Elon Musk’s polygonal pickup is a polarizing sales flop that's missed the billionaire’s volume goal by a staggering 84%. And there’s no sign that things are improving.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/
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00:00Today on Forbes, Elon's Edsel, Tesla's Cybertruck is the auto industry's biggest flop in decades.
00:08The list of famous auto industry flops is long and storied, topped by stinkers like Ford's Edsel, an exploding Pinto,
00:16and General Motors' unsightly Pontiac-Aztec crossover SUV.
00:21Even John DeLorean's sleek stainless steel DMC-12, iconic from its role in the Back to the Future films,
00:28was a sales dud that drove the company to bankruptcy.
00:32Elon Musk's pet project, the dumpster-driving Tesla Cybertruck, now tops that list.
00:38After a little over a year at market, sales of the 6,600-pound vehicle, priced from $82,000, are laughably below what Musk predicted.
00:48Its lousy reputation for quality, with eight recalls in the past 13 months, the latest for body panels that fall off,
00:55and polarizing look, made it a punchline for comedians.
00:59Unlike past auto flops that just looked ridiculous or sold badly,
01:03Musk's truck is also a focal point for global Tesla protests, spurred by the billionaire's job-slashing doge role and MAGA politics.
01:12Eric Noble, president of consultancy CarLab and a professor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, said,
01:25Judged solely on sales, Musk's Cybertruck is actually doing a lot worse than Edsel, a name that's become synonymous with a disastrous product misfire.
01:35Ford hoped to sell 200,000 Edsels a year when it hit the market in 1958, but managed just 63,000.
01:43Sales plunged in 1959, and the brand was dumped in 1960.
01:48Musk predicted that Cybertruck might see 250,000 annual sales.
01:53Tesla sold just under 40,000 in 2024, its first full year.
01:58There's no sign that volume is rising this year, with sales trending lower in January and February, according to Cox Automotive.
02:06And Tesla's overall sales are plummeting this year, with deliveries tumbling 13% in the first quarter to 337,000 units,
02:13well below consensus expectations of 408,000.
02:17The company did not break out Cybertruck sales, which is lumped in with the Model S and Model X, its priciest segment.
02:24But Ben Callow, an equity analyst for Baird, said in a research note that it's clear Cybertruck sales were hurt this quarter by the need to make recall-related fixes.
02:34Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
02:38The quarterly slowdown underscores the fact that when it comes to the Cybertruck, results are nowhere near the billionaire entrepreneur's carnival-barker claims.
02:47During a results call in November 2023, just before the first units started shipping to customers, Musk crowed,
02:53Musk crowed,
03:01In anticipation of high sales, Tesla even modified its Austin Gigafactory so it could produce up to 250,000 Cybertrucks a year, capacity investments that aren't likely to be recouped.
03:13Industry researcher Glenn Mercer, who leads Cleveland-based advisory firm GM Automotive, said,
03:24But the assumption of massive demand has proven foolhardy, and it failed to account for self-inflicted wounds that further stymied sales.
03:33Turns out the elephantine Cybertruck is either too large or noncompliant with some countries' pedestrian safety rules, so there's little opportunity to boost sales with exports.
03:43Mercer said,
03:54More than a decade before Cybertruck went into production, Musk hinted that Tesla would eventually do some kind of electric pickup.
04:03When he unveiled his design to the world for the first time, Musk was clear that he did not want a conventional aesthetic or even something that played with pickup looks a bit but was still familiar, which is the approach rival Rivian took with its R1T pickup.
04:17Musk also cursed the Cybertruck by ignoring the reasons people buy pickup trucks—to haul things around and drive well in off-road conditions.
04:25The vehicle isn't competent at either of those things, as has been endlessly documented in scathing reviews.
04:33For full coverage, check out Alan Onsman's piece on Forbes.com.
04:38This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.
04:46Transcribed by https://otter.ai