The Tesla Cybertruck is now open for orders to anyone – even if you were one of its millions of bookers.
Tesla revealed the Cybertruck for the first time in 2019, and the unusual car attracted a lot of interest – as measured by the number of reservations the car received.
At the time, Tesla was taking refundable deposits of $100 to reserve a spot in the order line for the truck when it came out, which had a promised release date of late 2021 and a starting price of $39,900.
Most people decided to throw a few bucks into the pot, and Cybertruck managed to do over 250k pre-orders in less than a week, later reaching a potential peak of 2 million according to crowdsourced data.
But when the truck hit the road, things didn't go as planned. The car came out late and over budget, also missing some of the features that were originally promised. The first available “Foundation Series” models started at $100k – a far cry from the promised $40k entry level.
But despite that, it's still selling relatively well, becoming the best-selling electric van in the US and the third best-selling EV with the highest transaction price, bringing in a good chunk of change for the company.
And recently, Tesla started taking orders for the “cheap” model starting “just” at $79,990, which should open it up to more sales.
So with sales going strong and a new low price point, the controversial truck seems to be off to a good start… or is it?
We've seen reports that Tesla has been working through the Cybertruck backlog very quickly, with Foundation series models available quickly with short lead times. That's part of why the $80k trim came about.
But even if that lower price point only became available two weeks ago, it's already available for immediate delivery, and there's no need to reserve for 5 years.
Today, Tesla changed its “Design your Cybertruck” page to allow anyone to customize the car and order it now. The site now says “Order Now,” where a few weeks ago reservation owners were waiting for invitations to be able to fix their cars. Availability is listed as October-November – so, basically, a month or less if you order today.
Accompanying this change is the end of the Foundation Series, the first limited edition, which is no longer available as of today.
Electrek's Take
Tesla's fast ramp for the Cybertruck has been great. It sells cars of the same price that have been on the market for years and are booming. This shows that Tesla remains at the top of the EV market (thanks for that actually taking EVs seriouslynot other car makers).
But the fact that the 2-strong booking list has been processed so quickly is worrying.
While we don't know the exact numbers, Tesla has sold something on the order of 30,000 Cybertrucks so far. And if the company had 2 million bookings, that means it converted 1.5% of that into sales.
There are indeed many reasons for this, and perhaps chief among them is the change in prices. The Cybertruck currently costs twice as much as promised, which will turn off many potential buyers.
The F-150 Lightning saw the same where the base model was originally promised at $40,000 but that price never saw the light of day. That in turn turned off many buyers, and sales of the Lightning have not been as strong as expected since then.
And the Lightning could be another reason for the Cybertruck's lack of conversion – at the time it was announced, it had to beat other electric pickups on the market. It ended up coming out after a few other models, so there are now more traditional options available for buyers to choose from.
But there's another reason I think we can be a part of it: the spotlight that's been falling on Tesla lately, coupled with the CEO's increasingly strange behavior. This has turned many customers off their vehicles, and this effect is most evident with the Cybertruck.
While the Model 3 and Y are conventional vehicles that appear to be “regular,” the Cybertruck is clearly a “statement vehicle.” That statement is very tied to the person of the CEO who pushed such a car, let's say, a “landmark” car in the market – and therefore, when the behavior of the CEO is strange, many customers may not want to be associated with that statement.
At least, I don't think it helps – and the 1.5% conversion rate shows that a certain part The strategy was not a huge commercial success.
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