at least feasible use case scenarios for the originals considering their off road capabilities, driving around town not being one of them
It’s ok for people to drive what they like. Thats the whole idea of being an automotive enthusiast.
I pulled up next to a civillian owned Humvee the other day, and had a bit of a shocking realization… they aren’t that big. I was in my Volt, which is considered absolutely piccolo by the general car buying public, but I didn’t feel particularly dwarfed by the Humvee. They aren’t even that inefficient, they all have a 6.2 or 6.5 Detroit, which while not known for power, is known for sippin fuel. I think it would look fairly reasonable parked next to my 95 K2500, albeit significantly wider.
The stop sale and all the issues probably doesn’t help. But I think anyone that wanted one and was willing to pay the price already got one. I do think there are some people who would still take one but at a much lower price and that price is probably all over the place. What’s interesting to me is Tesla still did ok in China. They like the model y and I guess want the refresh. I don’t think that will be the case very long as XPeng is really going for it and will probably surpass Tesla in China very soon. Then you add in all other other very good Chinese BEV and Tesla doesn’t really stand a chance there other then maybe the people that think it as a status symbol or an American high tech brand like they do with apple and I guess “luxury goods”