4 ms·

Tesla's Cybertruck is turning 2. It's been a big flop

24 points by bookofjoe 1y ago

bookofjoe 1y ago
>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.
- baiac 1y ago
  Given the price, the design, the size, and everything in between, this seems a massive success to me.
  - powerclue 1y ago
    Selling like 10% of your goal is a massive success?
    - baiac 1y ago
      There is your goal and there is reality. Given what I’ve said they should’ve sold 100 or so. It really looks like shit.
nacozarina 1y ago
big shout-out to everyone that helped make it a flop your contribution is greatly appreciated
fullshark 1y ago
A lucky break for Tesla, which is now a check notes robotics company. If it had been a success it would have taken their attention away from innovation in a truly profitable business space and they'd just be a car company.
neutered_knot 1y ago
I took my model Y in to the Tesla dealer yesterday for some minor repairs. It was taking longer than expected so they gave about 4 or 5 customers loaner cars so we could go do other stuff. Each of us got a Cybertruck. It sort of speaks to the fact that it isn’t selling well that they are using them for loaners. It’s a pretty unappealing car.
- otterley 1y ago
  It's like the PT Cruiser that we had no choice to accept after arriving at the airport late at night (in the 2000s), since all of the more appealing cars were taken. Chrysler had to sell its excess inventory to someone, and rental car companies bought them for a song.
delichon 1y ago
It's a bit encouraging to read about Edison's flops too. All my failures have just been preparation! One was a kind of 1890 Optimus, dolls he called "little monsters" with a built in miniature phonograph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Phonograph_Doll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Phonograph_Doll I am impressed by how much of commercial success is a matter of the product's tastefulness. Chamath Palihapitiya said this and I have to agree. It is easy to Dunning-Kruger your business to death without it.
- estimator7292 1y ago
  Edison is widely (and deservedly) considered to be an asshole on par with Musk. Neither should be idolized.
  - silexia 1y ago
    Edison was one of the greatest humans who ever lived and contributed more to all of us than any other person in the last millenia. It's popular on the far left to try armchair criticize the greatest humans, but it doesn't alter the facts. Thomas Edison's biggest inventions include the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. He also created the first commercial electric light and power system and is credited with improvements to the telephone, most notably the carbon microphone.
    - senordevnyc 1y ago
      What qualifies someone as “one of the greatest humans who ever lived” is very subjective, particularly when their inventions would have been invented around the same time by someone else if they hadn’t done so.
    - array_key_first 1y ago
      Humans are multi-faceted, and can be good at some things but really, really bad at others. For example, Elon Musk is really good at marketing his products, but he is extraordinarily bad at being a father. There are many men in prison who are better fathers.
sleepyguy 1y ago
What happens when sales just stop? I can’t imagine what it would look like if it were discontinued after only 2–3 years. Although, it might be smart to start shifting resources away from the Cybertruck and toward developing something else.
- powerclue 1y ago
  Anyone left owning one will have a rusting chunk of glued together steel with no service and no replacement parts.
  - bookofjoe 1y ago
    Good clubhouse for kids (as long as the door locks are disabled).
powerclue 1y ago
Aster Tesla's service center tried to extort us to receive a safety recall appointment time, we decided we were done with them. We had a recall we called to try and schedule several times, and they always said, "we have no appointments available right now, but if you want to pay $400 for a new center console computer part too, we can get you in this week." Shady. (FWIW the car itself had so many issues. It didn't seal, so at highway speeds it would cause pressure waves inside, the door handles broke a bunch, the dashboard would regularly crash and need to be rebooted and we'd lose the speedometer, a bunch of fit and finish issues like threads that dangled from panels... and more) Biggest waste of an opportunity I've encountered.
DennisP 1y ago
Not mentioned in the article is that the truck isn't built as originally promised. The exoskeleton was supposed to do away with the need for an internal frame, giving it weight and cost advantages. Turned out they couldn't make it work for production, so it's built like a normal vehicle. A normal carmaker would have shown the cybertruck as a concept, and the final product would have whatever compromises necessary to make it a successful production car. Tesla promised it would look exactly like that and took deposits, so they stuck with the weird design even after the engineering reason for it was gone.

