- Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks last year.
- That makes it the best-selling electric pickup truck in America.
- 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 that’s bound to fizzle out. Zoom in on the Cybertruck’s quarterly sales numbers from last year, and it looks like demand for the shiny, angular truck may be already starting to falter.
That’s not great news, given Tesla’s 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, can’t get enough of. (The Ford F-Series truck has been America’s most popular vehicle of any kind for going on five decades.)
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla sold 12,991 Cybertrucks, Cox says. That’s a steep, 22% decline from Q3’s 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 holders—the vehicle was first revealed way back in 2019, after all—interest 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 doesn’t exactly scream “overwhelming consumer demand.”
We’ve 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.
But the quarter-over-quarter drop in sales is the clearest sign yet that Cybertruck demand is slowing down. To be sure, it’s possible this is the result of production-side issues, too, like a reported kink in the Cybertruck’s 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 Tesla’s sales, and that seems to be what’s 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, it’s become clear that what people really want—and what will move the needle for car companies—are long-range EVs with mass-appeal that won’t 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
