A Tesla Cybertruck faces the SpaceX Starship as it sits on a launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, … [+] Texas, on October 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. The test will involve the return of Starship’s Super Heavy Booster to the launch site. (Photo by Sergio FLORES / AFP) (Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)
Is the Cybertruck chic or shoddy? Recall-ridden or indestructible? A spat, trending this past week, ignited by Ross Gerber CEO/President of Gerber Kawasaki investment firm, raises the stakes. Here’s what he said (FSD refers to Full Self Driving, Tesla’s advanced driver assist technology):
There are many reasons why Cybertruck isn’t selling well. Starting with the ceo. Then the price. Then it only appeals to current tesla owners. FSD on it doesn’t work. It’s doesn’t fit in garages. Low range. Regular pickup drivers don’t see any utility. It didn’t expand teslas market to new owners. Resale values will plummet. LEASE a tesla for sure. $tsla (I drive a cybertruck)
This was quickly followed by pushback on X.
But is the Cybertruck really that bad?
In an email, I asked Gerber, who drives a Cybertruck, about the comments and he qualified the above, saying: “I like my cybertruck. I’m not unhappy with it. It just has issues that should have been addressed before launch.” This gets to the heart of Tesla’s approach to vehicle manufacturing and rolling out new vehicles, which embraces a Silicon Valley ethos. New features and vehicles are released to consumers sometimes before they are fully perfected, mirroring the tech industry’s practice of “ship and iterate” and Tesla’s focus on vehicle automation and software.
Recalls and ridicule — but kids love it
Fueling broader criticism of the Cybertruck is a string of recalls. To date, the Cybertruck has had 6 recalls despite being out only about a year. Those recalls include the accelerator pedal (possibly dislodging), loose trim, and, most recently, the drive inverter, the latter a fault that could cause the inverter to stop producing torque, leading to a loss of propulsion.
To those who are disposed to hate Tesla already because of Musk’s politics, the recalls have become an ever expanding attack surface. But, ironically, most of the extreme vitriol comes from non-owners, who love taking pot shots at the Cybertruck but have no first-hand experience with the vehicle. “People hate Musk so I get it,” said Gerber but he added that, “But zero percent of kids hate it.” (I can second that. A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a big, burly GMC Hummer EV charging at a Tesla Supercharger station when a group of kids walked over from a nearby shopping center to gawk at two Cybertrucks that were flanking me. To my surprise — and disappointment — they didn’t even look at the Hummer.)
The latest: magnet mayhem (and get Musk)
There’s a cottage industry of blogs that will jump on almost anything negative that’s trending on Tesla forums. And the Cybertruck is a favorite punching bag. Posts are often replete with the obligatory (and stale) ad hominem attacks on Musk. Yes, Musk opens himself to attack with problematic tweets but implacable Tesla critics misplace their vitriol, projecting personal opinion of Musk onto Tesla products. A good example of this is anecdotal reports of magnets that can cause corrosion (accompanied by digs at Musk’s world views). This has triggered a new round of ridicule about rusty Cybertrucks with some posts going so far to show an obviously fake photo of a Cybertruck covered in rust (which is actually a wrap).
Design, as always, polarizing
Always lurking in the background of the love/hate polarity is the Cybertruck design. “The vehicle is in at least one way the opposite of the Toyota Camry,” said Tom Libby, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “While the Camry has been described as bland and having a style no one would really dislike…[the Cybertruck is] such an ‘in your face’ style that it is understandable that viewers would quickly move in one direction or the other,” Libby said.
X: the big counterweight, rise of Tesla influencers
The small army of Cybertruck boosters on social media (including the most preeminent of influencers) have been gaining followers and rising in prominence along with the ascendency of Tesla CEO Elon Musk as X’s owner and advisor to President-elect Trump. Posts from the leading Tesla influencers have been focusing on the Cybertruck of late but also on new accessories/software and whatever Musk is pushing — and lately that’s Full Self Driving, Cybercab, and vehicle autonomy. Needless to say, social media posts from this crowd are overwhelmingly positive and serves as a counterweight to the beating that Tesla often takes in blogs and traditional media.
Sticky reality: Cybertruck is selling
Though things could change in future quarters, the current reality is the CT was the third bestselling EV in the U.S. in the third quarter, according to numbers released by Cox Automotive, which owns Kelley Blue Book — outpacing everything but the Tesla Model Y and Model 3. That’s a stat that Tesla detractors usually ignore. The other hard reality is that the vast majority of prospective CT buyers don’t pay attention to fringe media invective but make very practical buying decisions rooted in dollars and cents.
