The Tesla Cybertruck is a new electric truck from Tesla that looks very different from traditional trucks. It's made of a special metal and is designed to be powerful and eco-friendly.
Front bumpers are the parts at the front of a car that help protect it in case of a crash. They are designed to keep people safe and are made to meet safety rules.
A trade-in is when you give your old car to a dealership to help pay for a new one. They will give you a certain amount for your old car, which reduces the price of the new car you want to buy.
Giga Texas is a big factory where Tesla makes cars, including the Cybertruck. It's located in Texas and is important for Tesla's plans to produce more vehicles.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric pickup truck that is based on the regular F-150. It aims to provide the same features and capabilities but runs on electricity instead of gasoline.
Pickup trucks are a type of vehicle that has a big open space in the back for carrying things. They're often used for work and are very popular in America.
A recall happens when a car company asks owners to bring their cars back because there is a problem that could be dangerous. This is done to fix the issue and keep everyone safe.
Over-the-air updates are like getting a new app on your phone without going to the store. Car companies can fix problems or add features to your car using the internet.
A trademark is a special name or logo that a company uses to show that something belongs to them. It helps people know who made a product and keeps others from using the same name.
European regulations are rules that cars must follow in Europe to ensure they are safe and environmentally friendly. These rules can be stricter than in other places, especially when it comes to protecting people on the road.
Pedestrian safety standards are rules that help make cars safer for people walking near them. They focus on how cars should be built to avoid hurting pedestrians if there's an accident.
Vehicle design is about how cars are made to look and work. It includes everything from the shape of the car to how safe it is for people inside and outside.
EU regulations are rules made by the European Union that cars must follow to be allowed on the road. These rules help make sure cars are safe and not too polluting.
Re-engineering means changing a vehicle's design to make it better or to meet certain rules. For the Cybertruck, this was done to make it safe and legal in different countries.
The Ford Edge is a medium-sized SUV that has plenty of room for passengers and cargo. It's designed to be comfortable and has lots of features that make driving easier.
An SUV is a type of vehicle that is bigger than a regular car and can hold more people and cargo. They are often used for families and can drive on different types of roads.
BYD is a car company from China that makes electric vehicles. They are becoming popular and are competing with other car brands in the electric car market.
X-Pong is a car company from China that makes electric cars. They focus on using smart technology in their vehicles, making them different from regular cars.
Steer by wire means that instead of using physical parts to connect the steering wheel to the wheels, the car uses electronics. This can make steering more accurate and allow for new features.
The Tesla Model S is a fancy electric car that can go really far on a single charge. It's known for being fast and having cool tech features, making it a popular choice for people who want an eco-friendly vehicle.
The Audi S3 is a sporty version of a smaller Audi car that goes really fast and handles well. It’s a nice mix of luxury and performance, perfect for people who want a fun driving experience.
The 4680 battery is a new kind of battery that Tesla is trying to make. It's supposed to be better and cheaper, but there have been problems making it, which worries some people about Tesla's plans.
The BMW iX3 is an electric SUV that can drive more than 500 miles on a single charge, making it a great option for those looking for an eco-friendly vehicle.
WLTP is a testing method that measures how far a car can go on a full battery or tank under normal driving conditions, giving a better idea of its efficiency.
Car
Volvo EX60
The Volvo EX60 is a new electric car that can travel about 505 miles on a charge, which is impressive for an electric vehicle.
The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a small car that looks a bit old-fashioned but has a lot of space inside. It was popular because it was different from other cars and could carry a lot of stuff.
The Tesla Model X is a big electric car that has special doors that open up like wings. It's great for families because it has a lot of room and is very high-tech.
LIVE
Want to feel more confident with your finances this year?
If you have 60 seconds, I can show you how quick and easy it is to start building healthy
money habits that could last you the entire year, just by using Rocket Money.
Step 1.
Download Rocket Money.
Step 2.
Link all your accounts and see your entire spending picture.
Your subscriptions, your upcoming bills, your due dates, everything.
Step 3.
