Elon Musk’s biggest failure in his career: Making Cybertruck to save $200 million to build a paint shop but it took a decade of research, only operated for 13 months and was recalled 8 times

Elon Musk made Cybertruck to save $200 million on building a paint shop but ended up spending many times more to produce it.

After more than a year on the market, sales of the 6,600-pound Cybertruck, priced from $82,000, have been significantly lower than Elon Musk predicted. Poor quality, with eight recalls in the past 13 months, has turned this into a major business farce for the Wall Street billionaire.

More than just a ridiculous car with poor sales, the Cybertruck has also been the focus of protests against Tesla around the world. The cause comes from Musk’s somewhat unpopular political style.

In terms of sales alone, Musk’s Cybertruck is actually much worse than the Edsel – a Ford car line that was synonymous with disaster. Ford hoped to sell 200,000 Edsels a year when it launched in 1958, but ended up selling just 63,000. Sales plummeted in 1959, leading the brand to bankruptcy in 1960.

Musk had predicted that the Cybertruck could sell 250,000 units a year. However, in 2024, the company sold fewer than 40,000. There is no indication that sales will pick up this year, according to Cox Automotive.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s overall sales also fell sharply, with first-quarter 2025 deliveries falling 13% to 337,000 — well below consensus expectations of 408,000. The company does not release sales of the Cybertruck, which is grouped together with the Model S and Model X — the company’s most expensive models.

It’s clear that Cybertruck sales took a hit this quarter after the recall, said Ben Kallo, an equity analyst at Baird. The Cybertruck’s sales results have not lived up to the billionaire entrepreneur’s hype.

“Demand is skyrocketing,” Musk said in a November 2023 earnings call, just before the first cars began arriving to customers. “We have over a million people who have pre-ordered the vehicle.”

Tesla has already upgraded its Gigafactory in Austin to produce up to 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. That’s an expensive investment that’s unlikely to be recouped anytime soon.

In fact, Musk didn’t factor in the factors that hindered sales. The Cybertruck is too big and doesn’t comply with pedestrian safety rules, so there’s little chance of it boosting sales.

“They haven’t sold much, and in this case, there’s no way overseas markets can save them, not even China, which is very important for Tesla,” said Glenn Mercer, head of Cleveland-based consulting firm GM Automotive.

More than a decade before the Cybertruck went into production, Musk hinted that Tesla would eventually produce a distinctive electric pickup truck that would stray from conventional aesthetics. “Pickups have been the same for 100 years, but the Cybertruck is different,” he proudly told a conference audience.

“The Cybertruck’s catastrophic failure was a failure of empathy,” said Noble of CARLAB, a consumer research firm. “Everything from the bed configuration to the cabin configuration to the performance was not relevant to truck drivers.”

A person familiar with the development process said the Cybertruck’s distinctive look was motivated by two main factors. One was Musk’s passion for sci-fi designs. The other was the early decision to create a vehicle that didn’t need to be painted.

Without paint, Tesla wouldn’t have needed to install a new $200 million paint shop. The company also didn’t have to worry about EPA monitoring for toxic emissions and wastewater — a common problem at its facilities.

Musk ultimately opted for a stainless steel exterior, just as Delorean did for its ill-fated sports car four decades ago. Musk didn’t fully appreciate the challenges the material posed compared to regular aluminum. It’s hard to bend, and steel tends to spring back to its original shape.

“They did it because they didn’t want to spend $200 million on a paint shop. But trying to get stainless steel to work, Musk spent a lot more than that.”

Glenn Mercer estimates that developing the Cybertruck, including the cost of machining it to produce it in Austin, could cost Tesla about $900 million. Unlike other vehicles like the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover, it appears the Cybertruck doesn’t share any development and manufacturing costs with other Tesla products.

“Can the factory make all the other things based on the investment in Cybertruck? No, it can’t. An unpainted stainless steel car doesn’t have that much of a broad impact,” Mercer said.

It was a bad omen from the start.

At the car’s November 2019 unveiling, during a demonstration of the Cybertruck’s shatterproof armor glass, a steel ball hilariously shattered the glass twice.

“Oh my gosh. We’ll fix it,” Musk said, promising that the base model of the vehicle, with a range of 250 miles, would start at $39,900.

Currently, the base model, which starts at $72,490, has a range of up to 325 miles if you don’t tow anything or drive too fast. The top-of-the-line Cyberbeast costs $105,735—a lot for most people.

Elon Musk’s ambitious electric pickup, the Cybertruck, has been making waves since its debut with its bold design and promises of top-notch performance. However, along with innovation, a series of incidents have been continuously recorded, causing many people to question the quality and practicality of the product.

In October 2024, Tesla had to recall more than 27,000 Cybertrucks in the US due to a rearview camera display error in the car. This is the largest recall for this electric pickup model since its launch in late 2023 and affects most of the vehicles sold in the US.

A short time ago, Tesla also issued a recall for Cybertruck after discovering that the vehicle’s accelerator pedal could get stuck. This model has been recalled twice because the vehicle’s large front wiper is defective and some parts in the trunk can fall off while driving.