‘You have to wonder what other tricks they pulled’
Elon Musk is using one of the oldest tricks in the book to increase demand for Cybertrucks; He robs Peter to pay Paul.
Electrek reported It describes how Musk used one of his companies, SpaceX, to close a huge gap in the controversial Cybertruck market.
According to Electrek’s analysis, Tesla faces challenges even selling 20,000 Cybertrucks a year; This is well below Musk’s initial estimates of 500,000. As a result, Tesla was left with a large stock of vehicles, even though it had greatly reduced its production.
Making a small dent in the inventory is SpaceX. The company has already purchased more than 1,000 Cybertrucks, which could double its fleet. An X user shared a video bursting with tools.
With a starting retail price of $80,000, SpaceX’s purchases could match Tesla’s sales of $80 million to $160 million.
As Electrek points out, there’s nothing illegal about Musk’s machinations here. Still, having to save a failing product isn’t good news for Tesla, nor is it the best move for SpaceX.
Investors should definitely be concerned that Musk’s moves here are self-serving. It’s also possible that SpaceX gets major help from the government and then turns around and buys Cybertrucks.
“In other words, government subsidies intended to get us back to the moon are being used to buy unsellable trucks that look like huge dumpsters,” wrote one disappointed commenter on Electrek. commented.
Musk’s struggles moving Cybertrucks are another example of overpromising and underdelivering. Before its launch, the vehicle had over a million reservations. Only 60,000 of these were converted into sales.
Electrek attributed this failure to consumers sensing Tesla’s bait-and-switch move after it unveiled its 2019 prototype. The real Cybertruck is more expensive, has less range, and has fewer attractive features.
