Tesla’s Cybertruck is two years old

The first time I saw a cybertruck in person was when we were eating dinner at a restaurant in East Yellowstone. The restaurant staff were gathered in front of a window, gawking and holding up their cell phones. Someone had parked a cybertruck just outside.

I’ve seen a couple here in East Providence RI since then. I don’t pay attention to car or truck design generally, but the cybertruck is sui generis. To me, it looks like a giant toy, something carved for the pine box derby. But I’m not part of the target market demographic, so my reaction doesn’t matter. How is that demographic responding?

“The EV company sold fewer than 39,000 Cybertrucks in 2024, according to Cox Automotive data — far below the company’s eventual goal of 250,000 per year. As of October, Tesla had delivered just 17,317 units in 2025, a 42% drop compared to the same period in 2024.

“Tesla didn’t return to a MarketWatch request for comment sent to its investor-relations team.

 

“There was a lot of buzz, headlines and a lot of reservations” when the Cybertruck launched, said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights for Cox Automotive. Demand peaked in the fall of 2024, and then went “downhill from there,” she noted.”

What happened? Well, cost and unreliability were problems.

“Tesla only sold a rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck for a handful of months after launching it this April with a $70,000 price tag. The Cyberbeast currently starts at around $115,000 on Tesla’s website, or some $15,000 more than Tesla said it would cost in 2023. The all-wheel-drive model’s price is unchanged.

 

“The Cybertruck also has a reputation problem, partially due to quality issues that began piling up within weeks of the vehicle’s launch. There have been at least 10 recalls issued for the Cybertruck since January 2024, concerning various manufacturing issues.”

To be fair, electric trucks in general aren’t selling well. But I see where SpaceX plans to buy 1000-2000 cybertrucks. Of course, like Tesla, SpaceX is an Elon Musk enterprise, so one hand washes the other.

I’m not buying an EV because here in Rhode Island, >80% of electricity is generated using natural gas. So EVs here run on methane, not exactly green power.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teslas-cybertruck-is-turning-2-its-been-a-big-flop-587eb398?link=sfmw_fb&fbclid=IwY2xjawO7glVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF6alRPRk5pekpSZGd6ZnQ0c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgU9WNRA_Uld3zHrNYDcFdJ0Sr5Ht0lhSHJ3_35EBaBjii_pfaESLwnL_kw1_aem_NJzNLibeEvQZn0K3lW-fXQ

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yes, the CDC can change its mind

The Nobel Laureate economist Paul Samuelson famously acknowledged in a Meet the Press interview: “Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?” This observation applies to the advice from medical authorities such as the CDC and WHO during the COVID pandemic. Some members of the public are fond of pillorying these agencies for having published different guidelines at different times, as though health officials are in the business of issuing ex cathedra dogma rather than responding to incomplete and ambiguous information. Science doesn’t deal in proof, it deals with the weight of evidence. A scientific hypothesis is one that is capable of being tested and falsified by experiment. I get it. I used to teach problem-based learning to first year medical students, and they often struggled with what to do with incomplete and ambiguous information, which is what physicians in clinics do every day. Sometimes, one cannot wait for all the tests to be completed and all the data analyz...
Read more

I agree with RFK Jr.

Though it feels weird to say it, RFK Jr and I agree on something: curtailing direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. “ The Trump administration is discussing policies that would make it harder and more expensive for pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to patients, in a move that could disrupt more than $10 billion in annual ad spending.   Although the US is the only place, besides New Zealand, where pharma companies can directly advertise, banning pharma ads outright could make the administration vulnerable to lawsuits, so it’s instead focusing on cutting down on the practice by adding legal and financial hurdles, according to people familiar with the plans who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.   “The two policies the administration has focused in on would be to require greater disclosures of side effects of a drug within each ad — likely making broadcast ads much longer and prohibitively expensive — or removing the industry’s ability to d...
Read more

About that Trump lawsuit

So Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch for defamation because of the release of a salacious doodle. Nothing remarkable about Donald J. Trump weaponizing the legal system against his opponents, I know. But there are some things that do bear remark here: “ . . . he's suing Rupert Murdoch personally. But you know who he's not suing? Lachlan Murdoch, who's actually the chairperson of News Corp and Fox, who's actually the decision-maker. Rupert Murdoch has no official role there anymore. He's an adviser.   “So, I thought that was revealing in a lot of ways, because it isn't just about going after the entity. It's sort of this expansion spillover, trying to send as much of a message as you possibly can. He's sort of hitting every potential lever, not just against Murdoch and that empire, but then all the other media properties in the future. It's also about sending an example.” “HAYES: Yeah. That, to me, is the point here, is that these lawsuits are not lawsuits...
Read more