r/business • u/ControlCAD • 22h ago
Cybertruck sales in free fall as Tesla reports mediocre sales for Q3 | Tesla met analysts expectations as it sold fewer cars in Q3 2026 than Q3 2025.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/tesla-sales-drop-2-percent-in-underwhelming-q3-2026/26
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u/Churchbushonk 18h ago
Well they suck. Scout, Slate, Rivian, Ford, Chevy are all better at everything except marketing.
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u/121019954946 14h ago
Scout and Slate aren’t available yet, we don’t know how they will be. Chevy is god awful. I love my rivian and it clears my old Tesla though, although I did like my Tesla.
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u/spez_eats_nazi_ass 14h ago
Problem w the Rivian is the !@#%@#ing air suspension is gonna blow out at some point and eat $8K if you are lucky. And I know folks that have had it happen 2x out of warranty. Chevy has the same weakness but much cheaper cost to repair/replace and the air ride isn't a required option. Coil springs are always gonna be the better option.
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u/YaThatAintRight 12h ago
Coil Springs are not the better option. Don’t buy something you can’t afford to fix.
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u/BoldNewBranFlakes 14h ago
Especially Rivian, if I was in the market for an electric truck that would be my go to.
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u/timewellwasted5 15h ago edited 15h ago
Ford and Chevy lol. I am not a Tesla fan but acting like Ford and Chevy produce more reliable vehicles is laughable. My boss, who makes great money, bought a new fully loaded Chevy SUV a few months ago. The steering failed AS SHE DROVE IT OFF THE LOT. Ok, stuff happens, I get it. She texted me this week that she was driving to work on the highway and her car completely lost power and she had to have it towed. She’s had it for less than a year.
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u/Mecha-Dave 14h ago
Just imagine, she could have paid 2x-3x the cost to experience the same thing in a Tesla!
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u/timewellwasted5 14h ago
I’m not sticking up for Tesla, I’m just highlighting that American made cars are crazy unreliable. Toyota/Honda all the way.
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u/Mecha-Dave 14h ago
Personally I'm more of a BMW fan. Honda isn't exactly a long lived brand.
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u/Askew_2016 14h ago
lol what? That’s what Honda is known for and why used Hondas with over 100k miles sell so well
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u/Elluminated 17h ago edited 16h ago
Every way except FSD and infotainment. None of the others you’ve mentioned have shipped anything close, nor do they have the EV sales Tesla has for myriad reasons. And the fact you think an unreleased EV like Slate is better - site unseen - shows you are a clueless troll just wishfully thinking based on a truck you won’t be getting until q4 2026, and haven’t even walked by 😂🤦🏽♂️
At least wait for it to come out before fabricating cope-filled fantasies
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u/SRGTBronson 15h ago
Full self drive doesn't exist. Its glorified lane assist.
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u/Elluminated 15h ago edited 15h ago
I’m talking about the completely unmatched features of the consumer FSD Supervised model (actual full self driving [unsupervised] only exists on their 100% autonomous non-human-driven robo taxi’s). No other car you can buy in the US lets you push a button and arrive at your destination where it parks for you, handling the full drive, lane changes and exits, stop light and traffic control, etc end to end like this. Not one.
Calling it lane assist is factually and laughably delusional, or you are confusing it with the obsolete AutoPilot system.
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
What marketing? Tesla doesn’t advertise
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u/Hefty-Ambassador5661 15h ago
They do now since last year or maybe the year before this isn’t 2019 lol
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
Where? Honest question. I’ve never seen a Tesla ad. Can you point to any?
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u/Hefty-Ambassador5661 15h ago
It’s targeted. I’ve gotten a few when I was car shopping
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u/Dynasty3310 14h ago
So Tesla is better at marketing than traditional auto?
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u/Hefty-Ambassador5661 10h ago
Depends what their objective is. Sales cycle for buying a car is long when you’re not looking but fast when people are actually buying. But based on current sales it doesn’t look like it
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u/MN-Car-Guy 13h ago
Tesla spent $400,000 in marketing in 2024
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u/CautiousToaster 13h ago
Ford spend 2.8B in advertising in 2024
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u/MN-Car-Guy 13h ago
Ford sold 4.47 million vehicles in 2024. Tesla sold 1.79 million vehicles in 2024. So Ford might not be the best comp. But Ford can still spend more than double and come out the same as Tesla.
