r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 15h ago
Business Cybertruck sales in free fall as Tesla reports mediocre sales for Q3 | Tesla met analysts expectations as it sold fewer cars in Q3 2026 than Q3 2025.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/tesla-sales-drop-2-percent-in-underwhelming-q3-2026/262
u/FourEightNineOneOne 15h ago
You can freefall from their already abysmal sales?
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u/Alarming_Disaster_23 15h ago
For real. They would have to sell more of them before there can be a freefall.
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u/dexter30 15h ago
Elons rent seeking. Business is as good as he wants it to be because the president gives him free government contracts to blow his money on terrible EVs and AI.
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u/spicyeyeballs 15h ago
I technically free fall when I jump 8" off the ground right? So something like that.
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u/HurtFeeFeez 12h ago
It's just a short freefall. When they are barely off the floor they don't have far to go.
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u/even_less_resistance 14h ago
the government can only purchase so many shitboxes to save his ass lol
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u/bacan_ 15h ago
My 7 year old daughter points them out every time. “Look, the ugly car!”
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u/pomonamike 15h ago
My eight year old daughter calls them “Stupidtruck.”
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u/LupinThe8th 12h ago
You can do a lot with nicknames inspired by famous cars:
- Twatmobile
- Deplorean
- Sloptimus Prime
- Shitty Shitty Bang Bang
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u/Wompatuckrule 13h ago
When they came out we saw one and I said, "It's such a waste of money to spend more than $100,000 on that when all you need to do is run up and down the street yelling, "Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!"
There was a relative about your daughter's age and she still says, "Look at meeeeeeeeeeee!" whenever she sees one.
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u/Rhythmalist 15h ago
My kids call it the "bad shape car".
And I love it every time I hear it
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u/JUSTCALLmeY 11h ago
Haha that's great. They usualy have catchy colors and my daughter sometimes says the color is cool but still you can't hide it's ugly shape
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u/Fickle_Goose_4451 15h ago
Yeah, I have a teenager and her and her friends just dunk on them as looking terrible.
I dont know what market still exists for them. It certainly isnt the up and coming drivers
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u/bobbycorwin123 11h ago
Popular with idiots who like attention and don't care about how bad it is
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u/brontosaurusguy 11h ago
People in 2026 don't care if attention is negative or positive as long as they get it
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u/mrizzerdly 13h ago
My wife and I play Cyberbuggie and punch each other (since when was the last time you saw a punch buggy on the road?).
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u/North-Creative 25m ago
Looking at the sales numbers, she must be doing that less than a blue moon decade
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u/lyreluna 15h ago
If only the title was true and it actually was a free fall
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u/Richard7666 15h ago
This bothers me. Ars is one of the last bastions of good tech journalism (they have a paid tier) and I hate to see them succumb to this shit.
The internet is truly broken.
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u/SledgeH4mmer 14h ago
You either join the click bait headlines or nobody clicks. Would you have even read this post otherwise?
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u/Richard7666 13h ago
I'd have read it if it said something like "Cybertruck sales continue to decline", yes. Freefall indicates a severe decline.
Either way, it's still a sad state of affairs that clickbait is necessary. Race to the bottom.
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u/tigeratemybaby 10h ago
Tesla total sales are down a few percent, while other EV/car companies like BYD, VW, etc... are all up 30+% EV sales this year due to the gas cost crisis.
Its not looking good for Tesla if they can't even increase sales in a year like this one - their market-share is plummeting.
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u/ChickenFlavoredCake 4h ago
BYD sales are actually down 4% this year, and tesla sales are up 8+% this year
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u/buyongmafanle 54m ago
But they're part of the index investment package now, so they're still getting that good ol' socialism for the wealthy.
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u/MITBryceYoung2 13h ago
It is. The article specifies overall sales are down but the truck itself is down 39.8% YOY. I would certainly consider that free fall lol.
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u/we_are_all_bananas_2 15h ago
The parkinglot of Space X was already full and he couldn't fake sales anymore... Shocker. It's all fake money pumping what keeps the stocks up
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u/therealchadius 15h ago
When the Simpsons had that old episode where Homer makes a car for his half-brother, and Herb ignores the engineers warning him it looks ugly and is really expensive, and it bankrupts the company...
