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.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2232 months ago

        I was referencing how Elon is suing companies for not wanting to advertise on X. But this is amazing, too.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          592 months ago

          Hmm, it’s kind of like he has an established MO for when his businesses are failing due to his own poor decisions and lack of business sense.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            322 months ago

            Does that mean Canada and Mexico will be sued if the tariffs don’t make them beg to be annexed?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              162 months ago

              Trump lifted the tariffs. At this point I think it was just a smoke screen so there would be less coverage of Elon taking over the Treasury.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                112 months ago

                There are no smoke screens with this government. They don’t “do X to cover for Y.” None of it is “a distraction.” They’re impulsive children. They do X because they want to do X. But what they have learned is that if you move fast and do a lot of bad things all at once, you usually get away with at least some of them.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 months ago

            Nononono.

            It’s that woke mind virus! Those infectious liberals have prevented true patriots from buying his shitty cars to proposely smash their fingers in the trunk.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            12 months ago

            And now he has access to the government billing office and all our SS numbers. Don’t hold your breath for your tax refund this year.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          152 months ago

          Hmm, it’s almost like he’s an entitled billionaire not comfortable living in the real world with people who actually have free will! I don’t care how many zeros, he’s a loser.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      322 months ago

      You joke, but I wouldn’t be shocked if someone in particular gets that brainwave before too long

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      112 months ago

      They should force the government use cybertrucks for employe transportation just like Elon did with X and NTSB

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        182 months ago

        That might be the biggest harbinger of whether musk or Trump is running things. Trump has banned fed government from buying EV.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      62 months ago

      So much of the promo for the Tim and Eric mandatory attendance world tour 2020 has come true it’s fucking insane, man

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    3162 months ago

    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.

    • Hildegarde
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1772 months ago

      “niche market,” is a way of saying they made a bad product few want.

      pickup trucks are hardly a niche product especially in the us

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1132 months ago

        I don’t think I’d call that thing a pickup. I’m not gonna run to the farm and pick up a 1000lb bale of hay in that thing. A Baja looks like it has more bed space.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        502 months ago

        It makes more sense if you start from the other side - EVs are a niche market, and an electric truck is a small subset of that.

        The Cybertruck sold 38,965 units last year, vs 33,510 for the Ford F150 Lightning.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1322 months ago

          One of the things I love about my Lightning is that it doesn’t look like a fucking cybertruck

        • snooggums
          link
          fedilink
          English
          272 months ago

          They shipped 39k cybertrucks for backlogged preorders that were based on a completely different description of what the truck would be.

          • Optional
            link
            fedilink
            English
            182 months ago

            Well yeah, but to be fair, they were lying.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          112 months ago

          Which is mind boggling, as the Lightning seems like a good, attractive vehicle, while the cybertruck seems like a pile of shit

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            22 months ago

            I have no need for a truck, and I still considered getting one. The Lightning is very impressive all around.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            22 months ago

            The Lightning has also been out for a few years now, so it’s not the “new” thing. Also, I feel like half of those cYbErTrUcK purchases were people trying to resell them.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              32 months ago

              Hopefully these people get double-fucked. Moreso because they bought a swasticar from President Musk, but also because fuckyou to people who buy stuff just to resell at a higher margin.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 months ago

            Actually most vehicles are only 1-wheel drive unless they have a locker or similar installed (4x4 would be “2-wheel drive”).

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              22 months ago

              It’s just to make OP feel smart. A single driven axle with an open differential with one wheel on more slippery ground than the other would result in only one wheel transferring torque.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 months ago

                Can you explain? I’m not much into cars, but that doesn’t sound right to me. A quick Google suggests maybe you’re referring to the open differential, but I don’t think that means that only one wheel is powered.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  2
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  They’re referring to an open differential. If you look at an open differential vehicle doing a burnout you will see that only one wheel is spinning.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            -302 months ago

            I guess making a search online is the one thing slightly more difficult than making an assumption.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              362 months ago

              You gotta love these comments in forums. Like the whole point of being here is to discuss and people like this are literally telling you to leave the site. Very useful, much contributions.

      • "no" banana
        link
        fedilink
        English
        172 months ago

        To be fair, it’s valid to cater to niche markets.

