Tesla says the Cybertruck is ‘bestselling,’ so why is it offering discounts?

Tesla is declaring the Cybertruck to be “America’s bestselling electric pickup truck in 2024.” And yet, for the first time, the company is offering discounts of up to $2,600 on the low-poly truck, a sign that demand may not be as strong as Tesla would like you to think.

The discounts, which appear on the company’s inventory webpage, are as high as $1,600 for brand-new Cybertrucks and up to $2,600 for slightly used demo versions of the truck. The price reduction you see will depend on how you configure your Cybertruck.

The discounts come as the electric vehicle market is suddenly brimming with a multitude of offerings, from established players like Chevy and Hyundai to upstarts like Rivian and Lucid. People shopping for an electric truck, in particular, have a lot of options, including the Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Hummer and Sierra EVs, and Rivian R1T.

But the Cybertruck is outselling all of those options, according to Tesla. How do we know? You’re just going to have to take Tesla’s word on it, because it doesn’t break out sales numbers for the Cybertruck — instead just lumping them in with its “other models,” like the Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi. As noticed by Electrek, that stands in contrast to how Ford reports its sales numbers.

For example, Ford said it sold 33,510 F-150 Lightnings in 2024. And Tesla sold an estimated 40,000 Cybertrucks, which would back up its claim that it’s the bestselling electric truck in the US. But again, those are just estimates.

The discounts certainly add a wrinkle to Tesla’s claim. Prices tend to be reduced when a manufacturer has too many cars to sell. And since Tesla bypasses the traditional dealership model to sell vehicles directly to customers, the discounts come directly from the company.

After appearing on the company’s inventory page late last year, Foundation series Cybertrucks were recently removed. And earlier this month, Tesla asked factory employees working on the Cybertruck line to stay home for three days, according to Business Insider. It would seem as if demand is starting to weaken — a phenomenon being experienced by almost every automaker with EVs to sell. After selling cars to all the early adopters, companies are struggling to push their products on more price-conscious, mass-market shoppers.

All of this evidence points to weakening demand for the Cybertruck. The EV certainly has its fans, but the polarizing design as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s hard-right politics have been factors in the truck’s diminishing appeal.

And with EV incentives likely to disappear under President-elect Donald Trump and tariffs expected to roil the auto industry, the Cybertruck looks like it’s in for an even harsher 2025.