Tesla is considering building a smaller pickup truck after the Cybertruck failed

Tesla is considering building a smaller pickup truck after the Cybertruck has officially become a complete commercial flop.

When first unveiling the Cybertruck and its polarizing design, CEO Elon Musk did mention that if the controversial truck proves unsuccessful, Tesla would build a different, less polarizing one. He even suggested that Tesla already had a plan B ready to go.

The Cybertruck is now officially unsuccessful.

Tesla planned for a production of 250,000 units per year, and Musk said that it could ramp up to 500,000 units a year.

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Yet, the automaker is currently selling the Cybertruck at a rate of about 20,000 units per year. It’s a commercial flop.

The vehicle program is selling at approximately 10% of the installed production capacity.

Despite the failure, Tesla has not yet greenlit a replacement, but Tesla VP of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, recently discussed the potential of Tesla making a “smaller pickup”:

“We always talked about making a smaller pickup. I think in the future, as more and more of the robotaxi comes into the world, we look at those options and we think about, OK, that kind of service is useful not just for people, but also for goods. [..] We’ve definitely been churning in the design studio about what we might do to serve that need for sure.”

It’s unclear whether Moravy is explicitly referring to a smaller Cybertruck or a smaller pickup designed for cargo.

One thing is clear from the executive comment: Tesla’s priority is “robotaxi”.

Electrek’s Take

This autonomy thing is truly ruining Tesla. They are putting everything through the lens of autonomy, even this comment about making a smaller pickup truck includes “as more of the robotaxi comes into the world”.

The result is that in the last 5 years, Tesla has released a single new vehicle: the Cybertruck.

Tesla should have launched five new vehicle programs during that time, but instead, it focused only on autonomy and failed to deliver it. By now, Tesla should have two cheaper vehicle programs, a real full-size third-row SUV, the next-generation Roadster, and a minivan.

Now, Tesla finds itself having given up its lead in electric vehicles for a fake lead in autonomy, which won’t deliver real value for likely another 5 years, while competition from Waymo, Baidu, and others is pulling ahead.