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4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I mean....imagine this:

1) You are the world's richest man.  You can pretty much have any woman/women you want.  You can have 10 at the same time.  There are no limits.

2) But your fucking dick is broken.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!  I fucking LOVE this for Elon. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

But, The Sun Also Rises.

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7 minutes ago, Born to Run said:

But, The Sun Also Rises.

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Fabulous.  Love that book.

Isn't it pretty to think so?

  • Popular Post

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2025/04/03/elons-edsel-tesla-cybertruck-is-the-auto-industrys-biggest-flop-in-decades/

Elon’s Edsel: Tesla Cybertruck Is The Auto Industry’s Biggest Flop In Decades

Spoiler

Decades

Elon Musk’s polygonal pickup is a polarizing sales flop that's missed the billionaire’s volume goal by a staggering 84%. And there’s no sign that things are improving.

Alan Ohnsman

The list of famous auto industry flops is long and storied, topped by stinkers like Ford’s Edsel and exploding Pinto and General Motors’s unsightly Pontiac Aztek crossover SUV. Even John Delorean’s sleek, stainless steel DMC-12, iconic from its role in the “Back To The Future” films, was a sales dud that drove the company to bankruptcy.

Elon Musk’s pet project, the dumpster-driving Tesla Cybertruck, now tops that list.

After a little over a year at market, sales of the 6,600-pound vehicle, priced from $82,000, are laughably below what Musk predicted. Its lousy reputation for quality–with eight recalls in the past 13 months, the latest for body panels that fall off–and polarizing look made it a punchline for comedians. Unlike past auto flops that just looked ridiculous or sold badly, Musk’s truck is also a focal point for global Tesla protests spurred by the billionaire’s job-slashing DOGE role and MAGA politics.

“It’s right up there with Edsel,” said Eric Noble, president of consultancy CARLAB and a professor at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California (Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen, who styled Cybertruck for Musk, is a graduate of its famed transportation design program). “It’s a huge swing and a huge miss.”

“I do zero market research whatsoever.” 

Judged solely on sales, Musk’s Cybertruck is actually doing a lot worse than Edsel, a name that’s become synonymous with a disastrous product misfire. Ford hoped to sell 200,000 Edsels a year when it hit the market in 1958, but managed just 63,000. Sales plunged in 1959 and the brand was dumped in 1960. Musk predicted that Cybertruck might see 250,000 annual sales. Tesla sold just under 40,000 in 2024, its first full year. There’s no sign that volume is rising this year, with sales trending lower in January and February, according to Cox Automotive.

And Tesla’s overall sales are plummeting this year, with deliveries tumbling 13% in the first quarter to 337,000 units, well below consensus expectations of 408,000. The company did not break out Cybertruck sales, which is lumped in with the Model S and Model X, its priciest segment. But it’s clear Cybertruck sales were hurt this quarter by the need to make recall-related fixes, Ben Kallo, an equity analyst for Baird, said in a research note. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The quarterly slowdown underscores the fact that when it comes to the Cybertruck, results are nowhere near the billionaire entrepreneur’s carnival barker claims.

“Demand is off the charts,” he crowed during a results call in November 2023, just before the first units started shipping to customers. “We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car.”

In anticipation of high sales, Tesla even modified its Austin Gigafactory so it could produce up to 250,000 Cybertrucks a year, capacity investments that aren’t likely to be recouped.

“They didn't just say they wanted to sell a lot. They capacitized to sell a lot,” said industry researcher Glenn Mercer, who leads Cleveland-based advisory firm GM Automotive. But the assumption of massive demand has proven foolhardy. And it failed to account for self-inflicted wounds that further stymied sales. Turns out the elephantine Cybertruck is either too large or non-compliant with some countries’ pedestrian safety rules, so there’s little opportunity to boost sales with exports.

“They haven’t sold a lot and it’s unlikely in this case that overseas markets can save them, even China that’s been huge for Tesla cars,” Mercer said. “It’s really just for this market.”

A Cybertruck drives by protesters at the Tesla Showroom in Somerset, Massachusetts.

UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

More than a decade before Cybertruck went into production, Musk hinted that Tesla would eventually do some kind of electric pickup. When he unveiled his design to the world for the first time, Musk was clear that he did not want a conventional aesthetic or even something that played with pickup looks a bit but was still familiar, the approach Rivian took with its R1T pickup.

“Pickup trucks have been the same for 100 years,” and Cybertruck “doesn’t look like anything else,” said Musk, who earlier that month had proudly told an audience at a conference for space entrepreneurs, “I do zero market research whatsoever.”

