Sales of Tesla‘s flashy Cybertruck are a fraction of the more than 1 million reservations the company had a month before deliveries began rolling out in November 2023.
So far, U.S. sales total just over 52,000 units, according to Cox Automotive.
“It’s a really remarkable vehicle,” said Sean Tucker, executive editor of Cox Automotive. “I quite like the design, but then I tend to quite like anything that stands out. And it certainly stands out.”
The Cybertruck’s futuristic design caught attention but had limited appeal, especially with truck buyers.
The truck’s specifications also fell short of those Tesla advertised early on, and in some cases fell short of those offered by leading fuel-burning pickups. There have also been many quality and production problems, as the company has issued eight voluntary recalls in little more than a year.
With all those factors, plus a less-than-advertised towing and payload capacity and the disappointing battery range, many truck buyers have stayed on the sidelines.
“I think the problem they ran into with that design: It’s not as functional as it should be,” Tucker said. “Some of the design decisions that truck makers tend to make, they’ve made because of many, many years of people using trucks and determining what’s the best way for them to work.”
The sides of the Cybertruck bed are high, and the vehicle has a pyramidal shape. That makes it tough to load.
“Trucks have been the same for a very long time,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk when the truck was unveiled in 2019. “Like 100 years. Trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different.”
But what it created was more likely to appeal to an EV enthusiast thinking about a pickup — or a novelty vehicle — than most of the buyers who buy pickups.
“Electric pickup trucks are a natural place for automakers, particularly American automakers,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director, AutoIntelligence for S&P Global Mobility. “It’s also a tougher market in terms of its use case, in terms of the sense of conservatism that the buyer has.”
Truck buyers have “come a long way” over the last several years, in terms of their openness to and familiarity with technology and other innovations in pickups, she added.
But truck buyers still tend to favor the tried and true.
Brand loyalty in the segment runs somewhere around 70%-80%, said Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis in a recent interview with CNBC.
A large share of truck buyers rely on their vehicles for work. Even off-roaders and recreational buyers want trucks that will meet their standards for towing, payload, and overall performance.
“I think that those buyers also want a little bit more proof, a little bit more proof that it’s going to do everything they need to do,” Brinley said.
