Tesla Actually Needs the Cybertruck to Be a Working Man’s Truck

When Tesla launched the Cybertruck in 2023, it was the product of 4 years of hype. The boxy electrical pickup was the corporate’s first new mannequin since 2020. Kim Kardashian, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Bieber had been noticed using round in it. With one million individuals on the truck’s reservation listing and a $120,000 price ticket, it shortly turned a standing image.

Lower than two years later, the waitlist has disappeared. Vans are piling up in gross sales heaps. Fewer than 50,000 automobiles have been delivered. Some house owners have turn into political targets because of CEO Elon Musk’s affiliation with President Donald Trump.

Enter a quiet rebrand.

Over the previous few months, Tesla has moved to place the Cybertruck as a working man’s automobile — much less DeLorean, extra Ford F-150. The corporate up to date its web site, ditching an other-worldly aesthetic for pictures that function the truck hauling tools and an Airstream trailer. And gross sales employees on the firm informed Enterprise Insider it is turn into more and more tough to maneuver the truck off gross sales heaps. The automobile, they mentioned, must enchantment to the normal truck purchaser.

“Pitching it to truck individuals is extra concerning the performance,” mentioned one salesperson who works within the South. “They wish to know the way a lot it will possibly tow, how a lot can match within the truck mattress.”

As the corporate prepares to ship first quarter earnings, it faces sluggish supply numbers, a model disaster, and a inventory value down over 43% 12 months to this point — and is searching for a lift.

“They initially pushed too onerous into the out-of-this-world aesthetic,” Ivan Drury, the director of perception for the automotive analysis agency Edmunds, informed Enterprise Insider. “That solely appeals to the outskirts of the market. Now they should take a extra conventional route.”

Taking up the normal truck market

As lately as April 9, Tesla’s web site included renderings of the truck in a Mars-like ambiance and advert copy that touted it was “constructed for any planet” with a “cabin as quiet as outer house.” (The model famously shies away from conventional promoting and depends on Musk, the web site, its status, and its X presence to promote automobiles.)

Early on, Ford CEO Jim Farley dismissed the Cybertruck as just for “Silicon Valley individuals” and “like a cool high-end product parked in entrance of a resort.”

“I do not make vehicles like that,” Farley mentioned shortly earlier than the Cybertruck’s launch. “I make vehicles for actual individuals who do actual work, and that is a distinct form of truck.”

In mid-April, Tesla redesigned its product web page for the primary time for the reason that truck’s launch. Gone are the futuristic aesthetics and allusions to Mars; now the automobile is match for a development employee or a household outing.

It is strikingly just like ads for the 2024 mannequin of Ford’s F-150, the best-selling pickup within the US for the previous 40 years.

The lead picture for each truck’s webpages featured Airstream trailers, and each included pictures of truck beds stuffed with wire.

Tesla and Ford didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The cheaper, scaled-down model of the Tesla truck, which launched in April, can also be comparable in value, vary, and towing capability to Ford’s electrical F-150.

Two Tesla gross sales employees informed Enterprise Insider that they’ve seen a push to market the automobile extra towards the standard truck purchaser since late final 12 months. The gross sales employee who works in a Southern state mentioned the truck’s flashy exterior has made it tough to search out individuals keen to purchase it.

“Many of the check drivers aren’t actual truck patrons,” they mentioned. “It is extra of a novelty factor.”

Regardless of the truck’s “bulletproof” exterior, Tesla struggled to promote it as worksite-friendly and sturdy early on. Inside weeks of its launch, house owners and critics took to social media to submit Cybertruck fails, together with footage of the truck getting caught in snow or struggling to drive up a mud hill. The phenomenon even spawned a well-liked Reddit channel with greater than 300,000 members known as “Cyberstuck.” The pickup has additionally had eight remembers since its launch.

Regardless that a typical truck proprietor might not work on a farm or a development web site, there’s worth in promoting that picture. Drury sees the brand new advertising and marketing supplies as a step in the fitting route.

“They should promote sturdiness. It must be used and abused, and the entire capabilities that make it a piece truck must be on full show,” Drury mentioned. “Folks may not use it for these capabilities, nevertheless it’s about promoting a picture or life-style.”

Musk’s pivot

Tesla’s Cybertruck revamp has coincided with Musk’s rightward political shift.

Historically, Teslas have appealed to left-leaning patrons; most of the firm’s gross sales facilities are positioned in blue states and concrete areas, and Democrats have been extra more likely to buy an EV.

However as Musk has turn into more and more tied to President Donald Trump and DOGE, a few of these individuals have began to activate Tesla, staging protests outdoors gross sales facilities. Different individuals have vandalized Cybertrucks and focused their house owners.

Tesla’s gross sales numbers have adopted go well with, significantly for the Cybertruck. The corporate offered 6,406 Cybertrucks through the first three months of 2025, about half the quantity it offered the earlier quarter, in accordance with an estimate from Cox Automotive.

Together with pitches from Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the “working man” advertising and marketing might properly enchantment to a distinct form of buyer. (Tapping right into a broader cultural push towards conventional masculinity, which Musk has championed, additionally does not harm.)

A minimum of one analyst sees a possible red-state boon. “Tesla may truly internet significant gross sales features over time” in purple counties, Itay Michaeli, a TD Cowen analyst, wrote in March.

Politics apart, the Auto Dealer editor Brian Moody informed Enterprise Insider that he thinks the Cybertruck advertising and marketing technique has been a wise transfer for the model and represents a pure development.

“Proper out of the gate, they had been interesting to the Tesla followers, however most of these individuals have in all probability already purchased the automotive, and now they must enchantment to the common individuals,” Moody mentioned. “Now they should concentrate on the practicality.”

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