Tesla confirms it can’t sell the Cybertruck even with tax credit and discounts

Tesla has revealed Cybertruck deliveries in the US, confirming that it can’t sell the electric truck even with federal tax credits and discounts.

As we previously reported, Tesla is highly opaque about its vehicle deliveries. Unlike most other automakers, Tesla doesn’t breakdown deliveries per model – making it more difficult to track the health of each vehicle program.

This includes Cybertruck deliveries, which are bundled with Model S and Model X deliveries.

With Tesla’s announcement today that it recalled all Cybertrucks produced up until last month, the company confirmed that it made and delivered 46,000 Cybertrucks in the US since launching production in late 2023.

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By comparing them to previous numbers, it means that Tesla is only going to deliver between 7,000 and 8,000 Cybertrucks in Q1 2025.

That would be significantly down from the last two quarters when Tesla is estimated to have delivered between 10,000 and 12,000 Cybertruck.

It is a bad look considering the Cybertruck gained access to the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles this quarter, and Tesla started to discount the truck with free Supercharger and subsidized financing rates.

The lower financing rate is equivalent to slashing thousands of dollars off of the Cybertruck.

Tesla also launched its Cybertruck lease program last month and offered free wraps on Foundations Series.

If deliveries are dropping even with those new incentives, it’s a clear sign that the Cybertruck program is in distress.

At this point, Tesla’s only hope is the upcoming cheaper Cybertruck RWD expected to start at $61,000 later this year.

Electrek’s Take

At this point, it’s clear that the Cybertruck is not production-constrained. It is demand-constrained.

Tesla set up production at Gigafactory Texas to be capable of 250,000 units per year, according to Elon Mus, who said that he even sees Tesla selling 500,000 units per year, and it is now having issues selling the truck at a rate of 40,000 units per year.

This is bad.

Sure, the RWD version will help a bit, but by how much? 50%? That would still only be 60,000 units per year.

I would also mention that the RWD version was the least desirable on based on reservation tallies. However, to be fair, that was before Tesla announced massive price hikes on the truck and confirmed that it doesn’t deliver on the originally announced range.

It’s wild to me that Tesla shareholders and Elon fans don’t see this a giant red flag for Elon. Tesla has launched a single new vehicle in 5 years, the Cybertruck, and it is a flop. At what point do you start to blame management?