Despite only being on sale for roughly half a year, the Tesla Cybertruck managed to beat the Rivian R1T in the U.S. registrations game in March, data from S&P Global Mobility shows. The R1T was the first production all-electric pickup truck to be delivered in the U.S., with the first customers getting their hands on it in the second half of 2021.
That said, the Ford F-150 Lightning, deliveries of which started in 2022, was still the king in the American battery-powered pickup segment.
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The Cybertruck is gaining momentum
The Tesla Cybertruck inched closer to the electric pickup segment leader, the Ford F-150 Lightning, and left the Rivian R1T in the dust, according to March registration data from S&P Global Mobility.
According to S&P Global Mobility, there were 2,893 new F-150 Lightnings registered in the United States in March, 1,158 Cybertrucks and 548 R1Ts. The Lightning’s numbers nearly tripled year over year, while the R1T saw a 65% drop compared to March 2023.
The Chevrolet Silverado EV had 319 registrations in March and the GMC Hummer EV pickup netted 192 registrations.
In the first quarter, Ford’s electric F-150 had 8,589 registrations (up 51% year over year), the Cybertruck had 1,791 and the R1T had 1,786 (down 56%). The Silverado EV recorded 803 registrations in Q1 2024.
Deliveries of the Tesla Cybertruck began in November 2023, but neither Tesla nor Rivian published separate sales figures for their pickups, so registration data is the next best thing we have to gauge consumer interest.
Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck
"In its fourth month, the Cybertruck had over a thousand registrations and outsold the R1T by more than two to one," said Tom Libby, associate director of industry analysis at S&P Global Mobility. "And frankly, I'm a little bit surprised. The Cybertruck is very, very unique, and it's interesting that it's been able to do that type of volume so quickly."
At one point during the Cybertruck’s long and delay-ridden path to series production, Tesla’s head honcho, Elon Musk, went on record saying that the angular electric pickup had one million reservations. Each reservation holder had to put down a $100 deposit, so if Musk’s statement is true, the American carmaker (and AI company) pocketed a healthy $100 million from reservations alone.
