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Ford's F-150 Lightning outsold 
the Tesla Cyber truck in 2025, 

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and Ford still killed the 
program because it wasn't 

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selling enough. 
A Tesla stainless steel truck 

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moved roughly 21,500 units 
globally last year, while the 

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Lightning, a truck Ford publicly
retired in December, delivered 

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approximately 27,300 units in 
the US alone. 

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Now you have a discounted 
vehicle outpacing an actively 

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marketed 1. 
And that raises a question most 

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Tesla bulls don't want to 
answer. 

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If Ford abandoned its EV truck 
at 27,000 units, what does that 

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mean for a cyber truck stuck at 
21,500? 

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Now we're going to break down 
the actual sales numbers Tesla 

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doesn't want you to see. 
Explain why SpaceX buying over 

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1000 cyber trucks still couldn't
stop the bleeding, and look at 

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what options Elon Musk has left.
The data here paints a picture 

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of a vehicle program running at 
roughly 10% of its intended 

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production capacity, and we'll 
get right into that after this 

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very short break. 
Now, the cyber truck is now 

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producing at a fraction of what 
Tesla planned, and the company 

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is doing everything it can to 
hide the numbers Tesla bundles. 

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It sails into two broad 
categories, Model 3 and Y, and 

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other models. 
The second bucket includes the 

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Model S, Model X, Cyber Truck 
and Tesla Semi, which makes 

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isolating cyber truck 
performance an exercise in 

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reverse engineering. 
Model S and Model X have held 

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relatively stable at low volume,
hovering around 5000 to 6000 

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units combined per quarter 
globally. 

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And if we allocate A generous 
6000 units for S&X and quarter 

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for 2025, that leaves roughly 
5600 units for the Cyber Truck 

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and Semi combined. 
The semi remains in pilot 

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production with negligible 
volume, so we're looking at 

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about 5500 cyber trucks for the 
entire quarter. 

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Now that number should alarm 
anyone who followed Musk's 

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original production promises for
the vehicle in Tesla Confirm in 

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July 2025, the Cyber Truck sales
had dropped to around 5000 units

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in quarter 2, and the recovery 
never materialized. 

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The company cut prices, 
introduced a cheaper trim, and 

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sales still cratered nearly 50% 
year over years. 

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And for context, the original 
Cyber Truck reveal in 2019 

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promised 250,000 units per year 
at full production. 

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The current run rate suggests 
annual output closer to a measly

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22,000 units. 
That's roughly 10%, less than 

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10% of stated capacity figure 
that would trigger program 

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cancellation at any other 
automaker. 

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Now, Ford provides a useful 
comparison point here. 

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The F-150 Lightning launched A 
genuine enthusiasm and solid 

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early sales, but Ford faced its 
own production challenges, 

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battery cost overruns, and 
shifting consumer demand. 

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By late 2025, Ford announced it 
was ending Lightning production 

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to pivot toward extended range 
EVs. 

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The Lightning delivered about 
27,300 units in the US for 2025,

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down 18% year over year as the 
company wound down the program 

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and Ford looked at those numbers
and decided the truck wasn't 

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viable long term. 
Tesla is looking at worst 

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numbers and calling it a success
now. 

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I've been digging through the 
analytics of the show and 

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noticed that 37% of you are 
following the channel for you. 

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I'm forever grateful and you are
part of our success here at the 

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00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,640
show. 
The other 63% of you haven't hit

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00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,560
the follower subscribe button. 
There's a few reasons for that. 

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You may have listened to a few 
episodes and just forgot to hit 

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the button. 
And that's cool. 

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I do that all the time. 
So please, if you can hit the 

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00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:51,320
follower or like button. 
And I've been an independent 

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00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:55,840
journalist covering SpaceX, Elon
Musk, Space Flight and tech for 

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the six years. 
And I spent a year at Starbase 

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Texas, on the ground at SpaceX, 
and I'm going to continue for 

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00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,960
the next 10 years. 
All I ask from you is one second

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00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,160
of your time to hit the follow 
or subscribe button on whatever 

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00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:14,360
platform you're watching on 
right now. 

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I'm extremely grateful and 
blessed to have you in this 

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community. 
You're part of this now. 

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So thank you so much for joining
us. 

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Now let's get back into this 
Tesla stuff. 