Tesla also uses some creative accounting in where they stick certain costs. Nothing wrong with that, but makes it difficult to compare 1:1
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u/CautiousToaster 13h ago
Yeah agree. But I think the overall point still stands that Tesla isn’t really advertising their cars
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u/MN-Car-Guy 12h ago
No. “Isn’t really advertising” isn’t true at all. Tesla does advertise. They spent money. And a lot more money in creative ways stuck in other accounting pillars.
Just like “Tesla doesn’t have dealerships” (they do) and “Tesla is more vertically integrated” (they’re not) and “I save money buying direct” (not clear, but not really).
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u/CautiousToaster 12h ago
400k in advertising is a drop in the bucket. That’s not enough to buy a single tv ad.
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u/MN-Car-Guy 12h ago
Again, that’s just what Tesla chooses to stick in that accounting bucket. Tesla spends more per event (like the Roadster reveal or battery day) than that. But they don’t choose to call that advertising or marketing.
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u/CautiousToaster 12h ago
Ok but the point still stands. They don’t do tv commercials to traditional advertising.
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u/Educational_Skill736 17h ago
Everything you just said is the opposite of reality. Tesla has the highest customer retention of any auto companies in the US. That’s not ‘marketing,’ that’s people loving the product.
You (and most of Reddit) just can’t differentiate your hate boner for Musk from the company itself.
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u/barley_wine 16h ago edited 16h ago
Quality control and customer retention while often linked aren’t the same thing. Tesla has had a long reputation for poor quality control.
You can find studies about this exact phenomenon that seems to affect Tesla. It gets frequent poor quality control reviews but still retains its image as an industry leader.
https://brandingstrategyinsider.com/2025/06/how-teslas-brand-image-shields-its-low-quality-issues/
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u/ThatBaseball7433 16h ago
I’ve owned 3 teslas now. They’re easily the best cars I’ve ever owned from every angle and I’ve owned a lot of cars including 3 non-Tesla EVs. Tesla lags in charging curve so I’d rank that as “acceptable” at best but in literally every other way they’re amazing. I won’t own another car without point to point self driving either. Once you have it you can’t go back.
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u/SRGTBronson 15h ago
I'm sure I can find people who had no problems with their Ford Pintos but that didn't make them any less of a death trap.
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u/Wisdom_Pond 16h ago
It’s not a mainstream car. If Tesla made normal looking suv, would sell way more than Rivian
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u/SplitEar 9h ago
It’s not clear that Tesla can still successfully develop a new car.
An affordable EV truck should have been a slam dunk yet they made an expensive atrocity that’s not even practical as a truck.Affordable Model 2? Abandoned.
Affordable sports coupe? Nope, some quarter million dollar status car.
The engineers who developed the 3 and Y are long gone and replaced by workers with a talent for polishing Elon’s knob.
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u/Wisdom_Pond 9h ago
As batteries keep get better, Tesla can make more popular EVs or Elon can some crazy bleep with the co. Like or dislike, respect that he will engineer something different.
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u/SplitEar 9h ago
Elon doesn’t engineer anything, that’s what engineers are for. And batteries have advanced remarkably since the Model 3 was introduced.
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u/Wisdom_Pond 8h ago
Engineers need to ship. He decides all that. Will try something different for sure. Could be crazy pivot or market success.
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u/McBurty 17h ago
TIL the shittiest car ever built is still available for sale. Could the slowdown be coming from a shortage of d-bags willing to be seen driving one.
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u/mr_bendos_friendo 17h ago
That's definetely not it. There are dbags everywhere. Its more a shortage of dbags that can afford one.
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 16h ago
Teslas customer service post purchase is abysmal. Not surprised they don’t have a lot of returning customers
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u/mynewusernamedodgers 15h ago
And their service centers are atrocious. Wait weeks to have them look at something minor and the want an authorization for charges before you see them. Stupid shit
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago edited 15h ago
Can you point to any data that proves this?
