Tesla has finally found a use case for its hard-to-sell Cybertruck: it’s now carrying around mobile billboards for the new Model Y.
I once argued that ‘Tesla Cybertruck is a mistake turned marketing tool‘, but that was more than a year ago – before we knew it was a total commercial flop with sales reaching about one-fifth of the production capacity.
The argument is that Tesla’s focus on the vehicle is creating this gap in the company’s growth. Still, Tesla is using it as a marketing tool, bringing the Cybertruck to stores in countries where it’s not even selling the vehicle.
Tesla is basically using the Cybertruck to bring eyes and try to sell its other vehicles.
Now, it’s doing that quite directly by having the Cybertruck carry mobile billboards of its vehicles around.
People have been spotting a Cybertruck carrying a mobile advertisement for the new Model Y, which consists of an actual Model Y in a glass trailer. Here’s the ad spotted in Temple, Texas:
We previously saw this contraception over a year ago, but it looked like Tesla had given up on the project as it was not spotted again until this weekend.
Tesla appears to have used this mobile billboard as part of an owner-organized Cybertruck convoy, which is not a bad idea when you have about 2,400 Cybertrucks in inventory. Put them to work.
Lately, we noted that Tesla appears to be ramping up its marketing efforts, including with some ‘edgy’ social media postings.
The increased marketing effort comes amid Tesla being in a brand crisis brought to the company by its CEO’s political meddling, which has angered a significant part of its market.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla does appear to be ramping up its marketing efforts in the last few weeks in response to lower sales this year.
Interestingly, it doesn’t look like the automaker is returning to more traditional advertising, which it only started to do in 2023 and then briefly in 2024.
That said, it doesn’t look like Tesla is panicking just yet – even with the brand new Model Y already available for same-day deliveries in many parts of the US.
Tesla investors should start worrying if Tesla starts offering 0% financing on the new Model Y this month in the US, which is already the case in China and wouldn’t surprise me if it comes to America in the coming weeks.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