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It's crazy. 
Tesla released a cheaper strip 

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down cyber truck variant to 
boost sales. 

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The company cancelled it months 
later because it wasn't selling.

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Musk then had SpaceX purchase 
over 1000 cyber trucks in 

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quarter 4 of 2025. 
Now that single purchase 

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accounted for roughly 20% of 
Tesla's quarterly cyber truck 

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sales. 
His own company he bought. 

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He basically bought his own 
cyber trucks. 

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Even with his own company 
propping up the numbers, cyber 

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trucks sales still declined more
than 50% year over year. 

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SpaceX cannot keep buying trucks
to pad Tesla's quarterly 

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00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:06,440
reports, and eventually the 
financial engineering runs out 

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00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,480
of runway. 
Now the 4680 battery cells 

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00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:12,480
deserve scrutiny here as well. 
Tesla built the cyber truck 

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around these proprietary cells, 
betting that in house battery 

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production would reduce costs 
and improve performance. 

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The opposite happened. 
The 4680 cells contributed to 

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higher vehicle prices than 
originally announced and 

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delivered shorter range than the
2019 revealed promise. 

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A cyber truck that was supposed 
to start at around 40,000 now 

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starts well above that in the 
range. 

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Figures fell short of early 
marketing, 50,060 thousand for 

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some of those. 
And those broken promises eroded

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00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:47,720
trust with people who would love
to buy a Tesla truck. 

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They needed to convert those 
people and they just didn't do 

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it. 
The price was too high. 

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And also Elon Musk, his public 
persona is another viable factor

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in this equation. 
Brand perception matters, and 

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when it comes to automotive 
consumers, Musk's political 

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activities over the past two 
years have alienated a 

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00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,040
significant portion of potential
buyers Out. 

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There have been surveys out 
there, and I'm not saying that 

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00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,680
they're perfect, but they 
consistently show that CEO 

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00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,440
behavior ranks among the top 
reasons consumers avoid Tesla. 

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The company has no marketing 
department to counteract 

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negative press, no dealer 
network to smooth over concerns,

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00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,680
and no PR team to manage Elon 
Musk's controversies. 

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Every Musk tweet becomes the de 
facto voice of the company, no 

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matter what he says. 
It reflects on Tesla and all of 

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his other companies. 
And for a vehicle that already 

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00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:44,840
struggled with polarizing design
and it's hot, it's metal and 

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it's sharp, adding a polarizing 
spokesperson, Elon Musk, created

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compounding headwinds for the 
vehicle. 

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Now the path narrows with each 
quarter at Tesla. 

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Musk previously said Tesla would
pivot to more traditional truck 

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00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:03,280
design of this cyber truck 
failed. 

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00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,520
But that pivot hasn't happened. 
There's no talk about it. 

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00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:09,960
Acknowledging failure would 
require Musk to admit the design

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00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,240
was completely wrong. 
And it's management style 

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00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,960
doesn't accommodate that kind of
public reversal. 

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00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,480
The Cyber Cab and other projects
continue to absorb engineering 

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00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:24,520
resources while the Cyber Truck 
line sits underutilized. 

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Most automakers would have 
written off this program by now,

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00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,800
absorbed the loss, and 
redirected capital toward viable

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products. 
Tesla appeared committed to 

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00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:37,440
running out the clock. 
Instead, Ford has officially 

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00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:41,520
killed the Lightning at 27,300 
annual units. 

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00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:46,200
Tesla is celebrating the Cyber 
Truck at 21,500 units. 

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One company recognized when a 
product wasn't working, it just 

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killed it, moved on, pivoted. 
The other company keeps buying 

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00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:57,360
its own inventory through the 
shell game with SpaceX 

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00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:00,800
transactions from other 
companies and they call it 

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00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:02,240
growth. 
But that's not how it is. 

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00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:06,360
They they needed to appease the 
people that were buying the 

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00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:08,680
stock. 
They needed those extra sales so

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00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:12,120
it didn't look like it was a 
horror show of only 4000 units 

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00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:16,880
sale sold in the last quarter. 
So Cyber Truck program now 

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00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:21,360
operates at about 10% or less 
capacity prices remain higher 

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00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,840
than promised, range fell short 
of announcements and the cheaper

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00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:30,360
variant got cancelled. 
So unless something changes at 

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00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:36,080
Tesla, they may never do another
cyber truck again.