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.

  • Hildegarde
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    1 month 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

    • Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month 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.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month 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.

      • faltryka@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

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

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

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

      • Damage@feddit.it
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        1 month ago

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

        • hovercat
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          1 month 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.

          • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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            1 month 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.

        • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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          1 month ago

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

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            1 month 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.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          1 month ago

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

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Which vehicles have that? The base cybertruck has two motors for AWD.

          • varyingExpertise@feddit.org
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            1 month 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.

            • catloaf@lemm.ee
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              1 month 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.

              • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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                1 month 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.

    • "no" banana@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

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

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

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

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

          • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month 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.