Tesla Sells Only 2,000 Cybertrucks A Month, But That Can Be Fixed

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 6, 10:40AM EDT

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Tesla Sells Only 2,000 Cybertrucks A Month, But That Can Be Fixed — © Production Cybertruck at Tesla Fremont Factory parking lot (CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED) by Lcaa9

CNN did the math. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) sold between 5,000 and 6,000 Cybertrucks in the second quarter. In late 2023, there were almost two million preorders of Tesla’s latest vehicle. A lot went wrong, but much of it can be fixed.

The Cybertruck had several recalls, and Tesla took a beating in social media for the poor quality of the vehicle. There were rumors Tesla was blocking Cybertruck trade-ins. There is scant evidence that is true. Nevertheless it further tarnished the truck’s image.

Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump and Musk’s government expense slashing DOGE battered his image. (He spent weeks away from his Tesla duties.) People picketed Tesla dealers and some cars were damaged by vandals.

The Cybertruck had an entry price of $72,000 with AWD. The Cyberbeast still has a sticker of nearly $100,000. Its major competitor is probably the Ford (NYSE: F) F-150 Lightning. The Ford full sized EV pickup was priced nearly $10,000 lower than the Tesla. The Cybertruck has to have a $60,000 price point, even if Tesla loses tens of millions of dollars in the process. If this works, it will get that money back in future sales at a high price point. It can’t charge that price point today.

What can Tesla do to get Cybertrucks off its lots?

First, incentives. Tesla needs to offer its Full Self Driving feature for free. The price is currently $8,000 a year. The cost to Tesla of delivering the service to one more vehicle is negligible.

Second, and this may be the hardest, Cybertrucks need to be delivered without a single reason for a recall. In other words, the manufacturing has to be perfect. If there is a recall, Tesla needs to write each customer a check for the inconvenience.

Next, Tesla has to market the Cybertruck as a full sized pick up. Although there is a section of Tesla’s site that does so, the Cybertruck is still considered a future-looking curiosity.

Finally, Elon Musk must talk about the Cybertruck more often. Today, most of his comments regarding Tesla are about its Robotaxi and that it is the future of Tesla. He needs to spend some time on Tesla’s present.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.