Tap a subscription you don't use and cancel it.
Boom!
That's money back every single month.
Step 4.
Create a financial goal for something you want to save for, whether it be a vacation,
a retirement account, or a pet's birthday.
We don't judge.
Now let the app automatically move small amounts of cash towards your goal.
In a month, you'll see real dollars piling up.
In a year, you'll be shocked at how much money you saved, similar to the over 10 million
members on the app that have saved up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium
features.
Use the savings challenge as one step closer to feeling better about your finances today.
At rocketmoney.com slash cancel.
That's rocketmoney.com slash cancel.
One more time, it's rocketmoney.com slash cancel.
My place in tech changes every day, but I don't fear the future.
Because I'm with the leader, Pluralsight.
Their online learning platform has the hands-on, expert-led courses I need to master new tech
skills and create bigger impacts, so I can learn quickly and stay ahead.
With Pluralsight, I don't fear what's next.
I embrace it.
Tap in at Pluralsight.com and see for yourself.
Did you know that parents rank teaching financial literacy as the toughest life skill?
That's where Greenlight comes in, the debit card and money app made for families.
With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance,
and track spending with real-time notifications.
Kids learn how to earn, save, and spend responsibly.
While parents have peace of mind knowing smart money habits are being built with guardrails in place.
Try Greenlight risk-free today at greenlight.com slash trygreenlight.
That's greenlight.com slash trygreenlight.
Welcome back to the podcast.
Welcome to a special bonus edition of the show where we ask will Tesla's Cybertruck ever go global?
The stainless steel wedge-on wheels became a symbol of Elon Musk's bravado.
The man with the Midas touch unveiled his next big thing,
and a million fans, they say, duly got in line with deposits.
Some reports say two million.
At the time, Tesla and its showman CEO could do no wrong.
They were on a roll in his own words.
If nobody bought the Cybertruck, Tesla would go back to the drawing board and redesign it to be conventional.
But could a redesign keep the looks while making it meet the road regs outside of the USA?
Well, fast forward to now.
North American sales have dried up and regulatory barriers block global expansion
in its current form.
The Cybertruck faces an existential question.
Will it survive beyond its niche, or is this the beginning of the end?
Welcome to a bonus edition of the podcast.
My name is Martin Lee.
When I have something that requires a deeper look sometimes,
you might find these bonus shows showing up in your feed.
Speaking of which, Patreon supporters get the show's seven days exclusively first,
and then we put it into the free feed.
So no need to pay for Patreon.
Five or $10 a month.
Some people pay more to support my work here.
This is how I earn a living these days.
Just wait a week, and you'll get it with ads, but I know people sometimes skip those.
So let's get into the Cybertruck then.
I've been thinking about this for a long time over the Christmas holidays as well.
I've been reading some news about various people around the world trying to make it compliant.
Almost people doing their own individual crusades.
Well, one of those chaps is Raven Seeholzer.
He has a workshop in Basel in Switzerland,
and it represents a microcosm of the Cybertruck's global predicament.
The founder of Teslaab, a used Tesla marketplace,
spent the past year disassembling a fleet of five Cybertrucks
and rebuilding them from scratch, all to comply with European regulations.
The trademark sharp edges have been blunted with rubber coverings,
electrical wiring has been overhauled, yellow blinker lights for instance,
and new front bumpers have been engineered to meet pedestrian safety standards.
The vehicle, Seeholzer claims, has been pretty much fully apart.
This extraordinary effort essentially re-engineering Tesla's flagship pickup
illustrates the fundamental misalignment between the Cybertruck's design philosophy
and the regulatory realities of selling to the global market.
While Seeholzer believes approval in Switzerland is merely a matter of time,
in his own words, he also admits that European Union homologation
would be a lengthy progress, reveals the deeper truth,
also that the Cybertruck was never designed to be sold outside of North America.
That strategy could be catastrophic,
but with a production line built for 10 times the current rate,
it's also suffocating the company.
The Cybertruck won't bring down Tesla,
but it's a serious drag.
