Portable steel barrel weighing 3 tons: Elon Musk’s resounding explosion turned into a disastrous failure, causing the Tesla empire to plunge

These slips clearly reflect the chaos that is taking place inside Elon Musk’s Tesla empire.

Despite Elon Musk’s bold predictions, there is ample clear evidence that the Cybertruck is a miserable failure.

Tesla has always been deliberately vague about the sales of each specific model, so it has been quite difficult to understand how bad the Cybertruck is performing in the real world.

Based on Tesla’s delivery figures (an indicator that represents sales), released this week: The electric vehicle maker delivered about 384,000 vehicles globally between April and June this year — down 13.5% year-on-year. a record decrease.

Looking at the details, things are even worse.

Tesla did not separately announce sales of the Cybertruck, one of the high-end models that Elon Musk said was inspired by the fictional movie “Blade Runner”. They were divided into only two groups: Model 3 and Model Y combined into one group; the other group is “other models”, almost including Model S, Model X and Cybertruck.

According to the announcement, Tesla delivered about 10,400 vehicles in the “other models” group in the second quarter. This has been a big problem for Tesla, because in the same period last year, it sold more than 21,500 vehicles in this group. A decline of 52% – no more appropriate word than “collapse”.

Among them, how many cars are Cybertrucks, how many are Model S/X? That is not clear.

But look back at the first quarter of this year: Tesla sold about 12,900 “other” vehicles, of which 7,100 were Cybertrucks, according to vehicle registration data from S&P Global Mobility. That is, more than half.

Therefore, it can be estimated that Tesla sold about 5,000 to 6,000 Cybertrucks in the second quarter, if consumer trends do not change. This number may even be lower than Ford’s F-150 Lightning and GM’s electric pickup trucks, which while sales are declining, are not as hyped as Musk’s “brainchild”.

Tesla declined to comment on this.

But even in a hypothetical scenario where all 10,400 vehicles delivered in the second quarter will be Cybertrucks, Tesla is still far behind Elon Musk’s expectations – that by 2025, the company will produce 250,000 Cybertrucks per year.

We’re halfway through the half-year, and Tesla has only achieved a very small fraction of that number.

Not to mention, Cybertruck is facing a series of challenges:

Prices range from $80,000 to $100,000

The possibility of losing tax incentives for electric vehicles

Bizarre design

Multiple recalls, including the fault of the outer steel plate falling off while the vehicle is running

The actual distance is about 200 miles, which is much lower than the original promise of 500 miles

The once promised range extender is now quietly disappearing

Weighing up to 7,000 pounds (about 3 tons), the car became a symbol of the MAGA conservatives and was also the target of many vandalism

Will Cybertruck’s failures cause Tesla to collapse? Probably not. But this slip clearly reflects the chaos that is taking place inside Tesla.

Cybertruck is facing stiff competition from Rivian, Ford and GM. Chinese rivals are eating away at Tesla’s market share in key markets such as Europe and China.

Tesla is also in danger of losing its position as the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer (by annual sales) to China’s BYD. This week, BYD – although not allowed to enter the US market – announced 1 million electric vehicles sold in the first half of this year, far behind Tesla’s total sales of about 721,000 vehicles so far.

On Wall Street, investors loyal to Tesla still have absolute faith in Elon Musk, whom they consider a prophet, and more importantly – a talented performer who helped them become rich.

Tesla shares have fallen about 17% this year, but are up nearly 300% in the past 5 years. Supporters to the end, Musk’s leaning towards MAGA and damaging the core car business may not be a problem, because they believe that Tesla’s future lies in a driverless, AI-powered world.

And it is Musk’s promises that have driven the stock price to skyrocket – and with it an increase in his personal wealth.

However, those promises often don’t come true. And Cybertruck is just the latest example.

Source: CNN