Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks last year.
That makes it the best-selling electric pickup truck in America.Β
But demand seems to be slowing down.
Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertruck pickup trucks in 2024, according to estimates from Cox Automotive. In its first full year on sale, the Cybertruck dunked on the electric version of the famed Ford F-150. It ran circles around the Chevrolet Silverado EV. It trounced the Rivian R1T, too. It was the best-selling electric pickup in the U.S., and the fifth best-selling battery-powered model overall.
But does the Cybertruck have the staying power to be a real moneymaker for Tesla? Or is this more of a flash-in-the-pan event, fueled by hype thatβs bound to fizzle out. Zoom in on the Cybertruckβs quarterly sales numbers from last year, and it looks like demand for the shiny, angular truck may be already starting to falter.
Thatβs not great news, given Teslaβs disappointing 2024. The electric automaker just notched its first year-over-year decline in deliveries in over a decade, despite launching a brand-spanking-new model into a vehicle segment that Americans, by and large, canβt get enough of. (The Ford F-Series truck has been Americaβs most popular vehicle of any kind for going on five decades.)
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla sold 12,991 Cybertrucks, Cox says. Thatβs a steep, 22% decline from Q3βs 16,692. Before that the truck was seeing steady growth, with 8,755 sales in Q2 and 2,800 in Q1, its first full quarter on sale.
This may signal that after an initial surge of pent-up demand from Cybertruck preorder holdersβthe vehicle was first revealed way back in 2019, after allβinterest is fading. Indeed, Business Insider reported last week that Tesla workers on the Cybertruck production line in Texas were being reassigned to the Model Y line, which doesnβt exactly scream βoverwhelming consumer demand.β
Weβve also seen Tesla pile on perks like free lifetime Supercharging to clear launch-edition Cybertrucks (the so-called Foundation Series) from its inventory. The trucks have also been piling up on used-car lots.
Photo by: InsideEVs
But the quarter-over-quarter drop in sales is the clearest sign yet that Cybertruck demand is slowing down. To be sure, itβs possible this is the result of production-side issues, too, like a reported kink in the Cybertruckβs battery supply chain. Tesla didn’t respond to questions about the slide in Cybertruck sales. Tesla almost never responds to media inquiries.
Auto industry analysts have long warned that the Cybertruck would be too weird and too expensive to seriously accelerate Teslaβs sales, and that seems to be whatβs happening here.
“I think consumers like new stuff, and new stuff that’s affordable,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox. The Cybertruck is definitely new, but not very affordable, she noted.
“It’s going to, I think, continue to be challenging to really increase sales for the Cybertruck significantly,” she said, given its steep price and niche audience.
Amid a wider slowdown in EV sales growth, itβs become clear that what people really wantβand what will move the needle for car companiesβare long-range EVs with mass-appeal that wonβt break the bank. Like the Chevrolet Equinox EV, our Breakthrough EV of the Year.
Tesla went the complete opposite direction and seems to be paying the price. Initial pricing for the Cybertruck started above $100,000, and now the lowest-cost model starts at $79,990.
Tesla says it has a cheaper model in the works for 2025. For its sake, that had better come to the rescue soon.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
