The announcement today that the Tesla Cybertruck was ending production next year has been met with much derision. For example, one wag cracked, “One of the lessons here is to never allow ketamine to do your product design” (ecephalopath, 2026).
If artificial intelligence doesn’t soon destroy civilization, future business-management scholars may point to the Cybertruck as a classic example of what happens when you give a corporate leader so much power that there are no checks and balances against a really bad idea.
The Cybertruck may come closer than any other contemporary mass-production automobile in the entire world to being a pure expression of one executive — Tesla head Elon Musk. This was his hobby horse and he reportedly brushed aside staff concerns about the direction he wanted to go with the truck.
A majority of Tesla designers reportedly hated Musk’s direction. Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen told biographer Walter Isaacson, “They were like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was just too weird.” Meanwhile, some engineers covertly designed another version of the truck, although it is unknown what happened to it (Dean and Kay, 2023).
By the same token, the Cybertruck wasn’t tested with the usual market research. Musk told Isaacson, “I don’t do focus groups” (Dean and Kay, 2023).
What if Tesla had developed a serious truck?
The media is awash in talk about why the Cybertruck has been a failure, so let’s take a different tack: How might things have turned out if Tesla had instead introduced a truck that was more conventional, practical and affordable?
Even if such a truck had been much better received it might not have had earth-shattering sales. After all, thus far no one has been terribly successful in the electric truck segment. As a case in point, the Ford F-150 Lightning lasted only slightly longer than the Cybertruck, with sales never rising above a paltry 35,000 per year despite plans for up to 150,000 units (Hogan, 2026).
That said, one could argue that only Rivian has come out with a fairly large truck that is reasonably conventional looking while also being purpose built. In other words, the R1T isn’t merely a gas-powered truck converted to electric.
In 2025 Rivian only sold a bit more than 7,000 R1Ts. That made it the sixth best-selling electric pickup in the U.S. — even behind the Cybertruck at over 20,000 units (Dnistran, 2026). If the R1T had the marketing muscle of Tesla might it have been industry leading instead? I’m not suggesting that the R1T was necessarily the best approach for a Tesla truck, but it arguably did point in a somewhat more promising direction.
Did Musk overestimate his ability to course correct?
Back when the Cybertruck was first displayed in 2020, Musk said that Tesla might make a “regular pickup” if the Cybertruck failed. Here’s the quote: “…if it turns out nobody wants to buy a weird-looking truck, we’ll build a normal truck, no problem. There are lots of normal trucks out there that look pretty much the same; you can hardly tell the difference. And sure, we could just do some copycat truck; that’s easy. So that’s our fallback strategy” (Holderith, 2020).
Musk didn’t acknowledge that the choice wasn’t between weird and copycat. If he thought Rivian played it too safe with the R1T he had plenty of room to innovate. For example, a Tesla truck, much like its passenger cars, could have offered superior aerodynamics. It also could have experimented with alternative bed configurations.
I suspect that Tesla’s best move would have been to steer clear of the big-truck market and instead come out with a compact that could have been exported abroad. That would have given the truck a more distinct niche in the U.S. while increasing its economies of scale.
Alas, Musk seemed to think that Tesla had enough of a margin of error to gamble on the Cybertruck. So now, with its departure, Tesla has an alarmingly narrow and aging lineup of cars at a time when the competition is expanding and the EV market is struggling with the demise of federal tax credits. Normally auto executives are held accountable for such monumental mistakes, but Tesla apparently plays by different rules.
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RE:SOURCES
- Dean, Grace and Grace Kay; 2023. “Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they ‘hated’ the original concept, according to the new Elon Musk biography.” Business Insider. Posted Sept. 11.
- Dnistran, Julian; 2026. “America’s Best-Selling Electric Trucks In 2025: The Tesla Cybertruck Crashes Out.” Inside EVs. Posted Jan. 14.
- ecephalopath; 2026. Comment in “Why Do the Beautiful Always Die Young?” Lawyers, Guns & Money. Posted Nov. 6.
- Hogan, Mack; 2026. “It’s Official: The Cybertruck Is One Of The Greatest Flops In Automotive History.” Inside EVs. Posted Nov. 6.
- Holderith, Peter; 2020. “Elon Musk Says Tesla May Make A ‘Regular Pickup’ If the Cybertruck Fails.” The Drive. Posted Aug. 3.
At least the Renault Avantime doesn’t look top heavy, just strange. Future collectibles?
Had it come out two years earlier, the Cybertruck may have been more successful. The tide of public opinion was turning against Musk when the truck was introduced. Sure, it’s ugly, but so is the C8 Corvette and no one is mocking that thing. Trucks are fashion statements now, and the Cybertruck set out to be fashionable. Like many cars, Teslas are personal statements first and vehicles second.
There were problems with the truck of course, just as there are problems with all Teslas. He’s a forward thinker not an industrialist, and his purpose is to reinvent things while others behind him improve upon the advances. I would never buy one of his vehicles but I appreciate that he thinks differently than established carmakers.
Any DeLorean owner could have told you that bare stainless steel is problematic for the surface of a car. He should have spoken to Whirlpool about how they treat their stainless refrigerators.