Tesla Cybertruck appears to be facing significant sales challenges. After initial hype faded, and over a million reservations turned out to be as real as unicorns, Tesla is now enabling leasing options and free upgrades to move its inventory of the futuristic pickup truck. The company’s recent silence on the Cybertruck, even omitting it from their earnings call, speaks volumes about the situation.
Tesla initially projected sales of 500,000 Cybertrucks annually and established production capacity at the Giga Texas for 250,000 units per year. After working through the initial reservation backlog with fewer than 40,000 deliveries, the automaker is now struggling to sell the remaining vehicles.
It’s an Ute (as the Australians et al. call it), like the old El Camino etc.
Real pickups have body-on-frame construction with cabs and beds bolted onto the chassis separately, so that the bed can be removed and replaced with a specialized/custom one if necessary.
Calling it a ute implies some degree of utility.