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Once upon a time, there was enormous hype around the Tesla Cybertruck reservation list. Supposedly, it went beyond 1 million reservations.
I said repeatedly that you couldn’t trust those numbers, for a couple of big reasons. For one, reservations only required a $100 refundable deposit. That just wasn’t much money to put down, and you could get it back easily and quickly. To get better insight into who might actually buy the Cybertruck, I think it should have been a $1000 deposit rather than a $100 deposit.
Secondly, it was communicated at the time that if you put down a configuration with the Full Self Driving (FSD) package, when it came time to order, you could get FSD for the price it was when you put down the reservation — so, if the price went from, say, $8,000 to $30,000 by the time you could order your truck, you’d still just pay $8,000 for it. Many people put in numerous reservations on the chance that Tesla would crack the robotaxi nut by then and you could get robotaxi-capable FSD at a steal. I did that, and I know many others did as well. News alert: Tesla has not cracked the robotaxi nut. I’ve canceled all of those reservations except one, and I’m sure I’ll cancel that last one soon, too.
Aside from people canceling because Tesla hasn’t achieved its robotaxi aims, a big disappointment — one might say a bigger disappointment — is that Tesla didn’t come close to achieving its price targets for the Cybertruck or, even more so, its price per mile of range. The Cybertruck ended up costing a lot more than Elon Musk forecast in his initial presentation about it, and that was also with much less range than forecast. The resulting $/mile of range is a shambles compared to what was on the screen the night the Cybertruck was first shown.
Anyway, the point is that Tesla’s million+ reservation list seems to be gone. You can order a Cybertruck today, without a reservation, and you get an estimated delivery date of this month or next. The reservation list, as far as we can tell, has been cleared right through.
Not only that, but you can also now order the Cybertruck in Mexico and Canada.
Oh, by the way, many people thought I was being too negative when I was saying that the reservation list for the Cybertruck was highly inflated and shouldn’t be used as a measure for consumer demand. Now, Tesla has sold just around 30,000 Cybertrucks and the reservation list appears to be wiped out. I don’t want to say “I told you so….” Oh, wait, I’m fine saying that!
On a final note as it comes to the Cybertruck, Musk had previously acknowledged that Tesla would have to redesign the Cybertruck a bit to have dimensions more fitting for Europe, but there are reportedly other challenges in Europe as well. “Tesla Cybertruck is getting some pushback in Europe as several safety campaigners are attempting to have the vehicle banned from the continent due to safety concerns related to the pickup’s design,” Teslarati reports. “Groups like the European Transport Safety Council and the European Cyclists’ Foundation are pushing for the Cybertruck’s accessibility to public streets to be suspended. One country where this is especially being pushed is the Czech Republic because a buyer in the country has been able to get the vehicle registered after making several design changes to alleviate safety concerns. The owner made some of the changes by adding rubber slats to the sharpest points of the Cybertruck.”
A letter from these groups contends that the sharp edges can “exacerbate injury severity and death rates” and are an “illegal risk to all other road users.”
Aside from the dangerously sharp edges, it also turns out the Cybertruck is heavier than seems to be legal for a light-duty vehicle in Europe.
We’ll see what happens in Europe, but I have a feeling that, if initial Cybertruck demand is already winding down in North America, Europe is not going to provide a huge boost to Cybertruck sales. It’s a much less fitting vehicle for the Old Continent. We shall see.
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