Cybertruck may be entering automotive history as the most expensive failed model ever.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
Sales of new vehicles in June fell 4.2% year-over-year, to 1.25 million vehicles, after the best March (1.59 million) since 2021, a strong April (1.46 million), and a middling May (1.46 million). But June had only 24 selling days, compared to 26 in June 2024.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales, which accounts for the number of selling days, was up year-over-year by 2.3%, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis today. But month-to-month, the sales rate fell for the third month in a row. At 15.3 million new vehicles, it was way down from March (17.8 million) and from April (17.3 million). Those two months had been powered by a very good tax-refund season – they make great down-payments – and by some folks’ efforts to front-run any tariffs. Those two factors had pulled sales forward. Both of these factors subsided in May and June.
And the rate of sales being up year-over-year by 2.3% in June is at least in part due to the CDK hack which had dragged down sales in June 2024 as the 15,000 dealers on CDK’s cloud-based dealership management system could no longer access it to do even the most basic things, such as processing their deals. With more normal sales in June 2024, there might not have been a year-over-year gain at all. Note the spikes in March and April.
Quarterly sales, not seasonally adjusted. In quarterly terms – which is how GM and many other automakers report auto sales – new vehicle sales rose 3.0% year-over-year, to 4.18 million vehicles, the best performance for Q2 since 2021, despite the middling June:
Stellantis, Nissan & Tesla drag down Q2 sales.
Among the 8 big automakers here, 5 booked strong year-over-year sales gains in Q2. GM’s EV sales doubled, which put it in the #2 spot. The other 3 automakers booked steep sales declines.
#1 General Motors, Q2 sales: +7.3% year-over-year, 746,588 vehicles, all brands combined.
EV Sales soared by 100% year-over-year, and by 30% quarter-over-quarter to 41,312 EVs. GM, which now has a full lineup of EV models, became the second-largest EV seller in the US behind Tesla.
EVs do not include hybrids and plug-in hybrids (they’re vehicles with an internal combustion engine and are therefore ICE vehicles).
#2 Toyota, Q2 sales: +7.2% year-over-year, 666,470 vehicles, Toyota and Lexus brands combined.
After having pooh-poohed EVs for years, Toyota now has only one EV on the market, the bZ4X which it jointly developed with Subaru, and which it sells in small numbers (3,639 in Q2). But it is now investing large amounts in creating EV platforms and models.
#3 Ford, Q2 sales: +14.2% year-over-year, to 612,095 vehicles, Ford and Lincoln brands combined.
EV sales plunged 31% year-over-year to 16,438. Years ago, Ford had made a series of massively bad decisions, including: One, aiming for the high end when it came out with the Mach-E and Lightning, and so its costs are too high in those vehicles, but it cannot sell them at formerly envisioned fantasy prices, and so it’s losing a lot of money on them; and two, building the Mach-E in Mexico (13% US-content) and putting overwhelming foreign content into its USA-assembled Lightning (only 29% US content), which exposes these vehicles to tariffs a lot more than its competitors’ vehicles. So Ford is backpaddling on its EV strategy for now until it can get its ducks lined up in a row, which may be never, the way it’s going.
#4 Hyundai-Kia Q2 sales: +7.6% year-over-year, to 453,387 vehicles, a record second quarter. Hyundai’s sales +9.8% year-over-year; Kia +5.2% year-over-year.
#5 Honda Q2 sales: +8.7% year-over-year, to 387,574 vehicles, Honda and Accura brands combined.
Honda still doesn’t make EVs, but is working on them. It is selling EVs made by GM based on the Chevy Blazer, and sells them as the Honda Prologue and the Acura ZDX. Combined sales jumped by 280% year-over-year in June, but it has dialed back its deal with GM because the vehicles are made in Mexico (by GM) and the cost structure of the deal is too high for Honda.
#6 Stellantis Q2 sales: -10% year-over-year, all brands combined, to 309,976. The death spiral continues. Jeep and Ram have possibly caught themselves, but the rest is in free-fall. Total sales are down by over 40% from the peak in 2015.
