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The Tesla Cybertruck has always been controversial due to its jarring appearance and long list of recalls. However, criticism of the Cybertruck has thus far largely been considered a matter of opinion — until now. As sales figures show, the Cybertruck has flopped so badly that outlets like Bloomberg have suggested that it’s the Ford Edsel of the EV era.
If you’re not aware, Edsel was one of Ford’s biggest flops. The automaker claimed the Edsel would sell 200,000 units in its first year, but it struggled to pass the 50,000-unit mark in 1958. Similarly, ahead of the Cybertruck’s 2019 debut, Elon Musk claimed that Tesla had received over 250,000 orders within a few days of its reveal. However, according to a Cox Automotive report, Tesla only sold 38,965 in its first full production year of 2024.
Those sales plunged almost 50% in 2025, with 20,237 units sold — and even those numbers were allegedly inflated by Musk’s SpaceX purchasing 1,279 Cybertrucks. In 2026, data provided to Bloomberg reveals there were only 7,133 new Cybertruck registrations in the United States as of May. Despite the shockingly bad sales, experts told Bloomberg that they don’t see Tesla discontinuing the Cybertruck any time soon, suggesting that the automaker might redesign it or introduce a new variant.
The Tesla Cybertruck was never going to live up to expectations
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The Tesla Cybertruck was always set up to fail, since it could never live up to Elon Musk’s early promises. Firstly, Musk initially boasted a starting price of $39,900 — but it ended up costing $100,000 after a few delays. Similarly, in 2026, Tesla announced a $60,000 all-wheel drive model, but many pre-orders were canceled after Tesla excluded it from Full Self-Driving mode transfers.
Musk also made some pretty lofty claims for the Cybertruck’s range. At the 2019 reveal, he said the base model would get 250-plus miles, with the tri-motor capable of over 500. The Cybertruck gets anywhere between 250 and 300 miles in the real world, well short of the 500-plus mile number.
The Cybertruck has also been plagued by gaffes, like its glass shattering at its 2019 launch event, despite Musk’s claims about the truck’s toughness. Musk has also claimed that the Cybertruck could essentially act as a boat due to how waterproof it is, although the fact that drivers have gotten their Cybertrucks stuck in lakes likely puts paid to Musk’s claim. There have also been much-publicized examples of the Cybertruck failing to live up to Musk’s “built for any planet” slogan, including by getting beached and struggling on the Rubicon Trail.