- Tesla is estimated to have sold just over 6,400 Cybertrucks in Q1.
- This is a major fall-off compared to its last two consecutive quarters.
- Its other luxury vehicles, the Model S and Model X, sold a combined estimated of only 5,200 units.
The Cybertruck made a loud entrance when Tesla unveiled the wild-looking stainless steel cheese wedge in 2019. By the time it began deliveries, the Cybertruck had amassed an estimated two million preorders and had built a supposed multi-year backlog of deliveries. However, the look-at-me-mobile hasn’t really had the impact that Tesla had hoped for since it officially began deliveries.
New data from Cox estimates that Tesla sold just 6,406 Cybertrucks in Q1. Now, sure, that’s up from Q1 2024, however, it’s a straight-up decline from Q3 and Q4 where Tesla sold more than twice the number of units each quarter. Now, the automaker is doing just about everything it can to increase sales, but the trucks still aren’t selling.
Photo by: Tesla
Let’s put things into perspective a bit. CEO Elon Musk originally estimated that Tesla would crank out a quarter-million Cybertrucks annually. It has since tapered its expectations and reduced that number to around 120,000 units. Q1 sales show that Tesla’s Cybertrucks are selling at a rate of around 21% of the production line’s capacity—that’s not a great sign. Wasted production time is lost money for the brand.
Tesla once boasted about the Cybertruck being the best-selling electric pickup in the U.S., but now its competitors are catching up. The Ford sold 7,187 F-150 Lightnings (which is actually a decrease year-over-year) while the Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV sold a combined 3,632 vehicles. Rivian managed to sell 1,727 R1Ts while GM also moved 3,479 Hummer EVs.
Sales of Tesla’s lower-volume luxury vehicles also took a beating in Q1. Data from Cox shows that the Model S and Model X, which don’t exactly move mountains to begin with, sold just 5,213 units combined. Just as a comparison, the BMW i4 sold an estimated 7,125 units during the quarter.
The problem goes beyond Tesla’s more premium segment. The company’s image has become almost toxic, especially with its active CEO becoming an extremely polarizing political figurehead. The automaker admitted in its quarterly earnings report that it expects “changing political sentiment” could influence demand of its vehicles and CFO Vaibhav Taneja even said that vandalism and open hostility towards Tesla, something driven by political discourse, has “had an impact in certain markets.”
Now, look, I’m not saying that the Cybertruck is going to end up at the Petersen in an exhibit next to the VW Phaeton and Chrysler TC by Maserati. But the way things are going, it doesn’t look promising.
Tesla is doing just about everything it can to prop up Cybertruck sales. From cash on the hood to marketing it as a real truck to actual truck buyers, the brand knows that it needs to do something to increase the CT’s take-rate.
To be fair, Musk admitted early on that the truck could “flop.” In the same breath, he also said that he didn’t care because he loves it so much. Now that Musk’s words are coming home to roost, the brand is facing some trouble. If it were just Cybertruck sales falling flat, things would be a different story. But with net income dropping 71% year-over-year for Q1, a product flop might be a more serious problem for the brand than it anticipated back in 2021.
