Tesla Cybertruck owners who want to trade in their vehicles at a Tesla dealership know that the value of their recently purchased truck has dropped significantly in a short period of time. This is another weakness of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla is offering Cybertruck owners $65,400 for their 2024 model-year vehicles, down from the original retail price of $100,000, Electrek reported Sunday. This represents a 34.6% drop over the year. By comparison, Electrek notes that traditional pickup trucks typically depreciate 20% annually and take three to four years to reach Tesla’s price.
Musk touted the oddly shaped Cybertruck as a technological marvel, and it received widespread media coverage when it was first announced and launched. Initially, Tesla claimed that one million Cybertrucks had been pre-ordered, but only 40,000 were ultimately sold.
Tesla’s vehicle replacement data is another weak point in a bad year for the automaker. This year, Tesla reported a sales decline for the first time in its history, and its profits fell significantly.
This bad news coincided with Musk’s decision to strongly support President Donald Trump. Musk donated millions of dollars to Trump’s 2024 election campaign and was a central figure in his administration, leading the DOGE team that inflicted serious damage on numerous US government agencies.
Musk’s prominent role as Trump’s cheerleader and enabler has sparked both ridicule and protest. It started with the Nazi salute on Trump’s inauguration day in January, and things have only gotten worse since then.
His actions within federal agencies led to a series of “Drop Tesla” protests at Tesla dealerships, which Musk conspiratorially described as a “pay-as-you-go” phenomenon, even though it isn’t.
As the company’s situation deteriorated, Trump tried to offer help. In March, Trump held a Tesla car promotion on the White House grounds. He read Tesla marketing materials, trying to persuade the public to buy his donor’s products.
“This man has devoted his energy and his life to this, and I think he’s been treated unfairly by a very small group of people,” Trump said.
Trump’s reckless actions don’t seem to be working.
Elon Musk said Tuesday that he would retire from politics to focus on his businesses like Tesla, adding that he had “done enough.” But the next day, he was in the Oval Office, watching Trump promote a racist conspiracy theory about “white genocide” while speaking with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Musk, who is of South African descent, has promoted many of the same lies on his social media account, X.
Companies that have followed Trump’s lead have had little success. For example, Target recently reported a drop in sales after adopting Trump’s anti-diversity campaign. Because of its association and attachment to Musk, Tesla suffers from a similar problem.
The Cybertruck and other Tesla vehicles have become synonymous with bigotry and incompetence, and that’s something people don’t want to promote.
