The Tesla Cybertruck, once a highly anticipated EV, is facing significant sales challenges, prompting Tesla to offer leases and free upgrades to move its inventory.
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.
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.
The main reason I bought a truck was to tow heavy shit, and this piece of fuck trash Cyber truck can't even do that without the battery failing after less than 100 miles. Meanwhile an F150 can tow six times it's own weight thousands of miles.
The one person I know who owns a cyber truck was upset when I didn't call him when I had a truck needing emergency, my wife's car had broken down on a freeway offramp. The people that own these stupid things are cos playing as truck people even moreso than the average truck owner. The weirder part of his upsetness is, I was already driving a 3/4 ton truck because my commuter vehicle was not running. All I had to do was go get a uhaul trailer and go get her car. My mind is still boggled that he threw a fit about not calling him.
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.
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.
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.
"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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think they do/will make a lot of sense. Being able to drive to a job site and run your welder or other tools from the truck's battery seems like a game changer for certain applications. The Chevy Silverado EV and the F-150 Lightning seem pretty nice to me. They'll both be much more appealing once battery tech, charging speed, and charging infrastructure improve. I'm pretty stoked about this new company called Telo, I hope they make it. It's a pretty small truck with an 8' bed that's about as long as a Mini Cooper, plus it has the solar tech from Aptera.
Edit: and I imagine the Rivian R2T and R3T will be pretty sweet.
I think a generator for that purpose would likely make a lot more sense. I can't see buying an electric truck just so you can use its battery to weld. Maybe that's a nice to have at best.
The Silverado EV and F150 lightning seem pretty decent from the specs, but towing anything they still seriously suck. But for most people they're actually already pretty good... Unlike the cyber truck.
I've been following Edison Motors. EV and Hybrid both make sense and can work depending on the application. They managed some real work tests towing log trailers without the genset kicking on.
Personally, I would have a model line with the option to either have an all EV or hybrid drivetrain. Share parts from the battery to the wheel, but more batteries where the engine/generator would go if it's the pure EV option.
You hit the nail on the head. If it can't tow it's pretty useless as a truck. If someone doesnt tow they probably dont need a truck in the first place otherwise they are better off with a gas model. The unfortunate thing is that regulations have forced manufacturers to implement shitty ICE drivetrains. Everything is a turbo now which is "more efficient" but there is no way they will last as long as the naturally aspirated V6 or V8s that would go for 400-500k miles.
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 thr 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....
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.
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.
Musk aside, it looks so goddamn stupid, I'd be embarrassed to drive around in it regardless. Like a cheap 80s movie version of what a futuristic car would look like.
And as Others have noted, why would you want a truck that looks like it can carry less stuff than a motorcycle can?
It's the price. I want a truck, not a Cadillac with a bed. A truck is meant for work not be a pavement princess. $50k was already high and the truck market is still stupid on price with most trucks going over $60k and Cybertruck starts at $75.5k. If the price was what Elon said when he announced the Cybertruck, it would be flying off the shelves $40k
As and when announced, it would have been one of the cheapest EVs. I’m not interested in a truck, but that announced price and done of the technology they promised, were very tempting. However now we see how preorders based on just an announcement are risky
Turns out the group of people who look at mid nineties Laura Croft and think “that low polygon count asthenic is exactly how I like my women and trucks, I’ve got lots of disposable income to buy a truck that can’t do many truck things well, and I’m glad a far right ketamine fueled tech bro is running the company!” Is a small number of people.