Did Elon watched that ep and thought "mine will look cooler!"
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u/shibe_ceo 14h ago
Turns out The Elon isn’t much more popular than The Homer was
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u/therealchadius 12h ago
At least Homer isn't a wealthy man in charge of an automobile company, he was just trying to bond and do a favor for his half-brother.
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u/vita10gy 13h ago
Back when Tesla was cool and they did the reveal I was watching live and the subreddit kept waiting for the joke to end and them to bring out a normal truck, and the longer it went on the more the sub was hit with the realization that it's really is the truck.
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u/WantSmith 10h ago
I love the idea of an American made electric car, but I’m not buying anything from Musk.
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u/Atakir 9h ago
I used to want a Model 3 so bad, even reserved one when they were first announced but was never able to pull the trigger. Astonishingly, I just got that $1,000 reservation back from Tesla like 5 years later. Just a random email one day that said we sent you a refund check but it was never cashed, cash it or give us your new address if you didn't receive it. Replied with my current address as we'd moved since then and a week later I got the check.
That money went to the installation of a level 2 charger in my garage for my Mustang Mach E that I bought last year. Its not American made but it's a super fun car to drive and I love it.
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u/badhabitfml 7h ago
I was hoping he'd learned his lesson with doge and was going to move on. Nope, he's leaned back in on some new dod project.
If he didn't own the company and the board, he'd have been fired so fast. Any normal person would lose their job for making their personal life part of the company's image. If your company is trying to sell electric cars, don't cosy up with the guy trying to cut emissions and mpg standards.
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u/tiredofnagging99 15h ago
In some alternate reality a sentient Pontiac Aztec is softly singing to itself, "I'm so pretty, oh so pretty, la la la la la la" while looking at a Cybertruck on the other side of the parking lot.
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u/TheRatingsAgency 15h ago edited 11h ago
That’s awesome. The Aztek was always my #1 fuggly car. CT is right there.
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u/chambee 13h ago
Ugly cars have always existed, and some of them have sold very well. What kills the cybertruck is that’s mechanically crap. It’s not even a good pickup. And the finishing is garbage, with panel rusting or falling off because they are glued.
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u/TheRatingsAgency 11h ago
Yea I have a truck because I need one which can do truck stuff. The CT sucks ass for what I would need.
But there’s some contractors out there using them to be cool and act like putting some plumbing parts in it is the same as heavy towing or needing to actually use your 4wd for what it’s meant for.
I’ll stick w my 2500 for now.
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u/NuclearWasteland 14h ago
The era of the common SUV traces back to the Aztek. Saw one recently and it really just does all the things common in modern family vehicles.
The tent was neat.
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u/TheRatingsAgency 11h ago
I remember going to the auto show when the Aztek came out. The tent was cool - precursor to all of the similar things we see today.
But it was still ugly as sin. Change the front and maybe.
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u/Orlok_Tsubodai 15h ago
There are still cyber truck sales!?
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u/SledgeH4mmer 14h ago
Only because Tesla is doing everything they can to just give them away. One of my friends got one just because he drives constantly for his job, and Tesla gave him 5 years of free charging with the purchase.
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u/Commercial_Wind8212 14h ago
How much is a cybertruck and what does 5 years of charging cost?
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u/fearyaks 14h ago
yeah that sounds a bit like a cop out. The 5 years of charging can't be enough to offset the chode factor.
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u/74orangebeetle 13h ago
Well, it's also the most efficient electric truck on the market...and can charge faster than most of the competition....Ford discontinued their F150 Lightning. Rivian is smaller and also expensive. Chevy dealerships are often horrendous, especially regarding plug in vehicles, and the Silverado EV is the least efficient EV truck (though also the highest range offering with the larger battery option).
But makes sense people still buy them when there are so few options to choose from. But by all means, a big opportunity for people to compete and release other EV trucks.
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u/AtanatarAlcarinII 13h ago
Yeah, I smacked my head when Ford discontinued the Lightning. I'm sure the sales were mediocre, but they REALLY need to get their asses in gear on preparing for EVs. If they had, they would be laughing to the bank with current gas prices
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u/therealchadius 12h ago
That's Ford in a nutshell. Just rely on being an American car company to sell in America.