That would be an apt tagline for Musk’s preposterous pickup. “The spectacular failure of Cybertruck was a failure of empathy,” said CARLAB’s Noble, whose company helps carmakers develop products based on consumer research. “Everything from the bed configuration to the cab configuration to its performance and all sorts of pickup truck duty-cycle issues, it’s just not empathetic to a pickup truck buyer.”

Cybertruck’s distinctive look resulted from two key forces, said a person familiar with the development process, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. One was Musk’s passion for sci-fi designs. The other was an early decision to create a vehicle that didn’t need to be painted.

If Tesla opted not to paint the trucks, it wouldn’t need to install a new $200 million paintshop, a big potential cost savings. And it wouldn’t have to worry about EPA scrutiny from the harmful emissions and runoff those facilities often produce.

“They drooled over not spending $200 million on a paint shop, but probably spent that much trying to get the stainless steel to work.” 

Ultimately, Musk opted for a stainless steel exterior, the same choice Delorean made for his ill-fated sports car four decades earlier. But because Musk isn’t a production engineer, he may not have fully appreciated the challenges it presents versus aluminum or composite materials, the person said. Aside from the fact that stainless steel shows handprints–a common gripe about kitchen appliances–it’s hard to bend and likes to snap back to its original shape, one of the reasons there have been problems with Cybertruck body panels.

“This is where I think they misconstrued the tradeoff,” Mercer said. “They drooled over not spending $200 million on a paint shop, but probably spent that much trying to get the stainless steel to work.”

Developing Cybertruck, including tooling expenses to make it in Austin, probably cost Tesla about $900 million, he estimated. And unlike the company’s other vehicles, like the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover, it doesn’t appear that the Cybertruck shares any development and production costs with other Tesla products.

“Does it have a demonstrated technology that could be used elsewhere by the company? That is not the case,” Mercer said. “Can the manufacturing plant make all this other stuff based on investments for Cybertruck? No, it can’t. An unpainted stainless steel vehicle just doesn’t have that much broad traction.”

There were bad omens from the start. At the vehicle’s unveiling in November 2019to raucous Tesla fans in Los Angeles, a demonstration of Cybertruck’s supposedly shatter-proof “armor” glass by Musk and von Holzhausen went hilariously awry when a steel ball hurled at the vehicle busted the driver-side window twice.

“Oh my fucking God,” a chagrined Musksaid. “We’ll fix it in post.”

Then there was the price. Musk had promised that a base version of the vehicle with 250 miles of range would start at $39,900. He was off by about half.

Currently, the base version of the truck, ostensibly priced from $72,490, costs $82,235 before a $7,500 federal tax credit that President Trump has vowed to eliminate. It claims up to 325 miles of range–if you don’t tow anything or drive too fast. The top-end “Cyberbeast” version is $105,735 and too pricey for the credit.

Though Tesla isn’t making the entry-level version Musk promised in 2019, plunging resale values have made used Cybertrucks quite a bit more affordable, according to auto news site Jalopnik. You can get a lightly used one for less than $70,000, assuming you’re comfortable with the implied risk of vandalism. And prices could go lower still, exacerbated by about $200 million of unsold inventory the company is sitting on, Tesla fansite Electrek said this week.

In the end, Musk cursed the Cybertruck by ignoring the reasons people buy pickup trucks — to haul things around and drive well in offroad conditions. The vehicle isn’t competent at either of those things, as has been endlessly documented in scathing reviews, a steady stream of “Cybertruck fail” videos and a 280,000-member “CyberStuck” Subreddit. Adding to the embarrassment is a developing sub-genre of videos showing stymied Cybertrucks being towed to safety by Ford F-150s or GM Silverados.

“If there's anything the Detroit Three know how to do, it's full-size pickup trucks with extremely loyal buyers,” Mercer said. “He launched Cybertruck into the teeth of the hardest segment to crack.”

 

In terms of both Zuck and Musk, I don't see what they get here. Given the tariffs, the EU might as well go directly after these guys. They might have gone for cover, but I don't see them getting it now.

 

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1 minute ago, Captain Ron said:

 

Oh, no! How will they possibly pay their bills this month? I’m not sure someone losing $110 billion in net worth and still being worth $322 billion is deserving of a victory lap. Rather, it’s an indictment of our country becoming an oligarchy.

11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Tesla is down almost $30, about %9 and it's only 11am Eastern time.

Cracking Up Lol GIF

Let them eat cybercake

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

image.png.c60aea4c5bfc3bbe5aa4938004ade245.png

 

They made a birthday cake for the guy who designed the Cybertruck?

