Cybertruck a flop?!?!

[BrockN]

As someone else said up-thread, I'm also a little surprised that we're still talking about this...

However, an interesting data point of sorts:

My city has an annual car show - Hot Nite in the City - which grew from an evening event to a full weekend. The downtown core is closed off for the day and between 500 and 600 cars are on display. This year the Show 'n Shine was last Saturday. Until 2015, when three of us entered our new Model S cars, there had been essentially zero EV representation. I entered in the 'American Muscle' category, because there was nothing else even close!

That year was crazy for interest. We were hoarse from answering questions all day. A huge difference from the previous time I'd shown my Alfa Spider, when people typically smiled, said 'nice car', maybe asked a trivial question, and then walked on.

I entered pretty much every year since and got the City on board with hosting 'Electric Avenue' starting in '17. That caused a new EV category to be added to the entry form and we had at least a dozen EVs every year. Still, a small fraction of the 575 or so entries typically parked on the streets. What I noticed over the years was that I got fewer and fewer questions from the public. EVs were less unknown and people were much more clued into what they were all about. But that changed this year when I entered the truck!

I was on the fence about entering it. I have had all the negativity we all know about and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend a day in the sun listening to ignorance and hate. The Facebook ads the City posted looking for EV entrants attracted nothing but ridicule and hate in the comments, for EVs in general. But I did end up entering my FS and am glad I did.

The public interest was like it was that first year with the Model S in 2015. Questions, questions, questions. Yes, there were some people who were willing to tell me they thought it was ugly. I always responded by asking them if they knew why, before explaining how the stainless can't be pressed into curves and pretty shapes. That typically caused a light to go on in their head and they became more interested in the rest of the truck. Virtually all of them left with positive comments after arriving with a negative perception.

As well, a surprising number of kids AND adults wanted their picture taken sitting in the driver's seat. Three younger kids asked for my autograph and exactly zero people gave me any form of grief over the truck. It was a good day, all in all.

That makes me think that the low sales volume is a result of both looks AND price. The higher price was beyond what many people could afford. And the looks, with the politics and general negativity towards the truck, have compounded to turn some people away completely, while swaying others who aren't willing to take the plunge due to peer pressure and concern for how they might be treated.

My guess is that sales will eventually begin to pick up, once people get used to the looks, learn more about the truck and realize it's actually a fantastic vehicle. It might take a couple of years, but I do think it will eventually happen.

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[Mini2nut]

Tesla just raised X and S MSRP’s. They do bundle in some premium features to help with the Q3 push.

https://electrek.co/2025/08/16/tesl...bundles-full-self-driving-free-supercharging/

The Model S now starts at $94,990 and $109,990 for the Plaid version.

Model X now starts at $99,990 and goes up to $114,990 if you want the quicker Plaid version.

The margins on these stale platforms must be off the hook.

 

[cyberos]

The Cybertruck was born with a target on its back.

The auto industry was terrified of it. The journalists colluded with them. Then Elon became a hate magnet. Then the target market hated Elon and his “fascist symbol truck”. Finally people are Luddites, afraid of the future and anything that dares to be different.

The Cybertruck is twenty years ahead of its time. Emotions just get in the way of seeing that.

 

[YDR37]

Tesla just raised X and S MSRP’s. They do bundle in some premium features to help with the Q3 push.

Prices for the Model S and Model X went up by $10,000, but they now include the "Luxe Package", which definitely has some attention-grabbing features, like:

- FSD (Supervised) - that's an $8,000 value right there.

- Four-Year Premium Service - wheel and tire protection, windshield protection and recommended maintenance for four years.

- Free Lifetime Supercharging - we know this is a perk that people value.

- Free Premium Connectivity - normally $99/year.

Seems like the "Luxe Package" really could add at least $10,000 of value. I'm surprised that they limited the "Luxe Package" to the Model S and Model X, and didn't add it to the Cyberbeast at least. Maybe it's coming.

All of the "Luxe Package" features are non-transferrable; they stay with the car if you sell it.

 

[Sjohnson20]

We've discussed this before but the entire EV truck market has been a big disappointment. Tesla was looking at how many gas trucks Ford and GM sell every year. They have done great with the 3 and the Y. So naturally they thought they could get a part of the truck market.

Problem is the buyer demographics are different for trucks. The needs of the trucks buyers are very diverse. Some are loyal to Ford and GM. Some are loyal to oil and gas. Some think EVs are for tree huggers.

I'm sure some people don't like the look of the Cybertruck. But as was mentioned, it had over a million reservations from people who saw what it looked like. The truck came out at 100-120k starting and that was a huge problem. Still it's 80k which is a lot.

Clearly they overestimated the market for EV trucks.

 

[Sjohnson20]

The $100 reservation didn't do the Cybertruck any favors. It was way too cheep of a buy-in and I'd bet a large percentage of the reservations were people just hoping to flip it. The conversion rate with that low of a reservation was always going to be low, even before the price changes. I think it's only a failure on paper based off demand that never really existed. It hardly seems like a failure compared to sales of other EV pickups. I think they could see a jump in demand if the RWD started at $60k instead of $70, it just isn't priced competitively for what it lost.