- Jeep sales: +1% to 148,832
- Ram pickup truck sales: +5% to 110,616
- Chrysler sales: -42%, to just 23,175 (only selling minivans).
- Dodge sales: -48% to 25,747
- Fiat and Alfa Romeo sales are near-nothing and combined are down close to 50% year-over-year.
#7 Nissan Q2 sales: -6.5% year-over-year, to 221,441 vehicles, Nissan and Infiniti combined. Total sales are down roughly 40% from the peak in 2017.
Tesla only discloses global sales, not US sales. In Q2, Tesla’s global sales plunged by 13.5% year-over-year, a slight downward acceleration from the Q1 drop of 13.0% (red line).
Model 3 and Model Y sales combined dropped by 11.5% year-over-year, an improvement over the Q1 drop of 12.4%, to 373,728 vehicles (blue line).
But the stunning thing is the plunge in sales of “Other Models,” which are the Cybertruck and the Models X and S. Sales plunged by 51.8% year-over-year, and they dropped even on a quarter-to-quarter basis, to just 10,394 vehicles (green line).
In Q2 2023, before the Cybertruck was produced and when “Other Models” were just the Models X and S, Tesla sold nearly twice as many Other Models as it did in Q2 2025 when they included the Cybertruck. This is a really bad sign that indicates that the Cybertruck may be entering automotive history as the most expensive failed model ever.
Here is a close-up of the Cybertruck debacle.
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So will Dodge be discounting in the future, or will they live with ongoing market share losses? Stellantis has little debt and some financial flexibility.
Stellantis will be closing their doors and leaving the business in the very near future, except perhaps for Fiat (Fix It Again Tony) in Europe.
🤣🤣🤣 – yeah, it is “going away”… that is why the SRT division is coming back (per news from today)…
It increasingly looks like the North American brands are but a headache for the European Stellantis leadership. It’s no secret that the whole parts bin is open for the North American division in order to resurrect Chrysler and keep Dodge alive, but apart from the measly Dodge Hornet not much was achieved over the past 5 years.
Even the integration of the French Peugeot and Italian Fiat parties seems to be a massive undertaking that will drag well into the 2030s, but doing anything to improve their image in the US on the short- to mid-term is completely beyond reach.
For now they’ll carry on – a 10% drop in sales is bad, but manageable with current unit prices. However if a bigger economic turnaround hits they’ll just likely offload the NA market to a separate company or sell the brands & assets to someone interested.
Mind you: Mercedes-Benz already tried with Chrysler and failed, so they are possibly out.
VAG has no money.
Volvo and the Chinese wouldn’t get the green light.
BMW might give it a try in partnership with some investment funds. Their US presence is kind of a success story so far with Spartanburg.
Reviving the v8 and SRT is a prime example of poor financial decisions by Stellantis. Who wants a truck standard with twin turbos? Toyota is paying the price the same way with their trucks. Likewise, RAM had made 10k orders within a 24 hour period. Maybe I’m biased, but it’s nice to see someone openly say *we messed up*.
BMW has no interest in anything over at Stellantis. BMW’s vehicles from the Mini up through BMW Rolls-Royce cover the entire gamut of vehicles in the marketplace with the best lineup in the industry.
So true. BMW sells “the ultimate driving machine.” No matter how much marketing and advertising, no one will ever believe Chrysler, Peugeot, or Fiat fit that description.
They are far from covering the entire gamut. They also make the Active Tourer MPV for example, but they can’t sell it in the US as it wouldn’t match their local image due to this “ultimate driving machine” marketing bullshit they’ve locked into. They could possibly introduce their MPV as a badge-engineered Chrysler minivan along with a few cheaper models also not present on the NA market.
In the UK and Australia BMW is one of the biggest players in the fleet market. They sell loads of emergency vehicles and police cars – a segment in which they are not allowed to compete in the US as a foreign manufacturer. A brand like Dodge would open new opportunities for them in diversifying away from risky private customers.
