this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 178 points 1 day ago (6 children)

"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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 14 hours ago

And the cybertruck is hardly a pickup truck. What were you saying?

[–] [email protected] 112 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most pickup truck owners don't do that either.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Maybe in the US they don’t…

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A bad pickup truck is still just a pickup truck.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Yep, what else could you call it? It's not a hatchback, a sedan, a convertible, a sports car, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 20 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

An enormous mistake?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It's an Ute (as the Australians et al. call it), like the old El Camino etc.

Real pickups have body-on-frame construction with cabs and beds bolted onto the chassis separately, so that the bed can be removed and replaced with a specialized/custom one if necessary.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago

Calling it a ute implies some degree of utility.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

A kid's drawing of a car come to life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago
[–] corsicanguppy 4 points 1 day ago

The worst El Camino ever?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

And more ground clearance

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 132 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Other truck makers tend to let their vehicles fully render.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I will hand it to Tesla, iterating on the Cybertruck design must have been really fast.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Gotta save some polygons.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (4 children)

The Lightning really is a nice looking truck.

The trapezoid Minecraft ~~Cybertruck~~ Deplorian— not so much…

[–] [email protected] 9 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Deplorian

I'll be borrowing that one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

See also:

  • wank panzer
  • swasticar
  • incel camino
[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Deplorian... Made me snarf. My previous go to, overheard a while back, Incel Camino.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

"Wankpanzer" is the one I've been going with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

😂 oh I like that! Good trade.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Hey, that is a very hurtful thing to say about Minecraft. Please don't compare it to that rolling dumpster fire

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla 15 points 1 day ago

I'm not a Ford guy, but they do look pretty good.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

Well yeah, but to be fair, they were lying.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours 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.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (9 children)

I'm assuming the electric f150 has greater than 1 wheel drive?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Try and fail to look rugged. They just end up looking like the douche nozzles they are.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Which is a very niche market. I'm not part of that market.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

pickup trucks are hardly a niche product

Tanks camouflaged as pickup trucks are.

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