Sales data from 2025 now paints a grim picture of where the Cybertruck is,
according to Cox Automotive.
Tesla sold only 5,385 Cybertrucks in Q3 last year,
that's down 63% from the same time a year before.
Figures through to the end of September showed about 16,000 of them sold in the US,
again down about 40% from the first nine months of 2024.
The fourth quarter didn't bring any respite.
Industry analysts estimate full year 2025 deliveries will be around 17,000 units,
because no tax credit in Q4, very few sales.
A staggering shortfall from Elon Musk's promise that Tesla would achieve
annual production of 250,000 units sometime in 2025.
The company has now missed the target by roughly 230,000 vehicles,
a spectacular failure in terms of the automotive industry and what CEOs have
promised over the years, even by his own standards.
Let's talk about demand then.
The sales collapse has been swift and it's been really unforgiving as well.
Monthly delivery figures tell a story of accelerating decline
rather than a gentle landing.
In the first quarter of 2025, Tesla sold only 6,500 Cybertrucks,
half the previous quarter's volume by Q2, down to 5,000 Q3, like I say, falling and falling.
The market's verdict has been delivered through depreciation as anything else.
Tesla began accepting Cybertruck trade-ins in the summer of 2025,
an admission that the secondary market had collapsed.
One owner who purchased a foundation series model for over $100,000
got a trade-in from Tesla at $65,400 after driving only 6,000 miles or 10,000 kilometers,
35% in less than a year off his new vehicle.
Independent platforms, these aren't Tesla trade-ins, show even steeper declines.
Some Cybertrucks are now listing at about half the original purchase price,
auction prices in around $60,000 now, with analyst Doug Demuro predicting that values
will be on a recent podcast that I heard him on.
You'll be able to pick up a $35,000 Cybertruck in the next year or so.
Such depreciation reflects oversupply and lack of demand.
Tesla's response has been to throttle production, obviously.
The company paused Cybertruck production at Giga, Texas in May.
Again in July, workers reported that targets for Cybertruck lines were all slashed,
some lines were just running at a fraction of their capacity,
and production teams were moved on to other projects.
The factory, which Tesla had equipped to make $250,000 Cybertruck, so think about that.
Everything that they need, the space, the production equipment,
to make a quarter of a million a year is not even a 10% utilization,
representing not only a waste of assets, but stranded capital on an epic scale.
The opportunity cost is also failed investment, where could they spend the money elsewhere?
Let's talk about the competition.
Well, it's not been stellar, to be honest with you.
The Cybertruck's collapse was accelerated, perhaps, by its competitors.
The Ford F-150 Lightning, once dismissed as just an electric version of the petrol truck,
was actually a really good vehicle.
It became the undisputed leader of America's electric pickup segment.
In Q3, they sold over 10,000 lightnings, a 40% increase on the same time the previous year,
of course, expiration of the tax credit, because the lightning success stemmed
from its fundamental conservatism.
It looked like an F-150.
It functioned like an F-150.
All right, towing is an issue with electric vehicles.
No one said it wouldn't be, despite a series of YouTubers buying one,
realizing that you can't tow a massive load up a mountain for hours on end,
and making negative comment, all going towards the death of the F-150.
I talk about it in its past tense because, yeah, Ford ended that program.
Well, first they paused it, and then they killed it off.
General Motors did capitalize on the Cybertruck stumble with the Chevrolet Silverado,
doubling its quarterly sales to 3,940 in the third quarter of last year, up 98% year on year.
The GMC Sierra EV was up 772%, but from a very low base.
Even the Hummer EV.
Line-up, a premium offering with limited volume ambitions,
outsells the Cybertruck now.
Wow.
This dynamic reflects a broader truth about strategy.
Ram's CEO noted at the time that brand loyalty within the truck segment can be up to 80%.
Truck buyers, even those open to electrification, gravitate towards the name plates they've bought
before. The Cybertruck's wedge-like pyramid silhouette,
high-sided bed, which complicates loading, represented a fundamental misunderstanding
if they were going to sell to a truck buyer.