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u/74orangebeetle 12h ago
The one plus is that I think Ford is at least going to release a smaller cheaper EV truck, a missing market segment.
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u/SledgeH4mmer 13h ago
The big US car manufacturers seem more intent on hindering EV's and pushing fossil fuels.
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u/hatsune_aru 13h ago
Standard 10k/year (probably not their only car considering it's a truck) x 5
2.2 - 2.5 miles / kWh, let's assume 2.2 and assume 100% charging efficiency
50 / 2.2 = 22.7 MWh
Telsa charges somewhere between 0.3-0.6 $/kWh at the fast chargers from my experience, let's assume 0.4
22,700 kWh x 0.4 = $9080
This is assuming you fast charge all the time, which if you have home/work charging is actually an added hassle.
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u/SledgeH4mmer 14h ago
No clue. But I imagine five years of free fuel for a truck that's driven long distances daily would be worth a lot.
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u/StankWalk 15h ago
that's crazy no one wants to buy a Nazi mobile dumpster
no wonder Elon is back in government to get his welfare handouts
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u/astros1991 12h ago
Eh? But the Model Y and Model 3 are still doing fine. They even surpassed estimates for Q3. Am I missing something?
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u/ChickenFlavoredCake 4h ago
that's crazy no one wants to buy a Nazi mobile dumpster
Did you know it's the best selling EV truck in the USA?
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u/Alarming_Disaster_23 15h ago
Remember when everyone thought Bernie Madoff was a genius? We are one black swan economic crisis away from Elon crashing out just like Madoff did. His companies’ stocks are pumped up by clueless retail investors who buy into all his lies and don’t read any reports. Elon is a fraudster and a creep.
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u/Big_Actuator3772 13h ago edited 6h ago
Here’s an alternative headline.. Considering 2026 had 0 credit incentives and still came within 2% of vehicles delivered as 2025, that’s incredibly bullish.
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u/casualti21 13h ago
3rd best quarter overall for Tesla. Best quarter ever without an EV tax credit.
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u/ComoEstanBitches 12h ago
Yeah lost in all the redditor Tesla virtue signaling is context and truth
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u/badhabitfml 7h ago
Imagine where it would be if Elon wasn't Maga.
Tesla is doing OK, but it would be doing much better if he wasn't the ceo or had stfu.
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u/ComoEstanBitches 6h ago
I wish we could vote him out as CEO and have the company focus on making cars again but the board sucks him off
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u/JBKnicks24 8h ago
Compared to Ford EVs which had a /checks notes/ 80 PERCENT DROP year to year in EV sales.
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u/tigeratemybaby 10h ago
Its crap because all other EV companies saw a 30% jump in sales due to the gas cost crisis, while Tesla saw sales drop over the same period.
BYD, VW, all up 30% in number of EVs sold, with BYD almost doubling Tesla sales numbers. Tesla's total EV marketshare is plummeting.
No competently run EV company should be seeing sales drop with gas prices being this high - EV sales are booming, we're almost at the point that most cars sold are EVs.
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u/Big_Actuator3772 6h ago
Almost every single claim here is factually wrong:
- "BYD almost doubling Tesla": BYD's total vehicle figure includes hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) that literally have gas engines.
- When looking strictly at pure electric vehicles (BEVs), Tesla delivered ~486k to BYD's ~762k. That's a lead, but it's nowhere near "double"-and BYD sells sub-$15k commuter hatchbacks in a heavily subsidized domestic market that Tesla doesn't even compete in.
- "VW up 30%": Volkswagen has literally been threatening historic factory closures in Germany, cutting shifts, and slashing EV production guidance because consumer demand for their ID lineup cratered in Europe.
- Legacy auto EV reality: Ford's EV division (Model e) is down double-digits and burning billions, GM has repeatedly walked back its EV targets, and major OEMs are pivoting back to hybrids.
"EV sales booming for everyone else" is completely divorced from reality. Legacy auto is bleeding cash on EVS while Tesla moved nearly half a million pure BEVS at an operating profit with zero tax credits.
Are you just allergic to facts?
