The Tesla Cybertruck debuted just over a year ago, with a level of buzz the automotive industry has rarely ever seen. With its brutal futuristic looks and extreme performance claims, it became the best-selling vehicle in America priced over $100,000 by mid-summer.
Those days may be over. A string of new reports say Tesla is struggling to sell more Cybertrucks, and may even be removing badges from limited-edition models to sell them as ordinary trucks.
Foundation Series
InsideEVs notes, “The limited-edition Tesla Cybertruck Foundation Series is piling in the automaker’s inventory. The Foundation Series was available until October in the United States for those who pre-ordered it and was the first version to be sold here after deliveries of the angular electric pickup began in November of last year.”
Foundation series buyers paid an extra $20,000 for the chance to be among the first in line, get extra goodies like lifetime cellular access, $2,500 in credits for Tesla’s online shop, and access to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) partial autonomy system.
Foundation Series trucks have laser-etched badges on their exteriors and dashboard badges inside.
Now, Electrek reports, “Tesla is sending the Cybertrucks to service and collision centers around the US to have those removed in order to sell them as regular Cybertrucks for $20,000 less.”
Other Signs of Sales Slowdown
The company has also announced its first Cybertruck leasing program and cut lease prices just two weeks after launching the first offer.
When Tesla delivered its first Cybertruck in November of 2023, the company claimed a backlog of more than 2 million reservations. If every reservation holder had placed an order, the company would not have had its first Cybertruck in stock for a non-reservation holder until late in the decade.
The sales slowdown isn’t a sign that the Cybertruck was a mistake. Most automakers make reservations small and refundable, knowing many reservation-holders won’t convert to orders. Identifying a niche desire and filling it is a legitimate business strategy.
However, Cybertruck may prove not to drive an unusual amount of business for Tesla in 2025, even as the company backslides against more traditional rivals getting into the EV market.
Tesla’s next publicly acknowledged product launches could include an oft-delayed Roadster sports car and a driverless Robotaxi.
Launching the latter would require regulatory permission at the state and local level that rivals have found hard to come by. Rival General Motors had that permission in several cities but pulled out of the robotaxi business last week after finding profitability a daunting challenge.
