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Tesla winds down Cybertruck production after years of poor sales in few markets

85 points PLenz 1 hour ago 64 comments

Kevin_Flynn 1 hour ago | parent

Im curious about the timing of this announcement.

On the surface, it seems to take the wind out of their sails.

They told us the cybertruck was awesome.

They told us flying cars soon.

Now we see the fate of the first promise.

I would have delayed this announcement for as long as possible after the flying car show from a PR perspective.

Which makes me think this announcement is throwing a bone to the financial bean counters ahead of the potential merger with SpaceX.

Cleaning the companies books of fat before the big game.

lotsofpulp 1 hour ago | parent

This isn’t news to anyone following the business. I’m pretty sure it was announced months ago that model X and Cybertruck (and maybe Model S too) were being discontinued.

And Model 3 and Y have always been 95%+ of the cars Tesla delivered.

momento 56 minutes ago | parent

It was also mentioned in the Roadster presentation that the Roadster would be the only nonautonomous car produced by Tesla long-term.

DonHopkins 16 minutes ago | parent

Not everyone may have seen Robby Roadster's famous presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/31x-4YJUBNE

throw8393030 28 minutes ago | parent

They also told us zero emission cars would solve climate crisis. It is worse then ever, and electric cars are just used to push far righ extremism, chinese propaganda and dependency on russia!

flohofwoe 10 minutes ago | parent

Oh man... if you want to start a professional career as internet troll you have a really long road ahead of you.

khalic 21 minutes ago | parent

*flying car shaped air tank and thrusters

netsharc 1 hour ago | parent

... in order to free up production capacity for the Cybercab.

Hah, feels like when someone says they're going to stop dating the unemployed slob to focus on dating the alcoholic.

A taxi with only 2 doors, what an improvement!

Aboutplants 38 minutes ago | parent

A people mover that moves the minimum of people (2)

rdtsc 16 minutes ago | parent

> A people mover that moves the minimum of people (2)

You meant maximum? Though minimum would be fun, too: taxi won’t start unless you agree to socialize and chat with a random stranger. As soon as silence is detected it pulls over and the ride ends.

masklinn 5 minutes ago | parent

Minimum to qualify as "people" rather than "person".

yourusername 19 minutes ago | parent

Without a steering wheel which guarantees it won't be road legal in most countries anytime soon.

wffurr 17 minutes ago | parent

The Zeekr with sliding doors that Waymo is using seems like a way better concept for a robotaxi. Still fits in a standard parking space but can carry a group at need without being terribly inefficient for a single person.

DavCreator 59 minutes ago | parent

Original announcement by Elon: https://xnotme.com/elonmusk/status/2118591788701421573#m

j16sdiz 41 minutes ago | parent

Not worth clicking.

No added information, with a thread full of ad hominem attacks

magicalhippo 43 minutes ago | parent

I mean as much as I love thd idea of actually doing something bonkers, the lack of sales seemed inevitable to most I assume, so that should come as no surprise. Should have stayed a concept car.

dmix 21 minutes ago | parent

Like most things it came down to price most of all. Cars are way too expensive in North America.

haspok 31 minutes ago | parent

"Oh, no! Anyway..."

akmarinov 30 minutes ago | parent

Yeah the Roadster is never getting mass produced …

Also i wonder whether in 5-7 years Model 3 and Y will be around

rootusrootus 4 minutes ago | parent

Isn’t the Model Y consistently leading the sales charts? I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon. The Model 3 is also selling reasonably well.

ajmarsh 29 minutes ago | parent

Oh, what could have been. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tesla-electric-pickup-truck-...

bilsbie 29 minutes ago | parent

I really thought it would have had a lot of potential for cheaper manufacturing. No paint process is huge. And originally they were talking about basically building it like origami from a sheet of steel.

baggachipz 27 minutes ago | parent

That original process was what should have led to lower prices. Instead, they couldn't do it and had to resort to gluing steel panels onto a body-on-frame design which is much more expensive. They still managed to keep it just as hideous, so kudos there I guess.

api 21 minutes ago | parent

The original wasn't what shipped. From what I read the cheaper easier process wasn't, which isn't unusual.

It's also an ugly-ass car. If it had turned out to be super-reliable and cheap and "hackable" that would make up for it, even earn its strange look a cult following, but no it just ended up as an overpriced weird ugly-ass car.

itintheory 3 minutes ago | parent

https://www.xkcd.com/37/

spiderfarmer 20 minutes ago | parent

Elon promised a lot but delivered almost nothing when it comes to the Cybertruck.

brookst 5 minutes ago | parent

A “truck” that’s can’t haul, tow, or offroad is a very interesting product decision. Right up there with a two-person taxi.

It’s like they completely forgot the “what do people need” phase of product management.

jbombadil 17 minutes ago | parent

Same. Initially I was optimistic about the Cybertruck because I though “flat metal panels and no paint is going to make both manufacturing and repairs so much easier and cheaper”.

bluGill 4 minutes ago | parent

Paint has been well studied. We know how to do it really cheap and automated these days. Cheap is relative. I'm sure that we're talking tens of millions of dollars to get all the equipment needed. But on a scale of factory and for how long it will last, that's cheap.

Flat metal is more expensive than curved metal. Curved metal, you design the curves to help support the stress points: you can get by with thinner sheets. Flat metal requires thicker heavier more expensive sheets of sheet metal in order to be strong enough.

