Tesla’s stock has slid steadily this year, hurt by declining sales and widespread protests over CEO Elon Musk’s leadership of President Trump’s DOGE initiative, which is making haphazard staffing and budget cuts to federal agencies. The electric vehicle maker’s sharp-edged Cybertruck is also sliding, posting sharply lower sales in the year’s first quarter.
The Austin-based company delivered just 6,406 Cybertrucks this year through March, according to Cox Automotive. That’s more than double its volume in the year-earlier period, when it was slowly starting to make the hard-to-build model. But the quarterly figure was less than half of what it sold in either the third or fourth quarter of 2024–14,416 and 12,991 units, respectively–as its production ramped up.
Musk had previously forecast that annual sales of the electric pickup might average 250,000 a year, though it delivered only about 39,000 last year. A combination of multiple recalls–including one last month to fix stainless steel body panels that fell off due to faulty glue–and the likelihood of sharply higher costs for steel, aluminum and imported auto parts due to Trump’s tariffs, suggest Tesla will struggle to boost sales of a model that can sell for about $100,000. Weak demand has also led to an inventory of about 2,400 unsold new Cybertrucks, according to auto news site Jalopnik.
The model, which is shaping up to rank among the auto industry’s all-time biggest flops, can’t easily reverse its slump as its appeal is limited, said Alexander Edwards, whose research firm Strategic Vision, surveys thousands of consumers weekly for automotive industry clients.
“The Cybertruck has captured the hearts of those who prioritized innovation more than those who use a truck for personal or professional adventure,” Edwards told Forbes. “These innovators more often have identified themselves as Democrats and progressives and are no longer willing to go on a road-trip with Musk.”
Tesla, which posted a 5% drop in global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter, doesn’t disclose sales of individual models or performance by market. Cox, a leading auto industry data source, determined that Tesla’s U.S. sales fell 8.6% in the U.S. in the first quarter–even as overall electric vehicle sales rose 11%.
The outlook for the overall auto market is dimming as a result of Trump’s tariffs and the resulting inflation that’s expected to add thousands of dollars to new vehicle prices. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs slashed its estimate for U.S. auto sales by about 1 million units to 15.4 million from 16.25 million previously.
One bragging right Cybertruck claimed last year was that it topped Ford’s F-150 Lightning to rank as the best-selling electric pickup in the U.S. But it fell behind Ford’s battery-powered model in the first quarter, which saw sales of more than 7,187 units, according to Cox. That trend could continue as the year goes on.
“It will be a difficult road for Tesla’s Cybertruck to sell more electric trucks than the Ford F-150 Lightning as Musk has alienated his core base, not just from his politics, but the combative way he has worked with agencies the Trump administration has little love for,” Edwards said.
Tesla shares dropped 9% to $247.94 in afternoon Nasdaq trading. They’re down about 40% this year.
