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.
“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 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.
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.
You could say we bought our Teslas “for the environment” in a way, though a bit roundabout. When we bought them (2018), it was after having previously leasing a Leaf which had shit mileage and poor performance over 40mph. We wanted to signal to the industry with our dollars that we wanted the EV movement to succeed. Because apparently money is the only thing they listen to. We knew full well that EVs were only a step toward a greener future or whatever but we wanted the industry to take that step and understand that being environmentally friendlier was important.
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.
Cybertrucks are basically No Man’s Sky but without the possibility of being good in a half decade.
Dag, yo. 🔥
Isn’t well liked…. Is a Nazi.
Let’s not forget the quality. Also poor.
Plus it looks stupid, like what my drawings of a car looked like at 5 years old
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.
Nazi truck.
I can understand why Nazis like it, given the truck’s habit of trapping you inside as it engulfs you in flames.
Wankpanzer
Apartheidsemi
Fashcan?
The best thing they could do for their sales is get rid of all ties to Elon Musk.
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.
As the article title states, unlike Elon Musk, Tesla pulls out.
While true this still won’t make the Cyberdrumpf meet EU regulations. You can’t make it street legal here.
Instead they did the opposite and gave him the biggest bonus in world history.
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)
Thanks, friend. Much needed words. Maybe I’ll put my decades of counter strike to good use at some point.
I hear it pairs well with Super Mario Bros
I suddenly realize why I was so good at bhopping without scripts. Haha I’d get banned for cheats and never cheated once.
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.
I wonder how could Musk be the founder of both
he’s not a Tesla founder, he only bought it
OK. Then I’d guess it’s him sabotaging the idea of EV’s.
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.
Apparently he did really found SpaceX. I’m not saying he did everything necessary on C-level to make it a functional company, but that’s not really required (though if we think of such companies as Sun, there one can really see Bill Joy’s deep participation in a lot of different core projects).
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Have they actually sold any for that little?
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Yeah I thought so.
Quite a few people would think $60k is a good price. It’s not, but it’s more palatable in the current car market.
$80k+ for it is only justifiable by shitheads.
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Exactly I thought this would be a purely functional truck at a good price, but for that much it is not worth it
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.
Ugh. I can see this happening.
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.
I got some advice for them: Fire your CEO.
Fire your CEO.
Out of a canon, through some flaming rings, and into an empty bucket of water. If I have to watch a clown-show, at least make it entertaining.
Empty bucket of water? But we booked the shark - infested waters over a year ago!
Which would win? Clown or concrete wall? Let’s find out!
No thank you. I don’t want a swasticar.
I’d love to have one of those new production old style beetles. But we can’t buy them here because our govt sucks donkey dick.
You mean this style of beetle?
I’m not defending cybertruck just wanted to point out the awkward history of WV
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.
VOLKSwagen!
I know exactly what I said.
Swasticar is good! In my mind, I was calling it TeSSla.
I wish journalist would stop calling this PS 1 Pontiac Aztek “futuristic”; it just highlights how shitty our future is going to be.
I mean it would fit well in Robocop or The Running man so I guess it counts
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.
It would certainly fit this version of Robocop.
Ironically, the Aztek is way better, despite its age…
Have they tried making a decent truck?
Value is harder to deliver than hype.
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.
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.
I wouldn’t take a cybertruck if it was free, ignoring musk entirely it’s just a bad vehicle.
The only place I’ll drive a Cybertruck is in Fortnite because there I want my car to be unsafe.
I wouldn’t take a cybertruck if it was free
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 know we’re having fun here but I genuinely imagine it would be a complete fucking nightmare as soon as anything went wrong with it and I would absolutely not be willing to pay for repairs.
Is that “all stops”, as in they will get rid of that guy who very definitely did a Nazi salute?
This just in: Tesla’s new moniker “Arbeit Macht Frei” tracks poorly with most human beings.
“pulling out all the stops” probably means removing the minorities and anti-fascists from the tesla payroll.
Is it possible to orgasm from schadenfreude?
