When the Tesla Cybertruck first appeared on rental platform Turo in January this year, it was still somewhat of a hot new commodity. Fans were curious, so the hosts cashed in on the opportunity, charging $1,000 to spend a day in one of the flashiest cars to hit the roads in a generation.
And for at least one Turo host in Jersey City, the Cybertruck’s soaring rental popularity is a goldmine.
It's possible that nobody is betting big on Turo Cybertrucks like Dustin Liu, who operates a rental fleet of 90 cars, 65 of which are listed on Turo. His fleet is stationed in a sprawling parking lot in Jersey City’s Newport neighborhood, right by the Hudson River.
Liu has leased five aisles to park his cars and has something for every customer, not just those who want to try the Cybertruck life. His fleet includes a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Tesla Model Y and Model 3, several Mercedes GLEs and GLCs, multiple Range Rover Velars and a bunch of Chevy Corvette Stingrays and convertible Ford Mustangs, among others.
Yet the five Cybertrucks are the newest and priciest additions to his fleet. (The dual-motor Foundation Series Cybertruck costs $100,000 a pop.) He was the first Cybertruck Turo host in the New York City metro area early this year and now the EVs are bringing in bucket loads of cash. So far, Liu has spent about half a million dollars on five Cybertrucks, plus the reservation fees on 20 more that he has ordered.
Now that they've been on sale in force, Cybertruck listings are ubiquitous on Turo. They’re available in most major U.S. cities, from Seattle and Albuquerque to Memphis and Austin for half the daily price owners initially charged for rentals. Yet it's an increasingly popular way to experience such an unusual vehicle without actually buying one.
The Cybertruck means different things to different people. Tesla fans love it. Others think it’s a poor design plagued with quality issues and recalls. And for some, it’s a symbol of culture wars and far-right politics, a manifestation of controversial CEO Elon Musk himself. But for Liu, it is just a great truck that draws crowds and is good for business, regardless of the politics and culture wars attached to it.
Liu was one of the early reservation holders. He placed the deposit when Musk first showcased the radical machine at a pomp-and-pageantry-filled unveiling event in 2019. It was delayed by nearly five years due to pandemic-related issues and production problems. But for Liu, the wait has been worth it.
“I knew [the Cybertruck] was going to make money," Liu said, wearing a black half-sleeve hoodie, gray shorts and headphones wrapped around his neck. "The car isn’t ordinary. And Turo isn’t like Hertz or Enterprise." Hertz made a big bet on Tesla in 2021, buying thousands of EVs to reduce its fleet emissions. But last year, it began a mass sell-off of its Teslas after resale values plummeted. It realized that it had essentially overpaid for these cars and eventually lost millions of dollars in the ill-fated Tesla plan.
Unlike Hertz, Turo is an Airbnb for cars. It's a platform where owners themselves put their cars up for rent. They decide the price and on top of that, Turo adds some fees based on vehicle value, booking lead time, duration, etc. It's an entirely different business model. And Turo has gained a reputation for allowing ordinary folks to have some fun by renting supercars and swanky SUVs and sedans—posters of which may exist on their bedroom wallpapers, but are not easily attainable in real life. “People rent on Turo for luxury and for experience, both of which the Cybertruck provides,” Liu said.
Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck Turo Owner
Liu’s five Cybertrucks have a high utilization rate. In other words, they're almost always on the road, rented by people who haven’t experienced it as Tesla started official test drives only recently.
In four months, the combined rental income from the five trucks has helped him recover the price of an entire truck. “The five Cybertrucks, believe it or not, since April, have made me $120,000 already,” he said pointing his finger to the Turo app on his iPhone screen showing the income generated from the rentals. “Since April, I have made $30,000 on just one vehicle.”
Now he thinks there’s potential to earn even more. So he has ordered 20 more Cybertrucks, bringing his total order book to 25. InsideEVs verified both his earnings on the existing trucks and the number of orders he has placed. He’s also shared his June earnings in a public Facebook post.