But there’s also TATA, Magna and maybe even Tesla itself that could turn up as potential buyers. Musk could use a proper pickup & commercial vehicle brand after his failure with the Cybertruck. Though an established car manufacturer seems a far more likely option to take over Stellantis’s North American division.
In the US, BMWs are marketed as luxury and near-luxury vehicles with a sports/performance factor. In Germany, there are low-end versions of the BMWs that are mass-market cars and are used for taxis and commercial fleets, etc., same as Mercedes. Base versions of the Mercedes have for many decades been used as a taxi vehicle. But doing that in the US would destroy their luxury cachet.
Footnote: see GM’s tinkering with the Cadillac brand late 20th-early 21st century…
may we all find a better day.
Musk has managed to piss off liberal and conservative buyers in a matter of a few months. I doubt liberals will ever embrace Musk or his vehicles again. As a stock holder, I am on the cusp of dumping my Tesla stock, as his continued antics of waging war against President Trump and threatening to start a third party make him toxic. Despite all this, I will not go out and vandalize anyone’s Tesla.
If both liberals and conservatives are pissed at Musk, he’s doing something right.
That said, I think anyone who buys or doesn’t buy a car based on its CEO who owns 13% of the outstanding stock is an idiot.
That’s the dumbest take I’ve ever heard. People can protest and spend their money however they want, in fact I wish more people would spend their money based on their moral compass..
I would be happy if one used their moral compass to control their behavior. Examples: be kind, help others, stop hedonistic activities.
I would suggest that people buy or lease cars based on their engineering and quality of those cars as their sole criteria.
Where did I say that people should be prohibited from protesting and spending their money how they want?
Oh no, your poor Tesla continues the decline.
“Your”??? Whose your?? I own neither the stock nor the car.
I assume he means JoeFio. Tesla still seems to trade like a meme stock as you have mentioned before. Cult behavior takes a lot of runs thru the laundry to wash out of the brain unfortunately.
I’m confused by “selling days”
Every car lot I near me is open 7 days a week
Move to a different state?
Even in states where dealers are allowed to operate on Sundays, many don’t. Same with holidays.
DM: Go woke, go broke! Jaguar sales have crashed 97.5% since rebrand that stunned fans
Sales of the luxury motoring manufacturer appear to be in freefall following its controversial move to scrap its iconic ‘growler’ big cat logo in November.
I told you before: stop reading DM. It pollutes your brain.
“Jaguar’s Massive 97% Sales Collapse Is Actually Very Misleading”
Jaguar sales dropped over 97 percent in Europe after production was halted. Despite the sharp decline, this outcome was planned as part of the company’s rebrand.
….most local Jaguar dealers [in Europe] have fewer than 10 new cars available for sale, and some don’t have any at all. This slowdown has contributed to a dramatic 97.5 percent drop in Jaguar’s sales across Europe.
At first glance, that figure seems catastrophic, and it’s already fueled headlines pointing to a collapse linked to Jaguar’s high-stakes rebrand and its pivot toward electric vehicles. But those interpretations miss a crucial piece of context. Jaguar intentionally stopped producing cars at the end of 2024, a move that stretched into early 2025 in some regions, as part of a planned transition to becoming an EV-only brand.…
https://www.carscoops.com/2025/07/jaguars-massive-97-sales-collapse-is-actually-very-misleading/
The question is, is selling cars at a loss or not selling any at all more expensive?
I wonder if Jaguar is intentionally starving its dealers to move to a direct sales model after the rebrand.
And as extensive the rebrand is, there are major doubts the company will survive. We know how dificult it can be to bring a new model to market for an established OEM. But if Jaguar can’t pull it off in a timley manner they might not be able to sell anything for 2, 3 or even 5 years. At a certain point the company is dead.
…Harley-Davidson pulled it off with production restriction in the ’80’s-’90’s company sale/rebuild. Can Jag do it with a different motive power base vehicle/customer identity with the brand? Interesting times, indeed…(…and when will we see more EV’s at the 24hrs events like LeMans and Daytona?).
may we all find a better day.
