- Tesla has dropped the Foundation Series premium from the Cybertruck
- The cheapest version now starts below $80,000
- Is that drop enough to earn the truck more sales?
The Tesla Cybertruck saga is finally taking a new turn. After years of waiting for the hotly-anticipated trapezoid-on-wheels, folks who didn't want to pony up the extra cash for the ultra-expensive "Foundation Series" can finally place an order for a more affordable version of the truck.
By "affordable," I mean not hugging the six-figure mark so closely. By dropping the extra $20,000 premium of the Foundation Series—which includes Tesla's Full Self-Driving software, a $4,000 credit for PowerShare hardware, and some other items—it brings the cost of the all-wheel-drive version of the truck down to a cool $79,990 (and the Beast to $99,990). Is that the sweet spot to garner more demand for Tesla's futuristic ride?
Here's the thing: Tesla is incredibly good at building buzz. Leaving its CEO's antics out of the picture, Tesla is really good at guerilla marketing—and the Cybertruck's design alone is one form of marketing that has also given the vehicle the same status as the legendary DeLorean. So there's still a lot of hype around the Cybertruck, and because it's such a polarizing vehicle, people talk about it whether they love it or hate it (there's really not much of an in-between). But now that a cheaper version of the truck is available for buyers to order, the time has come to see if the hype will pay off.
Tesla fans are known for die-hard brand loyalty, so those who have pre-ordered one of these stainless steel fridge magnets might have been waiting since it was announced in 2019 to get their hands on it. But then again, let's not forget that $100 down is much easier to stomach than $79,990—especially when buyers expected the truck to start at half that price with a bigger bed, more range, and an increased payload. Plus, folks put down multiple reservations on the truck early on for some reason, so figuring out how many of those existing reservations will convert to sales is pretty much a toss-up.
Outside of Tesla fans and cultural hype beasts, the market for the Cybertruck's unconventional styling might not attract traditional truck buyers like the Ford F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1T. That's not to say that Cybertruck can't do truck things; some more established trucks follow the traditional cookie-cutter profile of what a pickup looks like and how it performs. Can the Tesla brand cachet and unique design of the Cybertruck earn enough sales from normies to break into the traditional truck market share?
One other thing to note is that there is no mention of the Federal EV tax credit applying to the Cybertruck now that it costs under $80,000. It's not clear if the truck simply hasn't received approval for the credit or if there's another underlying reason. However, with the arrival of the less expensive model, which was not expected until November, it gives some time for the confusion to clear up before people actually start taking delivery.
So here we are, at the end of the road for the Foundation Series. If nothing else, Tesla has made some decent cash capitalizing on the early adopter's tax. With a $20,000 premium and somewhere around 30,000 deliveries, the Foundation Series run earned Tesla an extra $600 million which is probably helpful in offsetting Tesla's sales slump.
Either way, the coming months will help the industry judge whether the Cybertruck is truly penetrating the market as Tesla hoped or if it will become just another luxury EV catering to a niche market (looking at you, Hummer EV).
On the other hand, success might not matter in the long run since CEO Elon Musk admitted he doesn't care about that anyway:
"To be frank, there is always some chance that Cybertruck will flop because it is so unlike anything else. I don’t care. I love it so much even if others don’t. Other trucks look like copies of the same thing, but Cybertruck looks like it was made by aliens from the future."