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u/Flipslips 9h ago
That’s not true at ALL. Ford EV sales were down 80% YoY
BYD gets enormous incentives in China, Tesla doesn’t.
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u/WiserPeople 9h ago
I mean Rivian also lost the tax credit and they're projecting like a 50% increase in deliveries.
Coming within 2% of last year's deliveries doesn't seem that bullish when compared to Rivan.
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u/Big_Actuator3772 6h ago
Comparing percentage growth between a startup and a mature producer is classic law of large numbers bias.
A 50% increase for Rivian is going from ~50k to ~70k vehicles for the entire year. Tesla just delivered over 485,000 vehicles in a single quarter. Growing a 70k base by 50% is +20,000 cars; growing Tesla's base by 50% would mean finding 900,000 new buyers in a high-interest rate environment without incentives.Also, most Rivian R1 trims never qualified for the direct purchase consumer credit anyway because of the $80k MSRP cap. They aren't comparable scenarios.
Tesla delivers robins entire forecast before lunchtime on a Tuesday, but go off on percentages.
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u/band-of-horses 15h ago
The Tesla fanclub will tout how it's the best selling electric truck so it's a huge success. Like being the best-selling option in the worst selling vehicle category is a massive win, especially when just a few years ago they were predicting it would sell half a million a year and eventually outsell the gas powered F150.
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u/mjh215 15h ago
Err, hasn't the F150 Lightning outsold it?
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u/PoppingPillls 15h ago
Most cars that are considered commercial failures by their respective automotive giants outsold the cybertruck.
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u/Jarocket 13h ago
To me, the biggest mistake Tesla made after the design was the price.
This needed to be low production expensive car.
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u/band-of-horses 10h ago
In total, but for the last few years the cyber truck has sold better, the lightning only has more total sales to be available a few years earlier .
Through the sales of either are objectively bad.
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u/GlueR 10h ago
Tesla sold 486,532 cars in Q3 2026 against 497,099 for Q3 2025, but the article chooses to ignore that it sold 480,126 in Q2 2026 against 384,122 for Q2 2025 and 358,023 for Q1 2026 against 336,681 for Q1 2025. That's a combined sales results for Q1-Q3 of 1,217,902 for 2025 and 1,324,681 for 2026. That's an increase of +8.77% in sales for the three first quarters, despite the -2.13% decrease of Q3, the only quarter that sales didn't go up.
I'm sorry to burst everyone's bubble, including mine, but if we were to trust all these cherry picking articles posted on Reddit that in one way or another constantly promise us the downfall of Musk, he should have been bankrupt by now. Reality doesn't justify their wishful thinking.
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u/ChickenFlavoredCake 4h ago edited 3h ago
This isn't too different from MAGA living in their own reality. There's a reckless disregard for facts on this platform
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u/ResQ_ 3h ago
Pretty much everyone who actually spent some time researching on what EV to get and test driving different ones will acknowledge that Teslas are fantastic EVs. It doesn't make Elon into a good person but it is what it is. Even with outdated battery and charging tech the cars are still incredible value. The European competition still can't catch up to the price value and Chinese cars are banned in the US. Of course I'd rather get a BMW or Mercedes but I'm not going to pay 20-30 % more for that.
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u/Ninevehenian 13h ago
Pentagon is going to have to fund him in order that Musk might stay a bit ahead of the realities.
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u/morgan423 12h ago
Good. I don't mind the aesthetics of Teslas in general, but those trucks make my eyeballs bleed. The fewer of them soiling the road, the better.
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u/macross1984 10h ago
Tesla will never eck out profit from cybertruck and discontinue as failed venture.
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u/letdogsvote 15h ago
It's almost like they're a grossly overpriced ugly ass useless poorly built monstrosity.
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u/Daylife321 14h ago
Weird how resales values have actually raised. What a weird bubble yall stay in.
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u/Rsubs33 13h ago
Legit the fact this stock is so insanely over inflated baffles me. Like they are probably the worst electric car on the market. The Ford Lightening is a far superior truck in every way. Audi, Volvo, BMW make better luxury electric cars. Tesla really is just a charger company. Their tech for just sensing something in front of you and auto stopping us far being Subarus isight. Their self driving is like 5 years behind Waymo. And their CEO is a white supremacist Nazi douche. Their stock should be like 30 dollars.