In 1983 HD also got tariff protection from Japanese bikes over 700 cc. The tariffs were at 49.5 % declining over 5 years.
Jaguar to Bud Light: “Hold my beer …”
‘ This is a really bad sign that indicates that the Cybertruck may be entering automotive history as the most expensive failed model ever.’
I am going to disagree here: No it is good that it will fail. It is ridiculous.
This is what happens when you let someone with Asperger’s Syndrome design an automobile. No human insight. No consumer research. There is a reason why Elon is fascinated with robots, AI, automation, Mars… it doesn’t involve human interaction. I own two Teslas, and like them, but many of the recent “improvements” that have been made to the vehicles have been made contrary to consumer feedback (removing steering wheel stalks, replacing round steering wheels, etc). It’s almost as if Elon thinks that robots buy his products.
Greg – you’ve hit upon the major inflection point of our times. (How many, more than ever, appear to be embracing their inner-cyborg? (…the constant-grappling with one’s Humanity, and all of its faults, becoming less-appealing than with the latest, ‘streamlined’, OS?)…
may we all find a better day.
To counter… Apple have been making lots of money telling consumers what they want for the last 2 decades.
Some of these things may represent progress, e.g., are 360degrees needed for a steering wheel that is no longer physically connected to what the wheels do. Also, with various forms of self-driving being implemented across the industry, one can argue that screen real estate is the new king. No idea if Tesla’s implementation is the right one, but some experimentation is surely warranted.
Apple stole the mp3 player from zen labs (paid millions in fines) that led to the ipod. Android phones were in development before apple (which is why apple couldn’t stop them) but apple got iphone out first. They certainly didn’t invent the modern laptop. The goggles were a bust. I agree that they seem to have this reputation for innovation and telling people what they need. I’m just curious as to what truly unique thing they’ve put out since the original Mac.
Never understood the term ‘cyber’ associated with an ugly stainless steel truck. A better name would be the “ Deplorean.”
In my area, I see more Rivians than Cybertrucks. That said, sightings of either are rare. For traditionalists, Rivians are more appealing.
I test drove a Chevy Equinox EV in December. Fantastic car for the price. But with the Trump administration taking over, I had no confidence the country would make the investments needed to have a capable charging infrastructure. So I bought a Honda Civic Sport EREV instead. A great little car that gets 50 MPG in eco mode, flies in sport mode, and has enough room for my golf clubs and a six-pack. I could easily stick a girl friend in there too if I were younger and better looking.
Try it anyway. Believe in yourself.
An important fact to keep in mind is that from 1978 to 2025 the US population increased 56%, so per capita vehicle sales have been down greatly over the last 50 years. Car manufacturers have been forced to grow revenue solely with price increases while unit sales have stalled.
And car reliability improvements over that same period means people can own them longer. I wonder if there’s a nice chart for average number of years cars are held over time.
Absolutely. The average ownership of a car in the US (when bought new) reached an all-time high in 2023 at 12.5 years. This is almost double what it was in 1980, when it was 6.6 years. Most of us remember the days when it was rare to own a car with 100K miles. Today I own a 13 year old car with 170,000 miles and it continues to run great without a spot of rust.
I’m not surprised sales of the X and S were poor. I know a lot of people who have Teslas. The consensus among my circle of acquaintances, even among people who have lots of disposable income, is that the X and S are not worth the 2.5x they cost over the Y and 3, respectively.
I own a Model X that I bought new this year for $78,960 – with upgraded paint and interior. Not sure who you’re talking who’s telling you that they cost 2.5 times as much as a Model Y. I just checked, and to get all all-wheel drive Model Y with the same paint would set me back $48,600.
Wolf!! Do you think the interest rate tax write off for American made cars in BB bill will help US manufacturing? Also what do you think on the entire capital investment write off on American factories in the BB bill?
I don’t like them but I can live with them.
