Where have all the Cybertrucks gone?

First Pete Seeger asked, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” then Paula Cole wondered, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and now Sherwood News’ Rani Molla is looking into the seeming disappearance of Tesla Cybertrucks from its Gigafactory lot.

This spring, Sherwood got satellite imagery of Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory, where the Cybertrucks are made. Scans of lots that hold finished Teslas quickly revealed hundreds of Cybertrucks stashed outside the factory — their large rectangular profiles making them easily recognizable from space.

Already sales of the Cybertruck had begun to flag, so it seemed Tesla was stuck with the extras.

But when we checked satellite images of Tesla’s Texas parking lots again this summer, however, the stainless steel behemoths were no longer so apparent, as this cool interactive slider shows.

So, what happened?

Tesla is making fewer Cybertrucks, as our chart up top shows.

Tesla is selling fewer Cybertrucks, too. Rivian has replaced the Cybertruck as the “it” car in the tony Hamptons, and the Tesla trucks themselves have been the subject of vandalism across the country, which has likely also dampened demand.

Of course, Tesla may have concluded that storing Cybertruck inventory in a single spot is noticeable by smart people like Sherwood’s Molla and so now it’s mixing the Cybertrucks in with the rest of the lot.

The Takeaway

Tesla has certainly faced a bumpy road lately. Its most recent earnings report showed that overall automobile revenue dropped 16% year on year to $16.6 billion. It’s not just Cybertrucks: the EV maker sold 60,000 fewer vehicles in the second quarter than the same period the year prior. But it’s not all doom and gloom for Tesla, as its board recently approved a nearly $30 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk to “recognize the extraordinary value that Elon created for Tesla shareholders” and keep him locked in as chief, which investors cheered.