- Used Tesla Cybertrucks spend more than twice as many days on dealer lots before they find a buyer compared to a few months ago.
- This could indicate that demand for the polarizing-looking Cybertruck is falling almost exactly a year after deliveries kicked off.
The Tesla Cybertruck was America’s best-selling electric pickup in the second quarter of 2024, the third-best-selling EV in the country in Q3, and the best-selling vehicle costing over $100,000 in the first half of the year. However, after starting the year strong, interest in the radical-looking stainless steel electric truck appears to be waning.
Cybertruck assembly line workers were told to stay home for three days at the start of December, hinting that there may be a demand problem. Reuters is now highlighting data that shows used Cybertrucks are taking far longer than expected to sell than earlier in the year, up to 75 days compared to 27 days in May, which should mean there’s a much higher chance that you can negotiate the price down and get a good deal on a used Cybertruck.
This is a strong sign of weakening demand and, according to Kevin Roberts, director of economic and market intelligence at CarGurus, “The number of days they’re sitting is getting longer and the price is coming down, and I can tell you the sales volume has come down.”
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The Cybertruck almost matched the combined sales of all other electric trucks on the market (Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV) in July when it sold 5,546 units. However, analysts at the time argued that it may have simply been a case of Tesla filling a backlog of older orders, which wasn’t indicative of the vehicle’s actual demand.
Reservation holders are also taking delivery of their Cybertrucks ahead of schedule, and even those who reserved a non-Foundation Series (FS) truck have started receiving emails to finalize their vehicle’s configuration as their vehicle will soon start to be assembled. This while dozens of Founders Series Cybertrucks are waiting unsold in inventories across the country, and there are even reports that some of them are having the FS script buffed out and sold as regular models.
The cheapest used Cybertruck I could find on Cars.com was a Cyberbeast sold through CarMax that had covered just under 13,000 miles and was selling for $85,000. There were plenty of dual- and tri-motor Cybertrucks with very low mileage selling for under $90,000.
CarGurus says the average price of a Cybertruck is $106,845, which marks a 3.19% decrease over the last 30 days and almost 10% in the last 90 days. The lowest-priced used Cybertruck listed here is a dual-motor with 17,400 miles that has been wrapped in black and already has two previous owners, which costs $82,995.
The Cybertruck doesn’t address what you might call “typical truck buyers” in the U.S., who tend to be more conservative. If such a buyer were looking to go electric, they would likely pick something more conventional, like an F-150 Lightning or a Silverado EV, over the Cybertruck with its polarizing design.
It may be that after the initial hype and excitement following the start of deliveries in November 2023 has died down, the pool of people willing to spend $100,000 on a novelty showoff EV may have also been exhausted. Not that the Cybertruck isn’t an accomplished and capable vehicle, because it is. It may not be taken seriously because of how it looks or, more recently, because of company boss Elon Musk’s full-on support of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his key role in getting the former president reelected.
While most Cybertruck owners say they really enjoy the vehicle, some were also dissatisfied with the build quality of the truck, which suffered multiple issues, including a dangerous flaw with the accelerator pedal and pieces of exterior trim coming loose and flying off at speed.
We liked the Cybertruck when we tested it, and we think it was a ballsy move by Tesla to make it as unique and innovative as it is, even though it wasn’t quite the revolution we were hoping for. We nominated it as a potential Breakthrough EV Of The Year in our 2024 Breakthrough Awards, but it didn’t win. As cool as it is, it just doesn’t do enough to spur EV adoption, especially considering that the highly anticipated cheap version probably isn’t happening.