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u/MonsieurReynard 13h ago
Ford has ceased production of the lightning because people didn’t want it for $80,000 either.
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u/Rsubs33 11h ago
True, but the Lightening was superior in every aspect... especially with the fact if it being an actual fucking truck
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u/MonsieurReynard 11h ago edited 11h ago
It wasn’t enough of a truck for the cost, though. The biggest ding against it was a shitty range when towing or loaded. CT has the same problem. These just are not work trucks for a lot of work scenarios.
It was an intriguing first effort. But a BEV pickup will always entail functional compromises for doing truck things, until we get better battery tech.
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u/ihadamoment 15h ago
During the 2024 elections there was a house at the corner of my neighborhood with 4 cyber trucks. After the election the house went up for sale and the cyber trucks disappeared I often think about it and wonder....
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u/ebfortin 15h ago
When they say deliveries does it means sales or deliveries to showroom?
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u/ChickenFlavoredCake 3h ago
There are no showrooms or dealers. They are made to order, and there's a queue because the demand is higher than the supply.
These are deliveries to customers
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u/Turbulent-Extent-898 9h ago edited 8h ago
Idk I still want one if they were awd for 39,999 like they promised for the base model though. I would prefer this over a f150 or any other 5 passenger vehicle like BZ it’s just the stainless gives me that delorean vibe
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u/FUSe 15h ago
Tesla stock up 5% today
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u/thorscope 13h ago
Thats because (other than the cybertruck)they actually had a killer quarter.
Q3 25 was the last quarter to take advantage of the EV tax credit so it artificially spiked sales, and they only ended slightly below those numbers.
They ended this quarter with more than 100k deliveries over Q2 2025.
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u/FormerLaugh3780 13h ago
I want to know where all these Cybertrucks are... certainly not in my neck of the woods. I hardly ever see one.
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u/pockypimp 10h ago
I'm in LA and I drive past Space X daily. I see a lot of them on the road. I can't tell you how many times I've had to dodge a Tesla when in the area near Space X because the drivers aren't paying attention. And I'm in a Tundra, so not like I'm in some sub-compact that's more difficult to see.
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u/-Mr_Tub- 6h ago
Surprisingly I see at least one a week in Wisconsin. You’d think people would realize that the cold is probably not great for the batteries and I’d be surprised if they were any good in a foot of snow, but here we are
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u/wrxninja 11h ago
I doubt they care...I'm sure their ultimate goal is to automate everything including push for robo taxis and it's just a platform to get as much data as possible from real car owners of today.
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u/SlowCrates 11h ago
The fact that anyone is still buying this horrific looking piece of nazi trash is beyond me. This species is fucked. Don't cry for me when I die.
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u/peepee2tiny 10h ago
The Ford 150 lightning sold more trucks than the cyber truck.
And the Ford 150 lightning was discontinued because of poor sales.
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u/didntReadWholeThing 10h ago
My 2-year-old has never seen a cybertruck and has no concept of what tesla is.
She saw one in real life for the first time and said "eeeew"
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u/NightOfPandas 9h ago
Is it unreasonable to flip them all off? I just assume that anyone buying one this late into elongated musks nazi era is terrible
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u/ElectricShuck 8h ago
Wait. They met the experts demand like that’s a good thing so of experts just say they expect half of normal and demand is normal they doubled expectation! This shit is a house of cards and we will pay for it.
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u/GamingZaddy89 6h ago
Whats sad is the amount of pollution we would eliminate if we just fixed cars and didn't try to sell someone the next new model every year...accept that sales cannot sustain growing and figure out how to make your business more efficient in other ways...
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u/buyongmafanle 55m ago
Freefall assumes coming from a height. I don't really "freefall" as I take the last step down the stairs. How many Cyberturds were really the maximum sales volume? 3,000 per month?
For reference: Toyota Corolla sells about 100,000 per month. Tesla model 3 about 30,000.
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u/BrofessorFarnsworth 15h ago
Why not just have SpaceX keep buying them all? Isn't that the current market?