A Stephanie Brinley of S&P Global Mobility observed, and I quote,
pickup trucks have been a natural stronghold for American automakers,
with buyers exhibiting a high degree of conservatism, end quote.
The Cybertruck's radical departure then had to find a buyer that wasn't a typical truck buyer.
But that's okay, because they had the musk factor.
The Cybertruck's collapse cannot be understood separately from the broader erosion
in the Tesla brand, driven primarily by Elon Musk's polarizing activities.
Research published by Yale University economists in October 2025
started to try and quantify what many had felt and experienced anecdotally.
And of course, if you were the victim, if you're a Tesla driver, and someone was
either writing things on the dirt of your car, I've seen that online,
people were writing awful phrases, somewhere even spray painting, which is just, you know,
out and out illegal and criminal damage.
But Musk's activities online has inflicted measurable damage.
So somebody's put some numbers on this.
This study found that Tesla's US sales would have been up to 83% higher
between October 2022 with all the Twitter purchase when he became overly political.
And the end of 2025, translating to 1 million to 1.26 million extra vehicles sold
if he'd just kept his head down in terms of politics.
By the first quarter of 2025, the effect had intensified so much because of a new White House
administration that Tesla's monthly sales would have been 125% higher at the time.
The mechanism is straightforward. Musk's support for one party, which is fine.
Anybody can support any politics, but you tend to find big CEOs are not.
And it's changed a little bit lately, and that's all fine,
because anyone can say whatever they want, of course, and freedom of speech.
But his out and out support for one side with $300 million in contribution
to Republican candidates, and his role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency,
the department that was never a department, alienated the core demographic of Tesla.
But tend to be politically a little bit more liberal consumers.
That's fine. But presumably, you'd hope to pick up a whole new audience.
Maybe he felt like it exhausted the old audience and that he could attract a new kind of buyer.
Analysis at county level revealed a previously upward trend in Tesla's sales
amongst Democratic-leaning counties, which reversed overnight almost from around October 2022.
That was when his acquisition of Twitter, now X, happened,
and he became much more overtly political online.
It always been a bit of a spiky personality, but never really harmed sales.
This partisan effect had been particularly devastating just as the Cybertruck arrived.
Let's bring it back to what we're talking about today,
which faced skepticism already from the truck buyers.
The vehicle became a lightning rod for anti-musk sentiment social media documentation.
At the time, showed Cybertruck spray-painted with things like Nazi cars, again utterly unacceptable.
While protests targeted Tesla showrooms and set fire to whole fleets of Cybertrucks,
it made it really hard for Tesla owners who didn't have those personal beliefs to avoid association.
A problem that owners of more conventional Teslas probably mitigated.
Some of them had those bumper stickers. I still see them around.
I bought this before. Elon went crazy kind of thing.
The competitive implications were severe, though, for the Cybertruck.
The Yale study found that sales of competing vehicles increased in the US up to 22%
over this same time period, translating to a million additional units sold by Tesla's rivals.
This represents a direct transfer of market share from Tesla to its competitors, driven not by
product deficiencies. Nothing wrong with the Tesla vehicles, of course,
but by what Yale called brand contamination. Ouch, it's a vivid phrase, isn't it?
For the Cybertruck, though, which could never get a foothold in the markets,
it suffered much more than the other cars. So let's talk a little bit about recalls.
Actually, no, let's take a break, and I'll have a slurp of coffee,
and I'll come back in a moment. Stick around.
50 dollars every paycheck, or let the app automatically move small amounts of cash
when you can afford it. In a week, you'll forget you set it up.
In a month, you'll see real dollars piling up. In a year, you'll be shocked at how much money
you've saved. Bonus challenge, upload an internet or phone bill and let RocketMoney try to lower it.
