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.

  • @Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    3203 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
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      1813 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

      • Admiral Patrick
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        333 months ago

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

        (Sadly / Probably)

      • andrew_bidlaw
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        43 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.

    • @corroded@lemmy.world
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      383 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
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        113 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.

    • @TheFogan@programming.dev
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      263 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
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        263 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
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          183 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.

      • @thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
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        153 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
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          63 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.

        • @catloaf@lemm.ee
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          33 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.

      • @moleverine@lemmy.world
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        83 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.

        • @proudblond@lemmy.world
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          53 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
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      183 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
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        53 months ago

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

        Dag, yo. 🔥

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      13 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!
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      3 months ago

      And get real professionals to design and build future models.

      • snooggums
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        3 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
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          83 months ago

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

        • @floofloof@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

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

      • ms.lane
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        23 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.

    • @BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      153 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
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      43 months ago

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

    • @CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      23 months ago

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

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      13 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
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    1363 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

  • @notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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    1073 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.

  • @GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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    733 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.

  • @Glytch@lemmy.world
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    653 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.

  • @shikitohno@lemm.ee
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    623 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.

    • @MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      3 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.

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      13 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.

  • @RangerJosey@lemmy.ml
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    613 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.

    • @Benaaasaaas@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      You mean this style of beetle? Nazi Germany unveiling of the new beetle 1930s

      I’m not defending cybertruck just wanted to point out the awkward history of WV

      • Flying Squid
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        353 months ago

        The massive, massive difference is that the VW Beetle wasn’t a shitbox for rich people. It’s okay to say that once in a great while. the Nazis, despite being horrific in most ways, did have an idea that wasn’t bad and this was that. The VW Beetle was an affordable car and if something went wrong with it, you could probably fix it yourself with only a small amount of automotive knowledge. You really don’t even need to give Hitler credit for that considering he basically just told Ferdinand Porsche to do all the hard work.

        Not so much the Cybertruck. It was Elon’s baby from the beginning and he took a very close personal interest in it.

        The Cybertruck is a bad idea. Even for rich people. It’s been demonstrated over and over again.

        • @barsoap@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Importantly, the success of the Beetle came after the Nazis. They built the factory using confiscated union funds as well as having people pay instalments for cars which they would never get, built two or three Beetles, then switched production over to war-time production, Kübelwagen. After the war the unions effectively took over the whole plant… and also bought a couple of farms to make sure workers and families had enough to eat. Most of that is gone now but they still have their own butchery, VW part number 199 398 500 A is a saussage.

          • Flying Squid
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            123 months ago

            Except the Homer Car actually worked properly. It just looked stupid and had stupid “features” no one wanted but Homer.

            The Cybertruck isn’t even that good.

            • @SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip
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              63 months ago

              I liked the homer car. Massive trunk space, 360 view, small A pillars. And having the kids separate so you aren’t distracted by them. Only negative is you can’t look back.

              • Flying Squid
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                23 months ago

                The lack of a roof is a big negative too. There have been experiments with bubble-roof cars before and it’s not fun to be in a plastic bubble when the sun is overhead.

        • @Jericho_Kane@lemmy.org
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          23 months ago

          But they also scammed people into spending money on a Volkswagen that they never delivered and took the money to support the war effort.

    • @Petter1@lemm.ee
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      23 months ago

      VW cars are built by Uyghurs, which, last I checked, are a surpassed minority in China, that has to work under slave-like conditions.

      But I guess most cars are produced like this.

        • @Petter1@lemm.ee
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          33 months ago

          Yea, it seems like beetle is one of the few models not produced in China (according one propter of chatGPT, so some salt is required 😆)

          It seems to me, that the cars needed in the biggest quantities and Budget EVs are produced in China.