24 points by bookofjoe 1y ago

>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.

baiac 1y ago
Given the price, the design, the size, and everything in between, this seems a massive success to me.
- powerclue 1y ago
  Selling like 10% of your goal is a massive success?
  - baiac 1y ago
    There is your goal and there is reality. Given what I’ve said they should’ve sold 100 or so. It really looks like shit.

nacozarina 1y ago

big shout-out to everyone that helped make it a flop your contribution is greatly appreciated

fullshark 1y ago

A lucky break for Tesla, which is now a check notes robotics company. If it had been a success it would have taken their attention away from innovation in a truly profitable business space and they'd just be a car company.

neutered_knot 1y ago

I took my model Y in to the Tesla dealer yesterday for some minor repairs. It was taking longer than expected so they gave about 4 or 5 customers loaner cars so we could go do other stuff. Each of us got a Cybertruck. It sort of speaks to the fact that it isn’t selling well that they are using them for loaners. It’s a pretty unappealing car.

otterley 1y ago
It's like the PT Cruiser that we had no choice to accept after arriving at the airport late at night (in the 2000s), since all of the more appealing cars were taken. Chrysler had to sell its excess inventory to someone, and rental car companies bought them for a song.

delichon 1y ago

It's a bit encouraging to read about Edison's flops too. All my failures have just been preparation! One was a kind of 1890 Optimus, dolls he called "little monsters" with a built in miniature phonograph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Phonograph_Doll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Phonograph_Doll I am impressed by how much of commercial success is a matter of the product's tastefulness. Chamath Palihapitiya said this and I have to agree. It is easy to Dunning-Kruger your business to death without it.

estimator7292 1y ago
Edison is widely (and deservedly) considered to be an asshole on par with Musk. Neither should be idolized.
- silexia 1y ago
  Edison was one of the greatest humans who ever lived and contributed more to all of us than any other person in the last millenia. It's popular on the far left to try armchair criticize the greatest humans, but it doesn't alter the facts. Thomas Edison's biggest inventions include the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. He also created the first commercial electric light and power system and is credited with improvements to the telephone, most notably the carbon microphone.
  - senordevnyc 1y ago
    What qualifies someone as “one of the greatest humans who ever lived” is very subjective, particularly when their inventions would have been invented around the same time by someone else if they hadn’t done so.
  - array_key_first 1y ago
    Humans are multi-faceted, and can be good at some things but really, really bad at others. For example, Elon Musk is really good at marketing his products, but he is extraordinarily bad at being a father. There are many men in prison who are better fathers.

sleepyguy 1y ago

What happens when sales just stop? I can’t imagine what it would look like if it were discontinued after only 2–3 years. Although, it might be smart to start shifting resources away from the Cybertruck and toward developing something else.

powerclue 1y ago
Anyone left owning one will have a rusting chunk of glued together steel with no service and no replacement parts.
- bookofjoe 1y ago
  Good clubhouse for kids (as long as the door locks are disabled).

powerclue 1y ago

Aster Tesla's service center tried to extort us to receive a safety recall appointment time, we decided we were done with them. We had a recall we called to try and schedule several times, and they always said, "we have no appointments available right now, but if you want to pay $400 for a new center console computer part too, we can get you in this week." Shady. (FWIW the car itself had so many issues. It didn't seal, so at highway speeds it would cause pressure waves inside, the door handles broke a bunch, the dashboard would regularly crash and need to be rebooted and we'd lose the speedometer, a bunch of fit and finish issues like threads that dangled from panels... and more) Biggest waste of an opportunity I've encountered.

DennisP 1y ago

Not mentioned in the article is that the truck isn't built as originally promised. The exoskeleton was supposed to do away with the need for an internal frame, giving it weight and cost advantages. Turned out they couldn't make it work for production, so it's built like a normal vehicle. A normal carmaker would have shown the cybertruck as a concept, and the final product would have whatever compromises necessary to make it a successful production car. Tesla promised it would look exactly like that and took deposits, so they stuck with the weird design even after the engineering reason for it was gone.