You only pay if they find you savings. On average, RocketMoney members can save up to 740 dollars a
year when using all the app's premium features. Users love the app with over 186,000 five-star
ratings. Make saving money the resolution you actually keep. Start the 60-Second Savings
The number one resolution for people last year was to save more money,
but nearly half gave up by February. Don't let that be you. Download rocket money to reach
your financial goals this year. Track your spending, cut waste, and automate savings in
one simple app. Rocket money shows you all your expenses and categorizes them so you know exactly
where your money is going and where you're overspending. From there, the app cuts waste by
canceling your unused subscriptions and lowering your bills. No customer service needed. With that
money freed up, the app will automatically set some cash aside for your goals. Whether it's an
user's love the app with over 186,000 five-star ratings. And on average,
users can save up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Make saving money
a priority this year. Go to rocketmoney.com slash cancel to get started. That's rocketmoney.com slash
cancel. Rocketmoney.com slash cancel. Welcome back to the podcast. So what comes next then?
Can the cyber truck be saved? All right. I've thought of three scenarios. Can you think of
any more? I'd love to know. You can always email me if you want to. Hello at evnewsdaily.com. If you
have suggestions about the podcast, thoughts, comments, or you can go to the Patreon page
and sign up for a free Patreon account. You haven't absolutely haven't got to pay for this podcast.
You never will have to pay for this show. You're very welcome to help me make it by the way
and become a patron. And that would be amazing. But I know everyone's tight for money and things
like that. And so you can sign up for a free account and leave a comment on the show.
Scenario one, the most likely outcome is that Tesla continues the cyber truck at a reduced
volume for the next two years. And then it quietly disappears, probably because of an external reason
being blamed. There's no egg on face. They'll find a reason why they have to stop production would
be maintained at around 20,000 units a year to serve the remaining niche market. This volume
would allow Tesla to claim cyber truck is in production, but minimizes embarrassment.
Eventually Tesla would announce that production has ended to make way for something like are we
need the space to build robots or or the next vehicle, avoiding outright failure. Existing
cyber trucks would become curiosities, their values probably stabilize 20 to 30% of original MSRP,
becoming collectors items. The scenario allows Tesla to preserve their brand.
Scenario two, Tesla could announce a comprehensive cyber truck redesign
that addresses regulations elsewhere. A cyber truck international variant would have body
panels compliant with modern safety standards outside of the US. It would be lighter. It would
be more efficient and more conventional proportions. This would represent an admission that the
original design was a failure, but salvage is the nameplate cyber truck and could become a
commercial success. Development would require two to three years, a few billion investment,
no guarantee of success. Of course, the likelihood of Tesla pursuing this path seems
remote to me given Mr Musk's resistance to admitting mistakes. Scenario three, some sort of
zombie limbo. Tesla carries on making cyber trucks indefinitely, maybe
10,000 a year, treating it like a halo product, bringing new technologies, not to the model S or
X first, but to cyber truck first, bringing attention for innovation to the model. This
approach would be similar to niche sports cars or ultra luxe vehicles that exist for marketing
more than profit. The cyber truck would be positioned as Tesla's flagship for innovation
and distinctiveness, not as a sales driver. This scenario allows Tesla to avoid negative press
of discontinuing it while accepting the vehicles, not a commercial success,
but becomes the home of all their best ideas. Production would continue
in any diminished state for years and fade from public consciousness. There'll be things like
Optimus humanoid robots and other ventures to take up all of the publicity. So what would be
the implications? Well, as you are, the implications even now, like the cyber truck's failure,
represents, I think, Tesla's first big misreading of the market. It's a company that
previously demonstrated extraordinary and exceptional intuition. Tesla's success with
S3 and Y stemmed from correctly identifying a segment, luxury electric sedans, then SUVs or
crossovers, affordable long range EVs executing brilliantly despite skepticism and a lot of people
saying it would never work. And they proved them all wrong. Cyber truck represents the opposite,
a product that nobody wanted, nobody asked for, designed in a way that precludes global sales
and then refusing to adapt when it hasn't worked. The financial toll is substantial,
but Tesla, by the way, has huge financial reserves and it can weather the storm of cyber truck
beyond the costs of the production capacity being wasted, inventory write downs, things like that.
