“We dug our own grave with Tesla Cybertruck“: Elon Musk said it shortly before his avant-garde, and controversial, electric pick-up finally went into production. The brand had perhaps too generous expectations with the Cybertruck and the 2024 sales figures confirm it.
After its first full year on sale, the numbers would indicate that many fewer have been delivered than expected: Tesla wanted to produce 125,000 units of the Cybertruck per year, but It would have sold only about 40,000 in the recently closed 2024.
Is Tesla paying dearly for not launching a $40,000 Cybertruck?
Tesla has just announced sales and production figures of the last quarter of 2024, in addition to those for the full year. The Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y continue to receive more than 95% of deliveries: this is not new and has occurred since Tesla has had them at full capacity in multiple markets. The rest of their range is listed as “other models” and includes the Tesla Cybertruckin addition to the Model S and Model X or the Tesla Semi truck.
Throughout 2024, those “other models” have signed 85,133 deliveries. Production is somewhat higher: 94,105 units (almost 9,000 more than delivered). And how many Tesla Cybertrucks have been sold after its first year on sale?
Source: Tesla
Until October, 27,200 units sold. Since Tesla puts four vehicles in its range in the same bag, it does not detail how many units of the Cybertruck it has sold in total. But we can get an idea, for example, thanks to one of the seven recalls that this electric pick-up has suffered in just over a year.
In October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published an alert requiring the Cybertruck software to be updated. Due to the manufacturing date of the calls for this update, it affected all units delivered up to that date: 27,185 models. Therefore, until almost the end of the third quarter, Cybertrucks sold were close to 27,200 units.
Regarding the fourth quarteramong the 23,640 units delivered of “other models” the Cybertruck is included. Electrek, esteem that, based on the monitoring of sales of the Model S and Model Y, the units of the electric pick-up registered will fluctuate between 9,000 and 12,000 units. Therefore, if this estimate is correct, we would say that it would be around 40,000 deliveries after its launch in the best of cases.
Has Tesla’s pick-up failed by being the best-selling luxury car? In June and July, the Tesla Cybertruck was crowned the most sold car over $100,000 in the US, its main and almost only market (it is only sold in North America).
In relative terms, and compared to other luxury mastodons, one cannot speak of failure. For example, the Cadillac Escalade SUV has signed almost 28,000 units registered in 2024. They are already less than the between 36,000 and 40,000 Cybertrucks delivered last year. And the Hummer EV, another luxury electric pick-up, It has remained at 8,900 units sold.
Nevertheless, Their harvested numbers are well below Tesla’s expectations. Shortly before going into production, it was noted that the Cybertruck had more than a million reservations and that it would take years to satisfy demand.
Also that they expected to set their production at 125,000 units, and then increase it to 250,000 and reach half a million annually when it was at full capacity. With the numbers in hand, he points out that these goals were ambitious at best.
It is true that it has been its first year on sale and that demand may improve if they release the promised $40,000 Cybertruck. They can also increase their sales thanks to the fact that, just starting the year, Now it is included in the purchase aid of 7,500 dollars. Although Donald Trump’s intention is to remove these incentives and he will be inaugurated at the end of January.
Dance of prices and juggling to sell the Tesla Cybertruck. Analysts have been pointing out for months that the Tesla pick-up could have reached the peak of its demand and the truth is that there are indicators that this is the case.
In August, the Tesla Cybertruck was once again only eligible in its Foundation Series versions, a limited edition in theory for those who reserved it before it was launched. And they changed to indicate an immediate delivery, when previously 2025 was indicated.
Deliveries continue to be immediate, since it is indicated in the configurator January 2025. But what has changed since then is the price: Tesla has reduced the Cybertruck on two occasions, now starting at $74,490 for the Dual Motor and $94,490 for the three-motor one (Cyberbeast). In both cases, these are not the Foundation Series.
But in addition to the price changes to encourage their purchase, it has been pointed out that Tesla is removing equipment from the Foundation Series already produced that it cannot sell and thus offering them as base models, with less equipment, and therefore cheaper. In fact, Foundation units are still in stock.
Not to mention there is talk of covert production adjustments, with workers sent home because not enough Cybertrucks are being rolled off the assembly line: if they are not ordered, no new units are produced.
“Maintaining high volume at that price will be a challenge” Cox Automotive analysts predicted. They were not misguided. The formula could well be to launch a truly affordable Cybertruck as promised. In a market where pick-ups succeed, the ones that sell the most do so because they are a work vehicle, and not a recreational vehicle that can cost around $100,000.
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Source: www.motorpasion.com
