Elon Musk’s Cybertruck Heads To Ash Heap Of Failed Ideas, Production Stops

My initial thoughts on Musk’s ridiculous looking truck proved accurate.

Demand Evaporates After Initial Hype

The Wall Street Journal comments Tesla’s Polarizing Cybertruck to Wind Down Production Amid Slow Sales

Tesla (TSLA) will wind down production of the Cybertruck at its gigafactory in Texas next year, Chief Executive Elon Musk said.

The decision also comes as the stainless-steel pickup has suffered from slow demand. In October, 1,914 Cybertrucks were registered in the U.S., according to data from Motor Intelligence. By comparison, Ford (F) sold more than 70,000 F-Series trucks last month.

Musk unveiled a prototype for the Cybertruck in 2019 with high expectations, including deeming it superior to Ford’s top-selling F-150.

The Cybertruck’s design, said to be inspired by the iconic stainless-steel DeLorean DMC-12, proved instantly shocking. So did the truck’s debut event: Musk asked his head of design to throw a metal ball at the vehicle’s supposedly armored window, which infamously cracked instead.

By late 2023, Musk had claimed more than a million reservations had been placed for the truck, and its initial hype was strong.

But its sales faded quickly. Its reputation has been tarnished among many Tesla fans because of a spate of recalls and manufacturing issues that have resulted in cycles of repairs. Its looks also proved polarizing, and to many, synonymous with Musk’s shift to far right-wing politics.

The first time I saw a Cybertruck, I wondered how anyone could be stupid enough to buy one.

The truck launched in 2019, struggling for most of those seven years.

It’s slow death lasted two years longer than I thought, but its fate was never in question.

The Cybertruck is now on the ash heap of history, where it always belonged.