The cyber truck just took up loads of engineering resource and management attention. Imagine if
that had been spent on any other vehicle while Tesla concentrated on indulging design, BYD in
China over the last five years quietly got on with relentlessly improving battery efficiency.
We haven't even talked about Tesla's failed 4680s since battery day, so much optimism around that.
That's also been a big failure, but maybe that's a different bonus show. But China's been driving
down costs relentlessly, painfully, and China's been expanding globally. European manufacturers
have finally got their act together, launching compelling EVs, BMW iX3, 500 plus miles on WLTP,
new Volvo EX60 coming, 505 miles WLTP, and then other Mercedes vehicles, the CLA,
almost 500 miles WLTP, a bit less on US EPA. Tesla's market share eroding everywhere,
particularly severely outside of the US. The cyber truck debacle highlights the risks of the
cult of personality. On one hand, it's driven the company forward, it still supports the stock price,
and many people only have a single worldview around that, and that's actually fine for them.
Supporting a CEO who insists on radical design overruling so many people in the company,
so the stories go, demonstrates the dangers of unchecked executive authority. The lack of any
market research is fine if you have your finger on the pulse. But this was a swing and a miss.
Tesla's historical strength was challenging the orthodoxy in a way that eventually made everyone
go, oh no, they're right. But not this time. The evidence says cyber truck will never go global,
it will never be meaningfully redesigned, it will never be a commercial success.
Is it another Pontiac Aztec or Chrysler PT Cruiser or Honda Element or anything else?
These cars that were discontinued and became just curiosities. The differences that Tesla
invested way more than in those cars in a failure. The arithmetic is brutal. Tesla built
for selling 250,000 of these every single year, over year, over year, and there's no demand.
The vehicle is effectively banned from over here, and it's impractical in China. North America's
sales are now in freefall, depreciation is catastrophic, and the vehicle has become a symbol
of erratic leadership. No amount of marketing can overcome that. The heartbreak for me,
I'll end on a personal note and feel free to disagree. The heartbreak for me
is that Tesla had done what nobody did before, making EVs desirable to the mainstream. This
wasn't a milk float. This was the Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, so good. The cyber truck
was the opposite, and the market delivered its verdict. The question now is not whether
the cyber truck will go global or extinct, but how long Tesla delays the inevitable.
Look, nobody likes amputating a limb, I get it, but if it stops the contagion spreading to the
rest of your body and leading to eventual death, the answer's painfully obvious.
But apparently not to Tesla. Is there anyone in Mr Musk's orbit these days who has the position,
the strength, the confidence, his ear to speak truth to power? History suggests
he'll need to come to that realization all on his own. And that's your podcast for today.
Thanks for listening. I'll catch you on the next bonus show.
About this episode
Exploring the future of Tesla's Cybertruck, this episode delves into its struggles with global compliance, declining sales, and the impact of Elon Musk's polarizing actions on the brand. Notable insights include the extensive modifications attempted by a Swiss workshop to meet European regulations and the stark contrast between Cybertruck sales and competitors like the Ford F-150 Lightning. The discussion highlights the existential challenges facing the Cybertruck, including its design flaws and market misalignment, ultimately questioning whether it can survive in a competitive landscape.
The stainless-steel wedge on wheels has become a symbol of Elon Musk's bravado. The man with the midas touch unveiled his Next Big Thing, and a million fans duly got in line with deposits. At the time, Tesla and it’s showman CEO could do no wrong. They were on a roll. In his own words, if nobody buys the Cybertruck, Tesla will redesign it to be more conventional. But could a redesign keep the looks whilst making it meet the road regs outside of the USA? Fast forward to now. North American sales have now dried up and regulatory barriers block global expansion, the Cybertruck faces an existential question: can it survive beyond its niche, or is this the beginning of the end for Tesla's most polarising product? Welcome back to a bonus edition of the podcast. My name is Martyn Lee and when I have something which requires a deeper look, you’ll sometimes find these bonus shows showing up in your feed. Speaking of which, Patreon supporters get the bonus shows 7 days exclusively before they drop into the free feed.
