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.
I will admit, when the first mentions of it came out, and it was going to be this cheap, capable, all-electric futuremachine, I was tempted to put down a deposit. At first I thought the design was functional, to keep manufacturing cheap and have a durable, Midwest-proof vehicle between the stainless and aluminum.
It turned out to be 100% the opposite of what I had imagined, so thankfully figured I’d wait. Decided keep my 10 year old car until it NEEDS replacement (which it does not).