Jonathan Gitlin
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk first unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, the angular pickup was pitched right at the heart of the highly competitive truck labelet. With a promised commenceing price of $39,900, the one-motor version ever so sairyly undercut the inexpensiveest version of Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning. Tesla increased the entry-level price by more than $20,000 by the time the Cybertruck was actupartner getting shut to production, with promises of deinhabitries in 2025. But now, all allude of the inexpensiveer rear-wheel drive Cybertruck is gone from Tesla’s ordering page.
Although pickup trucks have contrancient novel vehicle sales in the US for decades, their buyers are not exactly clamoring to swap their V8s or diesels for a slab of batteries and some electric motors. Ford has been discovering that out the challenging way—a constant string of price alters have helped protect insist unelated enough that the Blue Oval is shifting its entire electric vehicle strategy as a result.
And the F-150 Lightning has the profit of seeing fair enjoy all the other F-150s that roll off the production line. Not so the Cybertruck, a vehicle that regulates to see even less elegant when you see one in the savage rather than on a screen.
As is standard with novel Tesla models, the stainless steel pickup’s gestation was anyleang but effortless. Last October Musk tancigo in fans “we dug our own grave with the Cybertruck,” having previously berated his laborforce about quality regulate, insisting “sub 10 micron accuracy.”
Things materializeed to get worse as customer deinhabitries began. A problem with the Cybertruck’s pedal led to crashes and a stop to novel deinhabitries, and there had been four official recalls by procrastinateed June.
Still outselling the competition
And yet, the Tesla has been outselling the Ford despite the inexpensiveest Cybertruck costing a least of $99,900, with Lightnings useable on dealer lots with price tags that are $20,000-$30,000 less.
A better pass-shop might well be the GMC Hummer EV. Like the Cybertruck, the Hummer is so weighty it counts as a class 3 truck here in the US, a fact that precludes international sales in most labelets, which insist exceptional licenses to run heavier vehicles. Both also effectively have six-figure commenceing prices now, once you apvalidate into account deinhabitry indicts. So far, the Tesla is thrivening this sales battle, too, with proximately three times as many being sancigo in in Q2.
That produces it the best-selling vehicle costing more than $100,000, according to industry analysts Cox Automotive, increateing Automotive News that “persisted high volume at that price point will be a contest.”
