Update: a representative from the Peteresen Automotive Museum replied to our questions with the following answer:
"Due to internal fundraising policies, the museum can't confirm winning bid amounts or winners for any of the specific auction items during Saturday night's Gala, but I can confirm that the event raised $2.5 million overall toward supporting the museum and its education initiatives," the rep said.
"The vehicle will be a low-VIN Cybertruck that will be delivered to the winning bidder when Tesla completes production," she added.
The original article follows below.
An early 2024 Tesla Cybertruck was reportedly sold at the Petersen Auto Museum 29th Gala for $400,000, according to several social media posts that surfaced this past weekend after the event was finished.
In other words, this is theoretically the first-ever Cybertruck to be sold, considering the electric truck is still yet to be delivered to the estimated two million reservation holders that are waiting for the zero-emissions pickup to go into full-scale production, an occurrence that has been delayed several times since the model’s reveal back in November 2019.
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has had a rather special relationship with Tesla, most recently hosting what the museum called the “most comprehensive gathering of Tesla products to date,” including the 2005 Roadster “Aerodynamic Buck,” the 2012 Model X prototype, as well as both the Cybertruck and second-gen Roadster prototypes from 2019 and 2017 respectively.
With this being said, it’s unclear what VIN the winning bidder will get, seeing how Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for driving the original Roadster bearing the VIN 001 number. When the auction was announced last week, the event’s description only said that all attendees could bid on a “low-vin” 2024 Cybertruck.
We reached out to the Los Angeles-based car museum to confirm if the electric pickup was sold at auction for $400,000 and to find out more details. We'll update this article when we hear back.
Tickets for the Petersen Automotive Museum’s 29th Gala didn’t come cheap, with a single seat costing $1,750, a table $17,500, and a “premier” table going for $30,000.
It’s worth mentioning that although the $400,000 winning bid is substantial, the first 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV fetched even more money – $500,000 – when it was sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction on January 28, while the first-ever GMC Hummer EV pickup was sold at auction for $2.5 million back in 2021.
As for the Cybertruck, it should be noted that several so-called “manufacturing confirmation” units were spotted recently in the Texas Gigafactory parking lot, hinting that the next batch of electric pickups to come out of the assembly line will be the final, delivery-spec vehicles, but this hasn’t been confirmed.
As always, let us know what you think about this in the comments section below.