Re: “ Cybertruck may be entering automotive history as the most expensive failed model ever”
I think the failure, in the bigger picture is the toxic witches brew of mixing unorthodox behavior with cutting-edge experimentation, then expecting that cult followers will wear blinders and worship excess blundering.
The Cybertruck is part of the tangled up mess of a larger puzzle — where each new piece reveals greater chaos — which diminishes cult status stability.
If anything, the Cybertruck is an excellent study in cult cycle evolution — reminiscent of a wide spectrum of cultural and social anomalies — from Jim Jones Kool-aid gulping, to current authoritarian overreach.
The Cybertruck is an epic example of living in a silo and not paying attention to reality — we’re definitely seeing that in Cybertruck sales, as well as in public polling results with the budget bill:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
I was on the CT pre-order list. I ended up cancelling but only because the Truck didnt meet its price point (80k for the high end) or original specs for range (500 miles). If the truck fails it will be because the 4680 battery has yet to deliver on it’s promises and they haven’t figured out how to build the thing without it being too heavy and the price is simply too high.
Going forward, Tesla is finding it cant compete with China in batteries. They will need to figure out how to get Chinese battery tech over or under whatever tariff wall ends up being permanent.
Or it maybe that Musk simply gives up on Tesla and sells his share to focus on Starlink, SpaceX and X. I could see Musk building an entire financial stack on X with a StableCoin issuance and lots of fintech apps built around that – payments, lending etc.
Who would he sell his shares to? The car company is probably worth $10 a share. Heck I’ll double it for you. 20. But he doesn’t have a controlling interest, so he’d have to pair up with someone else? Who wants to sell so low? Who would want to buy something worth 20 at 300? Without him in the picture making promises he’ll never keep, the meme goes away.
Those cyber trucks are goofy. Have they stopped production? Seems like whatever has already been produced will probably satisfy the few people who want to own one for any length of time as they pass them around. Resale in five years might be 20% of the new price, at best.
What ever happened to the one million plus pre-orders with deposits for the CT?
We asked for our money back when the vehicle did not do what they said it was going to do. It cost more, did not have the promised 500 mile range, and had a stripped down interior.
Those pre-orders vanished the minute the real stats on the cyberturd were reported. The overpriced and underwhelming reality set in for most people.
For a few months now the rumor mill has it that VW will bring out a 2026 Karmann Ghia EV that has 800 volt architecture, 400 hp and a zero-to-100 kph of 4.2 seconds.
The “images” of it I’ve seen look modern-retro, and it has that classic Pininfarina style.
I hope VW makes it. But I still would like to drive a small and lightweight sports car from Lucid that’s made in the USA. And, much quicker than 4.2 seconds, please.
That Karmann Ghia would be a significant improvement over their 1971 model which featured a 4 banger with 46 horsepower!
I can’t wait until Tesla is forced to write off some or all of that ridiculous Cybertruck investment. It’s such a massive letdown from the original pitch. The suspension, the range, the body panels, the towing ability, the price…Such a whiff.
How will they downplay it in the earnings report, or spin it as a positive? Going to be at least a little entertaining.
That new GMC EV truck is beautiful. Still just a little out of my price range.
Somewhere out on the AI horizon, someone is creating the equivalent of an AI- Cybertruck — a massively hyped up efficiency fantasy, slapping together the culmination of all of humanities output — that literally crashes and burns, because it’s really just a poorly executed, ridiculous monstrosity. A collective effort of greed that implodes on itself.
Just anecdotal….this June was the worst month since covid at our MB store.
I hear ya! Our factory’s Q2 orders were the lowest in 15 years, with June being the worst of the three months. Sales out the door were solid (shipping what was ordered months ago), but bookings were abysmal, so the backlog is now nearly empty as of next week. We are hearing the same from everyone we deal with right now – Customers, peers, competitors, and suppliers. Most are desperate for work.
We begin operating the plant on 32-hour weeks starting next week, and we know it’s still not enough to limit the bleeding. Hoping it’s temporary before we really start slashing head count.
