Even Tesla’s Cybertruck, the poster child of the electric vehicle revolution, has hit some serious bumps into its rollout lately. It was the company’s eighth Cybertruck recall since deliveries started a little more than a year ago. So last week, officials announced the new record recall. One of the quirks with this national recall is that it includes the left and right side windshield pillars, which can come loose and pose a potentially fatal risk to drivers.
Recalls and Perception Gaps Between Cybertruck and Public Expectations
This latest recall only feeds the growing disconnect between the public’s perception of the Cybertruck and reality. Since its introduction, the vehicle has been plagued with recalls. In fact, this January, Tesla reported its first full-year sales decline in over a dozen years. The drop was mostly due to the Cybertruck’s performance. Sales of Tesla’s Cybertruck are crashing worldwide. In Europe, they’ve plummeted by a mind-boggling 49% in just the first two months of this year from the same period a year ago. This downturn flies in the face of the overall booming electric vehicle market.
The Cybertruck’s rough road ahead isn’t made any easier by the growing competition from legacy carmakers ramping up their own EV manufacturing. Tesla’s biggest competitor, BYD, announced huge profits. The Chinese automaker announced record revenue of 777.1 billion yuan, or nearly $107 billion, for 2024. Electric and hybrid vehicle sales jumped up 40% from last year. BYD created an ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure distributed throughout the park system. This new system matches the convenience of a normal gas fill-up and raises the competitive bar even further.
Yet protests are now making for even stickier situation for the Cybertruck in the U.S. and Europe. These protests developed under the impression that Tesla supports the far-right AfD party. These protests have only compounded the damage done to the vehicle’s reputation and marketability.
Author’s Opinion
The Cybertruck’s struggles in sales and public perception are a combination of unresolved product issues, intense competition, and external political factors. Tesla’s failure to deliver on its promises and the public backlash stemming from protests have only compounded its difficulties, making it harder to recover from these setbacks.
