Is the Cyber Truck a Flop?

[NoTrespassing]

MSN

Tesla's Cybertruck Sales Collapse in Q3: What's Behind the Dip?​

Electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla TSLA posted record deliveries in the third quarter of 2025, but one of its most-hyped products—the Cybertruck— is turning into its biggest embarrassment yet.

According to the latest EV Sales report by Cox Automotive, Tesla sold just 5,385 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, marking a steep 62.6% drop from last year. And this decline came when the broader U.S. EV market recorded its strongest quarter ever, with sales soaring nearly 30% to roughly 438,000 units as customers rushed to buy vehicles before the expiration of EV tax credits on Sept. 30.

A Rocky Ride for Cybertruck— Hype Meets Reality​

The Cybertruck was meant to be Tesla’s crown jewel— a stainless-steel beast straight out of a sci-fi movie, symbolizing CEO Elon Musk’s bold, futuristic vision. But in reality, it’s turning into Tesla’s commercial flop.

The vehicle failed to deliver on its own hype. Recurring issues like falling body panels, disappointing range and underwhelming towing capacity have soured enthusiasm even among die-hard Tesla fans.

Despite initial excitement — with over a million pre-orders once touted — the vehicle’s rollout has been plagued by production delays, quality issues and sky-high pricing. When first announced, Tesla promised three affordable trims starting at $39,990. Those price points are now long gone. Today, even the entry-level model tops $60,000, and buyers are realizing that the truck’s bold, angular design comes at the cost of everyday practicality.

So far this year, Tesla has sold around 16,000 Cybertrucks, down 38% year over year — nowhere near Elon Musk’s original goal of selling 250,000 units each year.

The company is also struggling with inventory build-ups, suggesting that demand has cooled faster than expected.

Is Musk Buying His Trucks Now?​

Per Electrek, Musk’s private ventures — SpaceX and xAI — are now buying unsold Cybertrucks to replace their internal combustion fleet. It’s a move that raises eyebrows about just how much faith Tesla itself has in the pickup’s future.

Well, the Cybertruck story serves as a reminder that even Musk’s boldest ideas can fall flat when ambition outruns execution.

From a valuation standpoint, TSLA trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 13.82, way above the industry. It carries a Value Score of F. Meanwhile, General Motors, Ford and Rivian trade at a forward sales multiple of 0.3, 0.28 and 2.31, respectively.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are buying Tesla's unsold Cybertrucks

Hundreds of Tesla Cybertrucks have been spotted being delivered Elon Musk’s private companies, SpaceX and xAI, as Tesla is having...

electrek.co

Hundreds of Tesla Cybertrucks have been spotted being delivered Elon Musk’s private companies, SpaceX and xAI, as Tesla is having issues selling the electric pickup truck.


Cybertruck turned out to be Tesla’s first real commercial flop.

After planning for a production capacity of over 250,000 units per year, Tesla is currently selling the pickup truck at a rate of ~20,000 units annually.

A ~10% utiliation rate of a production line is a terrible situation for an automaker as much of the capital invested in the vehicle program becomes sunk cost.

But things are even more difficult with Tesla, as even with much lower production, the automaker often ends up having inventory build-ups for the Cybertruck.

Elon Musk has a solution: he had his private companies buy hundreds if not thousands of Cybertrucks.

Several truckloads of Cybertruck were spotted being delivered to xAI’s offices this weekend.

Furthermore, SpaceX has taken delivery of hundreds of Cybertrucks at Starbase of the last week and it is expected to take delivery of hundres, if not thousands more in the coming weeks.

Wes Morrill, the Cybertruck lead engineer, commented on the delivery and said that SpaceX, along with Tesla, is replacing its support fleet with the Cybertruck:

Love to see the ICE support fleets from Tesla and SpaceX get replaced with Cybertruck. When we were engineering it, this was always part of the dream. Never imagined how hard the fleet photos at starbase would go. Looking forward to more of this.

He didn’t elaborate on how many vehicles SpaceX is expected to buy.

 

[tradosaurus]

MSN

Tesla's Cybertruck Sales Collapse in Q3: What's Behind the Dip?​

Electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla TSLA posted record deliveries in the third quarter of 2025, but one of its most-hyped products—the Cybertruck— is turning into its biggest embarrassment yet.

According to the latest EV Sales report by Cox Automotive, Tesla sold just 5,385 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, marking a steep 62.6% drop from last year. And this decline came when the broader U.S. EV market recorded its strongest quarter ever, with sales soaring nearly 30% to roughly 438,000 units as customers rushed to buy vehicles before the expiration of EV tax credits on Sept. 30.

A Rocky Ride for Cybertruck— Hype Meets Reality​

The Cybertruck was meant to be Tesla’s crown jewel— a stainless-steel beast straight out of a sci-fi movie, symbolizing CEO Elon Musk’s bold, futuristic vision. But in reality, it’s turning into Tesla’s commercial flop.

The vehicle failed to deliver on its own hype. Recurring issues like falling body panels, disappointing range and underwhelming towing capacity have soured enthusiasm even among die-hard Tesla fans.

Despite initial excitement — with over a million pre-orders once touted — the vehicle’s rollout has been plagued by production delays, quality issues and sky-high pricing. When first announced, Tesla promised three affordable trims starting at $39,990. Those price points are now long gone. Today, even the entry-level model tops $60,000, and buyers are realizing that the truck’s bold, angular design comes at the cost of everyday practicality.

So far this year, Tesla has sold around 16,000 Cybertrucks, down 38% year over year — nowhere near Elon Musk’s original goal of selling 250,000 units each year.

The company is also struggling with inventory build-ups, suggesting that demand has cooled faster than expected.

Is Musk Buying His Trucks Now?​

Per Electrek, Musk’s private ventures — SpaceX and xAI — are now buying unsold Cybertrucks to replace their internal combustion fleet. It’s a move that raises eyebrows about just how much faith Tesla itself has in the pickup’s future.

Well, the Cybertruck story serves as a reminder that even Musk’s boldest ideas can fall flat when ambition outruns execution.

From a valuation standpoint, TSLA trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 13.82, way above the industry. It carries a Value Score of F. Meanwhile, General Motors, Ford and Rivian trade at a forward sales multiple of 0.3, 0.28 and 2.31, respectively.

The Cybertruck— is turning into its biggest embarrassment yet.

Given the link is from MSM and it mostly fake news, how is the CT an embarrassment? I've test drove a CT and it's amazing.
Being a Tesla owner and following this same topic at a Tesla forum I don't see the CT as a failure. It's a niche item that I will probably buy in the next 2 years.

 

[tradosaurus]

Correct, the CT didn't get the credit.

And yes I am definitely watching the market intently to see how EV sales continue. The surge in September EV sales being reported now indicates it will likely cool off substantially for Q4.

Wrong!
The low and mid trim level CT came in under $80K and most certainly did qualify for the credit.

 

[WM75Guy]

I was watching a video of the booster being moved to the launch pad. The parking lot had a long row of Cybertrucks. The Spacex vehicles escorting it were all Cybertrucks.

 

[WM75Guy]

Here is a screenshot of the video.

 

[WinterDeere]

how is the CT an embarrassment?

The actual sales numbers are literally 8% of the forecast numbers. The investment in manufacturing capacity was grossly over scale, probably indicating a substantial loss for the company.

It might be a great vehicle, I suspect it is in many ways. But it's clearly unappealing to the intended customer base.