        However, that wasn’t what Tesla was aiming to do.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          392 months ago

          cybertruck is barely even a truck at all. its a truck shaped car for rich assholes to look rugged.

          • L3ft_F13ld!
            link
            fedilink
            English
            35
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Try and fail to look rugged. They just end up looking like the douche nozzles they are.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              122 months ago

              They’re a comedy show on wheels. They always lighten my mood when I see them. I’m a little smug too, knowing if I had that much money to blow, it wouldn’t be on one of those.

          • "no" banana
            link
            fedilink
            English
            9
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Which is a very niche market. I’m not part of that market.

      • Admiral Patrick
        link
        fedilink
        English
        322 months ago

        “What?! You all wanted electric mail trucks, so here they are!”

        (Sadly / Probably)

      • andrew_bidlaw
        link
        fedilink
        English
        42 months ago

        I’d like a GTA singleplayer cheat making every police car a cybertruck that can’t pursue you for long and would rather lose control and do a barrel roll than even get close to you.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      352 months ago

      “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.

      • Yerbouti
        link
        fedilink
        English
        112 months ago

        I swear that every time I saw one, the people around would point and laugh. 100k+ to drive a car that is always broken and mocked by everyone is quite expensive.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      262 months ago

      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.

      • aramis87
        link
        fedilink
        262 months ago

        My problem with Tesla is that so many things seem half-unthinking, half-finished or half-assed:

        Unthinking: I know! I’ll put a ledge in from of the headlights, so snow can pile up while I’m driving!

        Unfinished: all the seam mismatches and eternally unfinished-but-really-close! full self-driving (it ain’t gonna happen).

        Half-assed: that recall they had to do because sometimes the latch doesn’t catch properly and the hood flies open when you’re driving and blocks your view. Tesla’s solution isn’t to fix or replace the hood latch so this doesn’t happen; they push a software up that monitors the hood latch and pops up a warning, telling you to pull over and check the hood latch. Because apparently fixing the issue that their poor design (see #1) and bad implementation (see #2) doesn’t warrant an actual fix, they’re just going to fob the risk , the cost and the work off to the customer.

        • Kichae
          link
          fedilink
          English
          182 months ago

          I like the theory that Tesla had a long term roadmap before Elon scooped it up, and that he wasn’t able to do too much to disrupt that in the early years because he was focused on LARPing as Tony Stark on the Internet, and the team that developed around him to insulate the company from him were reasonably good at their jobs. But even the best can only hold back so few bad ideas while keeping up the illusion, and the result has been gradually diminishing amount of ass.

          Until that roadmap ran out, and/or Elon stopped being distracted, resulting in them designing and building the Elon.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          62 months ago

          eternally unfinished-but-really-close! full self-driving

          Promised by next year since 2013

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        122 months ago

        The target audience is monied tech bro millenials who really wanted a warthog out of Halo.

        The problem is that the overlap between tech bros and nazi lovers is definitely not 100%, probably not even 10%.

        • mosiacmango
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 months ago

          The problem is that the overlap between tech bros and nazi lovers is definitely not 100%, probably not even 10%.

          Dont be so sure about that ratio. Plently of “got mine, im all bootstraps” tech bros. Id put the number at about 70/30% against nazis, but no better.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          22 months ago

          If they wanted a Warthog, they should have gotten a Jeep.

          Or built one. There are at least three fully functioning Warthogs out there, I think. I’ve seen the one at Weta.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        82 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 months ago

          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.

    • snooggums
      link
      fedilink
      English
      182 months ago

      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.

      • Optional
        link
        fedilink
        English
        42 months ago

        Cybertrucks are basically No Man’s Sky but without the possibility of being good in a half decade.

        Dag, yo. 🔥

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12 months ago

      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.

    • L3ft_F13ld!
      link
      fedilink
      English
      72
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      And get real professionals to design and build future models.