Curved metal also lets you design the whole thing to be more aerodynamic. which is an important consideration even with something as un-aerodynamic as a truck.

sandworm101 3 minutes ago | parent

There were no flat panels. That was a sales pitch. In reality, a slight curve to a panel adds so much strength that it can be made considerably lighter/cheaper than a flat panel of sufficient strength. Flat panels also tend to dent inwards very easily, which is not a good look for a car.

I had a jeep wrangler once. The window was "flat" but not if you looked at its reflection. There was a slight complex curve for strength.

InsidiousWombat 3 minutes ago | parent

how you repair steel panel and also make it look nice ?

...you don't. You replace it in whole. You can't use filler to mask small dents and paint over it, if you want it to look as before, you have to pretty much replace it.

beAbU 17 minutes ago | parent

Speaking out of my ass here, but I would not be surprised if it's much cheaper to paint cheap stamped steel, compared to using more expensive stainless steel that's treated to remove all surface marring/scarring from the stamping process. Those panels don't come out all brushed from the metal presses...

jacquesm 12 minutes ago | parent

Stainless steel if far harder to work than regular steel. There is no way that process was cheaper.

PLenz 16 minutes ago | parent

In that way the Slate pickup seems to be the truck Cybertruck promised to be

InsidiousWombat 4 minutes ago | parent

Painted piece of plastic gonna be cheaper than sheet of stainless steel. Stainless is significantly more expensive than typical materials used on car, which would be normal steel or plastic depending on panel.

Also painting IN THE FACTORY isn't expensive. Re-painting the part on repair is because of all of the prep work required (take apart, clean, color match etc).

Might be break-even, but I doubt it would be cheaper

"It will be cheaper" is a perspective of ignorant "smart guy" that thinks because he got successful in one thing that they can weight in on industry processes they have no idea about

2OEH8eoCRo0 29 minutes ago | parent

My five year old nephew will be devastated.

wffurr 18 minutes ago | parent

My kid loves these things too and I have to keep the eye-rolling to myself.

12993877 26 minutes ago | parent

Musk needs a car now that will appear to Democrats again. The Cybertruck was for redneck voters and prompted by Tucker Carlson after its release.

He only wants government subsidies. He'll make a tiny Rainbow city car for 2028 and the Democrats will take him back. Mark my words.

Ericson2314 14 minutes ago | parent

Democrats will not take him back, but he will try.

lapcat 13 minutes ago | parent

> Mark my words.

user: 12993877

created: 14 minutes ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=12993877

mihaaly 10 minutes ago | parent

A Cybertruck for a redneck sounds like barbecue barrel in the middle of the Trump penthouse in New York. Out of place.

singularity2001 21 minutes ago | parent

but electric trucks are very successful in China. Why not in the rest of the market?

wffurr 19 minutes ago | parent

The Slate and Fathom are going to sell like hotcakes in the US.

hn_submit 15 minutes ago | parent

Everything that's cheap will sell like hotcakes, but that doesn't mean the companies selling them will make much profit from them.

willismichael 8 minutes ago | parent

There is more than one definition of "very successful". Maximizing shareholder value isn't everything.

brookst 3 minutes ago | parent

High volume, low margin is a completely legit strategy.

doikor 12 minutes ago | parent

Because cybertruck is a bad truck.

InsidiousWombat 2 minutes ago | parent

bad truck suggests it's bad at being truck not just... at everything related to transport

throwaway473825 7 minutes ago | parent

Cybertruck is only available in countries that don't want EVs.

ubermonkey 2 minutes ago | parent

This isn't about the idea of electric trucks.

This is specifically about the Tesla Cybertruck, which has been shown to be fairly shoddy in construction AND is tied to a very, very divisive figure.

hn_submit 17 minutes ago | parent

Musk was a fool to mistake the hollering of a small group of enthusiasts for that of the truck-buying U.S. population. Nobody was actually wanting for the CyberTruck. He should've listened to his marketing people and not be guided by social media and his right-wing instinct.

Then again, he's a con-man who's now quietly distancing himself from CyberTruck ("I had nothing to do with it") and moving on to the next con-trick: the CyberCab.

Insanity 13 minutes ago | parent

That would have been antithetical to his existence.

timacles 11 minutes ago | parent

I’m sure we can trust a sharp business man like Musk to learn from his mistakes and come up with better ideas

Btw have you seen the roadster??

kibwen 15 minutes ago | parent

For posterity, the HN thread of the Cybertruck's announcement from 2019 (1765 points, 1943 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21602437

wittjeff 12 minutes ago | parent

As a small-business utility vehicle designed specifically to be wrapped in advertising, I thought it was brilliant. For other uses, eh.

nalekberov 9 minutes ago | parent

This ugly piece of shit doesn't belong on the roads.

gorpy7 8 minutes ago | parent

ok ok, i get the message- never try anything new, never follow your passion! you all took the easy bet and now you’re gloating. look at all the comments and ask if you’re adding to the conversation? recognize that your subjective tastes are not universal. recognize that, like one decent commentator mentioned, no paint is genuinely good in many regards. recognize the cybercab is probably already good enough and is rapidly getting better. some minor panels were glued on the cybertruck while while most were not- be fair. let me repeat, be fair!

silverFork 2 minutes ago | parent

They are not selling in USA. Chinese are buying the Chinese made ones..

https://evwire.com/etrucks/market-share