Elon Musk’s “apocalypse-proof” Cybertruck has been a major disappointment, but it could be about to get a smaller sibling.
Lars Moravy, Tesla’s engineering VP, said in an interview on Saturday that the EV giant is considering making a smaller pickup truck, as sales of the beefy science-fiction-inspired Cybertruck continue to struggle.
“We always talked about making a smaller pickup,” said Moravy, in response to a question about whether Tesla needed a mini version of the Cybertruck for international markets.
“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,” Moravy, who was speaking at an event hosted by Tesla owners and investors in California, added.
“We’ve definitely been churning in the design studio about what we might do to serve that need for sure.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Moravy’s interview, which was sent outside regular US working hours.
The Cybertruck was launched with a huge fanfare in 2023, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicting the automaker could sell over 250,000 of the “apocalypse-proof” trucks a year.
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However, those stratospheric sales have failed to materialize. Tesla has shifted around 11,000 Cybertrucks in the US so far this year, after selling nearly 39,000 over the whole of 2024, per data from Cox Automotive.
The futuristic pickup launched in the US with a price tag close to $100,000, far above the $39,900 Elon Musk suggested back in 2019. The cheapest version now starts at over $60,000.
The Cybertruck is also not available in China and Europe, Tesla’s biggest markets outside the US. Both markets have strict vehicle regulations that make selling big and bulky pickups like the Cybertruck — which weighs over 6,000kg — extremely difficult.
One of the first Cybertrucks to appear in the UK was seized by police earlier this year for not being road-legal, while another that was registered in the European Union had to be modified to soften the trapezoid truck’s notoriously sharp edges.
Tesla has expanded Cybertruck sales to Canada and Mexico, and in April announced it would begin selling the pickup in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
The Cybertruck’s slow sales and slower international expansion suggest it will be little help in turning around Tesla’s sales slump. The EV giant said earlier this month that second-quarter sales had fallen 13.5%, its second year-over-year decline in a row.