      • snooggums
        link
        fedilink
        English
        46
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Also have anyone who understands basic car design point out why shit like door opening buttons are a terrible idea in emergencies. Or why requiring the doors to lock during a software update is stupid. Or why putting electronics not designed for extreme heat is terrible. Or that trying to use cameras in bad weather isn’t any better than human eyes…

        • andyburke
          link
          fedilink
          72 months ago

          It’s all 5d chess technology that us plebs would never understand, what with our preference for simple, maintainable shit.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          6
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I’m sure people pointed out all of those things and were overruled by the Nazi manchild in charge.

      • ms.lane
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 months ago

        Or even better, get Olivier Boulet (of Mitsubishi infamy) to do their future designs so we can put the company out of its misery.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      152 months ago

      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.

    • Jo Miran
      link
      fedilink
      English
      32 months ago

      As the article title states, unlike Elon Musk, Tesla pulls out.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      22 months ago

      While true this still won’t make the Cyberdrumpf meet EU regulations. You can’t make it street legal here.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12 months ago

      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.

  • Neineon77
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1352 months ago

    I remember posting about how a guy with a cybertruck would be an immediate no go for me and I was told by a guy I was being too judgy lol

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      852 months ago

      It’s a solid real world filter.

      This is definitely more acceptable than “no social media” being a red flag. Got that one before lol

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          20
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          You’re literally using social media right now.

          Edit: Downvote me all you want, but the fact of the matter is that Lemmy is social media. There’s media on here, and we discuss it in a social setting. Literally the definition of “social media”.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          5
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          I’ve heard it mentioned, but I assume the people who believe it are people who are on Instagram all day

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 months ago

          To a lot of people yes, but I think they’re more worried there’s nothing that proves you’re a real person, if that makes sense.

          I see it as a liability more than anything. Your data is forever.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12 months ago

          Not really, but since we live in a world where most people are happily sharing their lives online it’s easy to imagine how not using social media might make people think you have something to hide and, therefore, can’t be trusted.

          • Echo Dot
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Few it fewer people are actually using Facebook and similar to share their lives because it just feels really intrusive.

            Mostly because how much advertising is now showed down your throats.

            If they want to know more about me I can share my camera feed but it’s like 98% cat photos.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      422 months ago

      Imagine a cyber truck bro listening to Joe Rogan in that thing. How does that not make every woman in sight instantly aroused?? /s

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      282 months ago

      Being honest, if I heard about a woman that has cybertruck red flags (assuming you’re cis/het), that’s genuinely more attractive to me.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      282 months ago

      This is valid just on taste alone. The thing was ugly even before Elon started his descent into madness.

    • Echo Dot
      link
      fedilink
      English
      52 months ago

      Rich enough to own a cyber truck, but not bright enough not to own a cyber truck. Yeah it’s what they “call look at me” energy.

      Politics notwithstanding people like that are just tiring to be around.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1032 months ago

    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.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          92 months ago

          They made Mexico city what it is. The beetle is legendary. And the program “hoy no circular” or “today you can’t commute” was invented became too many people owned too many god dammed cars. So in the program they would allow you to use your car only in certain days. Additionally they modernized their metro system making it accessible for incredibly cheap. Not long ago for a few cents you could travel around the city a few stops. By comparison the trolley in sandiego is out dated as outdated can be and it only goes up and down the coast with only one rail heading east. Mexico city made a spider grid off they’re system. Like from any peripheral location you can travel to the center or travel in the periphery towards another center bound rail. Its great. You can go anywhere without a god dammed car.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    682 months ago

    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.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    682 months ago

    So… how long before the federal government buys up a couple million of these things…?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    662 months ago

    I wish journalist would stop calling this PS 1 Pontiac Aztek “futuristic”; it just highlights how shitty our future is going to be.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    622 months ago

    Have they tried pulling out the “Make a vehicle that’s not a massive and shitty death trap,” or “Boot the Nazi from the company” stops? Because, I suspect doing those two might help it out.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      8
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      The myth of Elon is still going strong. Now he’s taking over government agencies. Not that it’s the right move, but keeping him on might keep the stock at the insanely overvalued level it’s at. That’s all that matters.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12 months ago

      Elon is all this company has, just like Trump is literally the only thing going on in the Republican Party. The republicans are going all the way with Trump, straight down the drain, and Tesla will do the same with Musk.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    612 months ago

    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.