2 hours ago, Gap03 said:

shame.gif

The EU wants to join Grimes in the "Pegging Elon with an oversized, veiny black dildo called the Black Mamba" club

2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

They made a birthday cake for the guy who designed the Cybertruck?

ding-ding-here-comes-the-shit-mobile-v0-

Ding Ding! Here comes the shit-mobile. I've never seen a fire truck that needed to be shaved. I would rather be burned to death than be saved by this hairy piece of shit.

 

45 minutes ago, royiv said:

Oh, no! How will they possibly pay their bills this month? I’m not sure someone losing $110 billion in net worth and still being worth $322 billion is deserving of a victory lap. Rather, it’s an indictment of our country becoming an oligarchy.

Yeah they’re not even close to spreewell broke. 

51 minutes ago, royiv said:

Oh, no! How will they possibly pay their bills this month? I’m not sure someone losing $110 billion in net worth and still being worth $322 billion is deserving of a victory lap. Rather, it’s an indictment of our country becoming an oligarchy.

It's almost like we should get over our fascination with net worth...

YARN | It's all a fugazi It's fairy dust, it doesn't exist ...

33 minutes ago, Deej said:

SIAP

Screenshot_20250404_103716_Instagram.jpg

Gonna be hard for this to not be the meme of the day.

53 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

It's almost like we should get over our fascination with net worth...

YARN | It's all a fugazi It's fairy dust, it doesn't exist ...

Except they can take out loans against that net worth and convert it into REAL wealth and capital that exerts inflationary pressure on the economy, all tax-free of course.

It's literally how elon financed his twitter buyout at $54.20

Edited by Captainant

4 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Except they can take out loans agains that net worth and convert it into REAL wealth and capital that exerts inflationary pressure on the economy, all tax-free of course.

I'd be pretty shocked if this was happening nearly as much with today's interest rates.  It's an unsustainable strategy long-term for lenders.  Musk's lenders are going to take it in the shorts eventually, which should start to dampen some of this activity.  That said, I'd support legislation to curtail the practice because of the tax-dodging nature of the behavior.

Even with the manipulation of the system, billionaires still only able to access a fraction of their net worth.  Musk is a HUGE outlier in the amount of pledged shares he has borrowed against.  He's fucking around, and I hope he finds out.

Just now, Guadaloopy said:

He's fucking around, and I hope he finds out.

He won't.  He is protected by the regime.  That's a hallmark of fascism: the favored enterprises are always protected by the regime.

Remember when conservatives used to yell that the government "shouldn't pick winners and losers?"  Yeah.....every accusation is a confession, exhibit number infinity.

Elon will be fine.  He is backed, literally, by the full faith and credit of the US government.

18 hours ago, HenryJames said:

n the end, Musk cursed the Cybertruck by ignoring the reasons people buy pickup trucks — to haul things around and drive well in offroad conditions.

 

Bullshit. 90% of the F150s sold in this country never haul anything that wouldn't fit in the back of a subaru and never go off pavement. 

 

1 hour ago, Guadaloopy said:

It's almost like we should get over our fascination with net worth...

YARN | It's all a fugazi It's fairy dust, it doesn't exist ...

 

Animated GIF

 

It's not a fascination, it's a focus. It's because we understand the issues that come from people the amassing of such wealth, especially in the current post Citizen's United world.

Someone in mid-Michigan did a custom cybertruck 2.0 mockup, I have seen photos of it on Reddit around  town. Looks like a pretty sweet ride

 

RDT_20250404_2221509060412837197411128.jpg

FYI, I’ve seen several Fox News commentators laterally refer to videos of various acts of vandalism as “vicious and violent attacks”. It’s a fucking car.

ETA: I’m specifically referring to vandalism of unoccupied vehicles.

12 minutes ago, scottsins said:

FYI, I’ve seen several Fox News commentators laterally refer to videos of various acts of vandalism as “vicious and violent attacks”. It’s a fucking car.

ETA: I’m specifically referring to vandalism of unoccupied vehicles.

Well, it's not like a cop choked a black guy to death.

1 hour ago, scottsins said:

FYI, I’ve seen several Fox News commentators laterally refer to videos of various acts of vandalism as “vicious and violent attacks”. It’s a fucking car.

ETA: I’m specifically referring to vandalism of unoccupied vehicles.

ryan reynolds hd GIF

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Because I wanted to see the freak show at fox Business trying to explain away this economic enshittening.

Can I walk out of the theater?  This Red Dawn reboot sucks.

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