Liu doesn’t know when the remaining 20 models will be delivered. He's not buying the Foundation Models again and was eager for the more affordable versions Tesla once promised. But that may never happen. Tesla has removed the $60,990 rear-wheel drive Cybertruck from its website, meaning the $100,000 Foundation Series model and the $120,000 tri-motor Cyberbeast are the only two trims to choose from for now.
Musk promised in 2019 that the Cybertruck would start at $39,900. And that alleged price helped get Liu where he is today.
“One of the reasons I ordered so many, I didn't expect them to cost $100,000 each,” Liu said. “It was supposed to cost $40,000 for the rear-wheel-drive. And then they changed the price and now they removed the price. That shocked me.”
Because the reception to his existing trucks has been effusive, he said, he may eventually stick with his orders and pay a higher price. “All the comments have been extremely positive. People are like, ‘Oh my god, you made my day. I have never felt like I was a celebrity, I feel like I was the president.’” On all his five Cybertruck listings on Turo, not a single renter has left a negative review.
As I interviewed him inside one of his Cybertrucks on a rooftop parking lot, several cars began driving around us in circles. The drivers had dumbfounded expressions on their faces, shocked at what this metal triangle on wheels was.
Meanwhile, Liu showed me the sillier features of the Cybertruck. The screen has a game where you can shatter the truck’s windows by tapping. It’s a humorous self-deprecating ode to the incident when Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at the truck, breaking its “armor glass.”
Liu said renters love the attention and none of them faced any issues with the truck so far. But some owners have indeed faced some debilitating problems. Tesla issued recalls to fix an accelerator pedal cover that would get stuck when depressed, turning the truck into a rogue land missile. There have also been drive unit failures, cosmetic issues and also a recall for the windshield wipers with faulty motors. Liu’s trucks were delivered after most of these issues were fixed.
Now in a few months, the Cybertrucks are earning him more money than his previous full-time job as a project manager at an insurance company. “Turo wasn't my primary business until earlier this year,” he said. “Prior to that, I worked in the city, I literally just quit my job three months ago."
With his Turo fleet, he made $200,000 last month alone, he claimed. “We bought six cars this week alone. BMW X3s and X5s,” he said, adding that the business has a high 70% profit margin. He was able to invest in his rental fleet thanks to some prior investments in real estate that paid off.
Not all Turo hosts have it this way. Liu said he was able to buy his non-Tesla cars at a lower price and knows how to minimize maintenance costs. He declined to comment on how he buys cars for below-market prices and how he saves on maintenance compared to regular car owners.
One of his Cybertrucks is wrapped in military green, with the skull logo of the Punisher, a Marvel Comics character. Another has a camo wrap. He said the third truck will soon get an Iron Man-themed wrap. The rest have the stock exterior—at least for now.
They aren’t exactly cheap to rent, costing about $314 to $366 per day at the time of publication. Add taxes and Turo’s own trip and processing fees and the per-day cost could stretch beyond $500. But that's still half of what owners were charging early this year. Plus, prices could drop further as more trucks enter the market.
It already surpassed the Ford F-150 Lightning to become America’s best-selling electric truck in the second quarter of 2024. In fact, in Austin, you can now rent one for as low as $200 a day.
Last year, community-sourced tracking sheets suggested Cybertruck reservations had topped two million, with wait times stretching up to five years. That may no longer be the case, as delivery times have now shrunk to just a few months. Production is ramping up, but not at a rate where a five-year backlog magically drops to two months.
As Tesla pivots toward AI and robotaxis, its EV market share is sliding. Rivals are truly stepping up and you now have great alternatives that are cheap, well-made and can go the distance. But for Turo hosts like Liu, bold statements like the Cybertruck may continue to pay off. In a market where standing out is half battle won, the Cybertruck’s polarizing design is a selling point, not really a drawback.
“If it wasn't so expensive, people would have loved to rent it for as long as possible,” Liu said with a grin.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com. Dustin Liu's Turo profile.
