Sales of Tesla Cybertruck continued to tumble in the first quarter of the year, less than half of what was sold in both Q3 and Q4 of 2024.
The electric vehicle company has been dealing with crashing sales numbers worldwide as CEO Elon Musk’s political views and role with DOGE in President Donald Trump’s administration have repelled many of the people who would otherwise be inclined to buy an electric vehicle. As Musk’s political profile has grown, it has led to an increasingly partisan divide in Tesla’s favorability ratings, and the company is facing competition as more EV manufacturers enter the market and improve their products.
The high cost for many Tesla models is another limiting barrier for consumers, and the Cybertruck, which has a base price of about $80,000 and many models sell for $100,000 or more, has been particularly plagued with safety concerns, quality complaints, and a series of embarrassing recalls.
Industry reports in February showed that Tesla sales overall fell worldwide last year, even though sales of EVs were increasing. The stock price has taken a hit as well, with Tesla, Inc. shares taking more of a beating than most other tech stocks during the market bloodbath following Trump’s tariff announcement.
Now, the latest figures show that the bleeding has only gotten worse for Tesla, and the Cybertruck in particular. Forbes’ Alan Ohnsman reported on the new Cox Automotive report showing that EV sales in the U.S. went up 10% in Q1 2025, but Tesla — and the polarizing Cybertruck — went the opposite direction.
Ohnsman, who dubbed the Cybertruck “the auto industry’s biggest flop in decades” earlier this month, wrote that Tesla “delivered just 6,406 Cybertrucks this year through March,” which was “less than half of what it sold in either the third or fourth quarter of 2024–14,416 and 12,991 units, respectively,” even as the carmaker’s production in Austin, Texas was ramping up.
Before its release, Musk had touted the Cybertruck as a new revolution for both EVs and trucks and predicted Tesla would sell an average of 250,000 per year. The actual numbers have fallen far short so far. The required disclosures from the most recent recall that affected “nearly all” Cybertrucks ever sold revealed that number to hover just over a paltry 46,000.
The Cybertruck had originally outsold Ford’s electric truck, the F-150 Lightning, last year but fell behind in Q1 2025.
And Jalopnik reported that about 2,400 Cybertrucks — representing about $200 million in inventory — are languishing unsold, leading the company to reportedly refuse to accept them as trade-ins.
Trump’s tariffs seem likely to drag Tesla’s financial fortunes even further down. Even though the cars are assembled in the U.S., they incorporate imported steel, aluminum, and other imported auto parts that are affected by the tariffs (the 9o-day pause still leaves a sweeping 10% tariff in place, plus additional ones on select countries).
Shares of Tesla, Inc. closed at $252.40 on Thursday, down 7.27% for the day, and about 40% for the year.