If I remember right, you’re selling to heavy-truck manufacturers or after-market equipment makers for heavy trucks (I might have this completely wrong)? Class-8 orders took a dive, but not just in June. Trucking, which is very cyclical, has been on a downward trend for a while. That always happens after a big surge, like they had.
But that’s a completely different industry than a Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Idontneedmuch
How were March and April? The best since Adam and Eve? That would confirm tariff frontrunning. And now the hangover.
Not MB Louisville I hope. Had a great transaction there last December. 5* all around. Good luck wherever you are. Chances are that I manage your EWT program (which is booming nationally). my g wagen is a pure joy. Before it driving was a chore, now I’m the one volunteering for trips to (insert consumer gathering place here)
Any data on EV role in Hyundai – Kia sales? Their platform is popular in my neck of the woods (Northeast).
Yes, they’re doing pretty well. But they don’t separate out their EV sales. So I have to go by model, add up all their EV models, but some models are available as EV and as ICE vehicle, so I cannot get the exact figure anyway, and it’s too much work.
Even with the epic failure of the Cybertruck and the cloud over Musk, for years — and the chaos in the last 9 months +/- —- it’s truly mindblowing that Tesla shares are not that far behind gold cult performance.
It seems every asset under the sun has Pegasus wing, flying higher and higher towards the dark side of the moon.
I just read that Tesla has the least amount of institutional holders and largest percent of retail holders, within the mag7 — but it’s very curious how a failed major project produces higher share value. Seems like a relationship between habitual chronic Kool-aid consumption and blindness — but apparently the magnetic allure of cult behavior is a very deep bottomless pit, where reality never sees light.
Unrelated, earnings better be great from the S&P stocks, or the 30 P/E is really going to look stupid.
Feels like with EV rebates cut that inventory will keep piling up and costs will keep coming down. That obviously applies to cars where rebates would apply, which not being in the market for one, I have never tried to fully comprehend.
How are any costs going to ‘keep coming down?’
Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ PASSES despite Republican rebels… here are the crucial tax cuts YOU need to know
Congress has passed President Donald Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ a landmark piece of tax cuts and spending legislation containing many of the Republican’s campaign promises. Dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the $3.3 trillion measure took an all-encompassing, multi-year effort from Republicans in Congress to pass. After passing the House after hours of high-pressure negotiations with hold-out members, it will now head to the White House for Trump’s signature.
The crafty bit: the cuts to Medicaid etc don’t cut in until AFTER the midterms. Most people don’t follow news. They won’t notice until the change hits them.
Musk did at least perform a public service with the Cybertruck.
Few people under 50 know what an Edsel was so younger generations need a replacement term and perhaps Musk has provided it.
(I don’t put the DeLorean in the same class because DMC was not an established auto manufacturer with other successful products. Also probably most people associate the DeLorean with a prop in “Back to the Future” rather than with a vehicle that a business tried to sell, with a straight face, to public.)
I have one car made in this century; a 2002 BMW 525I that cost me exactly $900. I won’t make that mistake again. My four other cars will likely last me for the rest of my life.
I have had lots of E39s. The one I am driving now was traded in 8 years ago by the original owner. I paid $1500 for it. It’s now got over 200k miles. One of the best BMWs I’ve ever owned. If you have a basic set of tools and access to YouTube they are very easy and inexpensive to maintain. These cars are built to last if properly maintained. I can’t find a car that I like better that makes financial sense to buy.
I’m going to buy a whole fleet of cyber trucks and start a door dash type service for pick-up of home garbage – 24 hours per day. Dumpsters on Wheels. 🛞
The Cybertruck is/was an exercise in idiocracy!
$100K for a “truck” that looks like a dumpster.
A thing that’s marketed as a truck but is more like a Top Fuel Dragster – very impractical as a pickup truck. Low range. Excessive power. No efficiency whatsoever. Computers issues very common. It should have been called the Cyber Boondoggle. It was destined to fail.
My Alfa is still giving me miles of smiles but I’ll be sad when they discontinue it.