My 2nd car is a BMW i8, they only made 20,000 of them over 6 years of sales. There's no reason Tesla can't have low volume models, the S and X keep going.

I'm not convinced a traditional looking truck would sell any differently. It would still have all of the costs of the CT, if not more when you factor in stamping and painting. There are already traditional EV trucks in the same class and neither of them is exactly flying off the shelves.

Yeah people always point to the look and it would sell better if it looked "normal". But they ignore the fact that the normal EV trucks are terrible sellers.

 

[hemiarch]

Prices for the Model S and Model X went up by $10,000, but they now include the "Luxe Package", which definitely has some attention-grabbing features, like:

- FSD (Supervised) - that's an $8,000 value right there.

- Four-Year Premium Service - wheel and tire protection, windshield protection and recommended maintenance for four years.

- Free Lifetime Supercharging - we know this is a perk that people value.

- Free Premium Connectivity - normally $99/year.

Seems like the "Luxe Package" really could add at least $10,000 of value. I'm surprised that they limited the "Luxe Package" to the Model S and Model X, and didn't add it to the Cyberbeast at least. Maybe it's coming.

All of the "Luxe Package" features are non-transferrable; they stay with the car if you sell it.

Including lifetime supercharging? That transfers to the next owner?

 

[RDMSguy]

Not sure I’d say it’s a flop yet. There’s still time to get sales up. But I don’t think it’s ever going to be the mass market seller that Tesla has hoped it would be.

With that said, I took my truck into a Tesla Collision center yesterday to get warranty work done on 3 of my 4 doors that are delaminating and I was surprised to see that they gave me a new Cyberbeast with only 88 miles on the odometer as a loaner.

When I asked the Tesla rep about it, he told me they just got 8 Cybertrucks and 3 Model X’s in to use as loaners and that the cars had basically been sitting on a lot in Huntington Beach for almost a year.

Giving collision centers and service centers new cars that in some cases were well over 100k new to use as loaners seems a bit ominous to me. But only time will tell.

 

[SCTesla]

Charlotte has a ton of CT loaners as well. Mostly FS CB.

 

[YDR37]

Including lifetime supercharging? That transfers to the next owner?

Nope, your skepticism is unfortunately justified -- the Lifetime Supercharging does not transfer. Apparently I didn't look hard enough at the Luxe Package Terms & Conditions:

Transferability. The Package, including its individual features and services, cannot be transferred to another vehicle. If you sell or otherwise transfer the ownership of your Model S or Model X, the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and the remainder of the Recommended Maintenance, Wheel and Tire Protection Plan, and Windshield Protection Plan will transfer automatically to the buyer. The Free Supercharging and Premium Connectivity will not transfer with the vehicle and will terminate once the ownership of the Model S or Model X is transferred.

So there is partial transferability -- FSD (Supervised) transfers, and so does any remaining time on the four years of Premium Servicing. But sadly, the Lifetime Free Supercharging and Premium Connectivity go "poof" after an ownership transfer.

 

[YDR37]

I was surprised to see that they gave me a new Cyberbeast with only 88 miles on the odometer as a loaner ... Giving collision centers and service centers new cars that in some cases were well over 100k new to use as loaners seems a bit ominous to me.

Charlotte has a ton of CT loaners as well. Mostly FS CB.

The rumor that I've heard is that the overwhelming majority of Cybertrucks sold in 2025 have been the $79,990 AWD version that qualifies for the Federal tax credit. All of the other CT versions -- 2025 Cyberbeasts, 2025 RWDs, 2024 Foundation Series -- have been tough to sell this year.

The AWD at $72,490 (after tax credit) is supposedly the CT that everyone wants. If that's true, them maybe it's not surprising that Cyberbeasts are being used as loaners.

But I will note that this is just a rumor, and there is no easy way to conclusively prove or disprove it. Tesla has the sales data, of course, but will never make it public. The available third-party estimates (like from Cox) address total CT sales, but not sales for specific trims. There is probably some industry analyst that has a good estimate, but it would be paywalled.

 

[hemiarch]

I keep hearing and reading this but in the real world I see an ever increasing number of Cybertrucks around me.
Scottsdale is perhaps a more affluent part of Phoenix but at one point my truck was VERY rare and that is no longer the case. There is at least one other truck in every parking lot I park at.
In fact, I’d say I see more cybertrucks than raptors, hummers and electric Escalades put together on a daily basis.
I’m not in a rush to call it a flop.

 

[Mini2nut]

If the AWD CT was priced at the anticipated $49,900 MSRP would the TX assembly lines be cranking out 125,000 trucks annually?

 

[hemiarch]

If the CT was priced at the anticipated $49,900 MSRP (AWD) would the TX assembly lines be cranking out 125,000 trucks annually?

Yes. Unequivocally if you ask me.
40k for RWD and 60k for the beast.

 

[HaulingAss]

That will change over time. I still believe that.
Why? Because consumers despite what corporations think are not dumb. They are self serving. When people realize all the objective things we already know about these trucks, they will vote with wallets.

So you're saying the Cybertruck will be a late bloomer?

Like that skinny flat-chested girl you went to high school with who turned into a sexy young woman by age 21?

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