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Tesla is buffing Foundation Series badges off Cybertrucks to sell them as regular trucks
Tesla is turning some of its Foundation Series Cybertrucks into regular Cybertrucks to sell them and sending hundreds of US Cybertrucks to be homologated in Canada as it is having issues selling them in the US.
There have been several signs lately that Tesla has worked through its Cybertruck reservation backlog and it is now having some demand issues.
Earlier this month, we reported that Tesla has told employees working on the Cybertruck production line at Gigafactory Texas to take a few days off.
Tesla also reduced lease pricing and directly discounted the Cybertruck by adding it to its referral program.
There have been many several Cybertrucks in inventory available for immediate delivery, including many Foundation Series Cybertrucks:
Foundation Series were the first Cybertrucks produced and meant for reservation holders. Tesla added USD20,000 to the price and bundled a bunch of features and accessories together.
In Oct, Tesla switched production to regular Cybertrucks, which are cheaper, but we now learn that Tesla is still stuck with many Foundation Series trucks.
Now though, there are dozens of these USD100,000+ trucks sitting in Tesla's inventory. Using the EV manufacturer's website, we found brand-new Cybertruck Foundation Series models in several states including New York, California, Texas, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida and Minnesota.
Then, there's the issue of what was promised and what was delivered. When the Cybertruck debuted as a prototype back in 2019, Tesla touted a range of over 500 miles on a full charge, a towing capacity of over 14,000 pounds and a price between USD39,900 and USD69,900. None of these have translated into reality when deliveries officially started last Nov. The towing maximum capacity of the finished product is 11,000 lbs, the maximum range is 325 miles and the price is between USD79,990 and USD99,990. Granted, there's supposedly a third, cheaper version on the way, with a single electric motor, but that hasn't happened yet.
The over 1 million reservation holders may have decided not to buy due to the higher price and lower specifications.
The automaker is now even planning on de-Foundation Series some Cybertrucks, according to a source familiar with the matter and documents obtained by Electrek.
On top of the USD20,000 bundle of features and accessories that Tesla is adding to the Foundation Series Cybertruck, the vehicles also have special laser etched badging outside of the vehicle and Foundation badging inside on the dash.
Tesla is sending the Cybertrucks to service and collision centers around the US to have those removed in order to sell them as regular Cybertruck for USD20,000 less.
Sources familiar with the matter also confirmed that Tesla plans to modify over 800 Cybertrucks to homologate them for the Canadian market and ship them to Canada, where Tesla believes they have a better chance to sell them.
All these efforts are putting more pressure on Tesla's service and collision center workforce – resulting in longer wait times for owners.
Electrek's Take
The Cybertruck quickly became the best-selling electric pickup truck in the US. That's an impressive feat, but I think many Tesla fans were too quick to call the vehicle program a success based on that fact.
Cybertruck achieved that thanks to years of pent-up demand and over a million reservations. Then, it went through its entire reservation backlog in less than a year and with about only 40,000-50,000 deliveries.
I think Tesla is clearly having some issues selling the Cybertruck in the US now and didn't properly gauge the demand for the Foundation Series.
Next year will be the real test for the Cybertruck program. We will see how it fare in the market without years of backlog.
Tesla will have the cheaper USD61,000 RWD Cybertruck, which will help with demand, but I still think Tesla might have issues having enough demand to sell 250,000 per year, which was Tesla's goal. Musk even suggested that it could go up to 500,000 per year, but that sounds impossible now.
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