Edit: downvotes for what reason?
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 15h ago
1.6/5 on Trustpilot - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.teslamotors.com
1.09/5 on BBB - https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/austin/profile/auto-manufacturers/tesla-inc-0825-1000206071/customer-reviews
1.3/5 on Consumeraffairs - https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/tesla_motors.html
Hell, even Grok will tell you opinions on Tesla’s customer service is largely negative.
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
I’m specifically looking to validate the last part, that Tesla does not have a lot of returning customers.
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 15h ago edited 14h ago
Make the obvious inference. Unhappy customers do not return.
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
So no data, just inference based on customer service reviews, got it.
How do you reconcile this data point then:
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 15h ago
Negative customer service reviews are data. Willfully ignoring that only means you’re not interested in anything other than mindlessly defending Tesla.
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
What matters most is what people actually do. That’s the data I’m looking for. It doesn’t seem to tell the story you are concluding based on related but not direct data.
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u/Elluminated 14h ago
The traveling anti-Tesla clown show can’t reconcile anything. Teslas NPS is class leading for a reason.
“Tesla is known for having some of the most loyal customers of any company in any industry.
Tesla's Net Promoter Score is one of the highest recorded for any major consumer brand. For context, Bain & Company considers any NPS above 50 to be excellent, and above 80 to be world-class.”Don’t worry about the downvotes. Bag holders in competing companies and shorts hate how successful Tesla is and haven’t got the memo about changing their garbage theses and goal post moving.
Just bring the facts and data and watch them seethe because CeO BaD! It’s always magic and “cults” when model Y sells the most vs anyone else, ignoring most are new customers who only know about the product and it’s great features. Fun times.
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u/Man_of_words 14h ago
Dude this site is the most nonsense thing I’ve seen on the internet today. It’s literally a blog from a SaaS company’s website about online advertising. It feels entirely imagined by AI.
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u/Daylife321 7h ago
Cybertruck alone sold more than mach e and lightning combined.
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u/Katzen_Kradle 2h ago
This is not true. 118k mach-e units have been sold since 2024, versus 63k lightnings to 66k cybertrucks for the same period.
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u/cleric3648 16h ago
As a company they were down 2% YoY. This was the quarter last year where MAGA killed the tax credit on EV’s. Most of the industry is looking at double digit declines.
A couple months back Cybertruck production hit a low point due to some vendor issues with the maker of some of their tooling.
Figure most of the CT sales came during a short window where they discounted the lowest trim version to $59,900. It only lasted a few weeks before they raised the price to $75k.
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u/PaulBlartForever 9h ago
They also propped up last year's numbers by buying their own truck via SpaceX in record numbers
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u/ProdigalSheep 3h ago
Free fall? Does that mean there are still idiots out there buying these things? Or is Space X buying them all? Or is Elon cooking the books?
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u/spez_eats_nazi_ass 14h ago
Waiting for the bot swarm to get here and screech about "Best selling car in world". Yes when you only sell 1 model and sub Mazda volumes it will end up being a lot of a single car model.
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u/SillyAlternative420 13h ago
But the CyberTruck is the best truck in the world, Elon Musk is the coolest investor and inventor in all of human history, and he absolutely got invited to every cool party on Little St. James Island despite the rumors he was excluded!
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u/The_Ledge5648 16h ago
Maga stopped buying them because the price of diesel is so high
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u/CautiousToaster 15h ago
Consensus was this was a good quarter for Tesla. They beat expectations and the stock went up on the report. I don’t have a dog in the fight so I don’t really care. Kiinda funny how the same numbers can be both positive or negative depending on how you read them. Shows how divided the world is.
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u/FI_321 17h ago
Stupid article. Doesn’t even mention the end of the $7500 tax credit as the reason for the Q3 sales differences, yet Tesla is still killing it.
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u/Elluminated 16h ago
Exactly right. One clown even said the unreleased Slate is “better in every way” because apparently traveling to the future is possible 😂🤦🏽♂️
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u/sedatehate 16h ago
I’m sure their just fine and will continue to be fine no matter what Reddit wants you to think.
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u/Desperate_Total6608 17h ago
And somehow the stock will continue to rise