From 1 Million Reservations to 40,000 Sales
Do you remember when the Tesla Cybertruck was first getting ready to hit the market back in 2023, and you had to pay a reservation fee to be added to the waiting list? Some people actually made a tidy profit buying and flipping reservations (or to put it less politely, “scalping”), with eBay listings for these spots selling for up to $10,000. At one point, the electric pickup truly seemed to be the car of the future, a battery-powered all-rounder with performance specs to rival full-size Fords, Chevies, GMCs, and Rams.
- Base Trim Engine
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Electric
- Base Trim Transmission
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single-speed
- Base Trim Drivetrain
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Rear-Wheel Drive
- Base Trim Horsepower
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TBC
- Fuel Economy
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TBC
Then we watched as the panels fell off, and the truck failed to even make it through a car wash in one piece. It’s fair to say that some of the derision the Cybertruck has faced can be attributed to bias against the brand, against Elon Musk, and against electric pickups in general, but that doesn’t explain all the EV’s problems, and the end result is the same regardless: people just aren’t buying these things. We’ve seen price drops, more price drops, and, now, according to a report from Gizmodo, the inclusion of the truck’s $8,000 Full Self-Driving (FSD) package (down from an initial price of $12,000 after a recent discount) for free… or at least free-ish. Here’s what you need to know…
The Cybertruck Has Turned Out To Be A Very Slow Seller
It might not be accurate to call the Tesla Cybertruck a “total failure,” but it has certainly fallen well short of expectations, having sold around 40,000 units last year. Of course, 40,000 units is a perfectly respectable number – the Mustang sold 44,003 units in 2024 and Ford doesn’t look to be canceling their flagship pony car anytime soon, so the Cybertruck is in good company. The problem is, Tesla was looking to sell around 250,000 units last year, and the final sales numbers didn’t get one-fifth of the way to that lofty sales goal.
The 250,000 sales in a year would have placed the Cybertruck ahead of pickups like the Toyota Tacoma and Tundra (192,813 and 159,528 units sold in 2024, respectively), and not too far behind the GMC Sierra 1500 (340,946 units sold in 2024). At 40,000 units, the Cybertruck did not crack the top-25 sellers list for 2024. In fact, the Cybertruck didn’t even outsell its chief electric competitor, the Rivian R1T, at 51,579 units sold for 2024.
Cybertrucks Were Intended To Be Far More Mainstream
Rather than the industry-leading, F-150-challenging pickup it was intended to be, the Cybertruck may wind up being an also-ran in the very segment it helped to innovate. At this point we should note that we’ve been talking about 2024 sales figures. There’s no blaming any of this on Elon Musk’s political career or EV tax credits being taken off the table. A year ago, we had an economy that favored electric cars, and a president who oversaw a $7.5 billion dollar bipartisan initiative for charging infrastructure, so Tesla was playing the game on easy-mode, and the Cybertruck still failed to take its spot on the top-sellers list.
Tesla would try to correct the Cybertruck’s slow sales with discounts, incentives, and deals. These efforts have done relatively little to right the ship, however. The hottest news you’ll read about Tesla actually selling these EVs may be that recent item about the American military buying a pair of Cybertrucks to use for target practice. So, desperate times, desperate measures.
One Million Reserved, Fewer Than 50,000 Sold
In terms of hype falloff, the Tesla Cybertruck may be entirely unprecedented. When the Cybertruck was first being prepped for market, you could reserve your own for $100, with the price being bumped to $250 as the Cybertruck neared its release date. This initial reservation fee was refundable, but, if you wanted to keep your spot in line, you would eventually have to pay a non-refundable $1,000 deposit (which would go toward the purchase price, to be fair) near the end of 2023.
If Tesla introduced the $1,000 deposit in order to shake off people who weren’t serious about buying a Cybertruck, well, mission accomplished. With an annual sales goal of 250,000 units, Tesla went from one million reservations, prompting Elon Musk to announce “Sales are off the charts!” to a total sales tally of just 46,096 units.
It’s A Free “Transfer,” Not A Free Upgrade
Here’s what throws us for a loop regarding Tesla’s latest attempt to combat stagnant sales: they’re not actually giving the $8,000 full self-driving system away for free with the purchase of any Cybertruck. They’re only making this offer to people who already own a Tesla. Here’s how it breaks down:
- The $8,000 full self-driving feature is not free to first-time Tesla owners, or Tesla owners who never paid for the full-self-driving mode.
- If you’ve bought a Tesla in the past, and if you bought full self-driving for that Tesla, the brand will transfer that upgrade over to a new Cybertruck for you.
- Feature-transfer isn’t a new concept for Tesla owners, but, as far as FSD is concerned, the transfer option has been restricted to Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X in the past. That is, the feature was attached to the car, not the driver.
- The transfer will be done totally free-of-charge, just so long as you’ve already purchased it in the past.
- FSD-transfer has been one of the most in-demand options among Tesla Cybertruck drivers.
Honestly, this promotion feels both desperate and half-ass at the same time. Firstly, free FSD for first-time Tesla buyers may have been just the kick in the butt that the Tesla Cybertruck needed in order to boost its sagging sales. Secondly, free FSD-transfer for repeat customers seems like it should have been an option from the beginning.
Would Free FSD Be Fair To The Cybertruck’s Early Adopters?
Looking at it from another angle, one could easily make the argument that offering FSD for free to first-time buyers wouldn’t be fair to people who already bought the Cybertruck and FSD. But, if you were first in line for a Cybertruck, you’ve already lost 67% of the EV’s initial value by now, according to depreciation stats from CarEdge.
Tesla Will Have To Try A Little Harder To Offload Unwanted Cybertrucks
According to a report from Forbes, Tesla was sitting on somewhere around 10,000 unsold Cybertrucks in May this year. Tesla has sold just 4,306 Cybertrucks in quarter two, leaving nearly 6,000 units taking up space on dealer lots at the moment.
Browsing car forums and subreddits for comments from people who didn’t cash in on their reservations, some buyers dropped out because they didn’t believe the Cybertruck would actually deliver on its promised range and features, while others didn’t like the bumps in price, with the truck eventually launching at $69,990, creeping dangerously close to twice its promised $40,000 MSRP.
One driver stated that they didn’t want to contribute any more money to Elon Musk’s “impact on our culture”. This was reported to the r/Cybertruck subreddit two years ago, which should illustrate that Musk was a divisive figure long before he began his brief stint in politics.
With reports of drivers rushing to buy EVs before the tax credits are pulled from the table at the end of September, the Cybertruck’s Q3 might turn out a bit better than its Q2, but, at the moment, it looks like Tesla will have to offer more than a simple feature transfer if they want to free up some parking lot space for new Model Ys.
Sources: Tesla, Gizmodo, Wired, Forbes, r/Cybertruck.
