The Cybertruck era is over, but America’s electric truck experiment isn’t

After barely three years on the road, Tesla is planning to kick the Cybertruck to the curb after flagging sales. Elon Musk announced on Friday that the company would wind down production next year to make room for the production of Cybercabs, the robot taxis Tesla hopes will reshape transportation. In its short lifespan, the Cybertruck managed to become a top candidate for the most polarizing vehicle on the road — ever. Critics called it a “MAGA hat on wheels” and compared it to a dumpster — a resemblance that may have fooled some hungry raccoons that once chewed on the vehicle’s rear vault. It’s already being declared “one of the greatest flops in automotive history,” on par with Ford’s 1957 Edsel. But the polygonal, supposedly bulletproof truck did appeal to a certain demographic. “It’s the kind of vehicle, as a kid, you imagine for the future,” said Dan Krassner, executive director of the American EV Jobs Alliance, an advocacy organization working to end the partisan divide over electric vehicles. He’s a Republican and a wrestling fan, and noted that some of his favorite pro wrestlers drove Cybertrucks, including the married WWE superstars Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, along with The Miz and Liv Morgan (though the latter has said it was the “worst investment” she ever made). Weeks before the Cybertruck rolled out in late 2023, Musk told investors that Tesla would sell 250,000 vehicles a year. But it never came close: Last year, it sold just over 20,000. It’s the latest sign that the attempt to make EVs macho is falling flat, after Ford announced last December that its F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the all-electric version of the country’s most popular vehicle, would be discontinued since it was a money-loser. Sales of Rivian’s electric pickup have been sliding downward each year since 2023; they have also dropped sharply for GMC’s Hummer EV, which was dubbed “the worst-selling pickup truck of 2026.” Automakers have long tried to shed the saintly, environmentally friendly image of the Toyota Prius, and this shift to big, aggressive electric trucks was an effort to appeal to traditional American pickup buyers. But they not only had to contend with conservatives’ hesitations about EVs, they also had to persuade a public increasingly worried about the cost of living to overcome sticker shock, to fork over thousands, if not tens of thousands, more to buy an electric pickup instead of a gas-powered one. A comparable gas-powered Ford pickup starts at $52,000, about $11,000 less than the Lightning did before Ford discontinued it. “The first electric trucks weren’t priced for the people who buy trucks, and buyers still have fair questions about charging and towing,” Krassner said. “You know, macho advertising can’t fix the monthly payment.” The starting price for the 2026 Tesla Cybertruck was just raised to $92,500, and the cheapest Hummer EV is $97,200. Full-size electric pickup trucks need very large batteries to deliver the range and towing capabilities that truck buyers want, leading to higher prices, Krassner said. But cheaper models are on the way. Ford’s upcoming electric pickup truck coming next year, the Fathom, will be priced starting at $28,400 — well below the price of the average gas-powered pickup. Meanwhile, now that the F-150 Lightning is out of production, with used models going for 50 percent off the sticker price, it’s “selling like hotcakes,” according to the transportation news site Electrek. “As the electric trucks are more comparable in price to gas trucks, we expect them to be a superior product and be popular with Americans,” Krassner said. Read Next There’s still a large partisan divide on electric vehicles: Roughly half of all new EV registrations in the U.S. from 2012 to 2023 went to the 10 percent most Democratic counties, according to a study from the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. Because electric trucks performed better in Republican-leaning areas — though not as well as Tesla and Ford had hoped — the researchers suggested they could still be a way to broaden EV adoption. And some of Republicans’ resistance to electric vehicles has begun to ease, Krassner said. The share of Republicans who agree that EVs are “for people who see the world differently than I do” fell from 59 percent in November 2023 to 49 percent in November 2025, according to polling from EVs for All America. As the Cybertruck’s production comes to a close, Alexander Edwards, president of the research consultancy Strategic Vision, was cautious about declaring the electric pickup experiment a failure. He sees the F-150 Lightning as a lesson in making sure that trucks can perform the jobs their owners bought them to do — including towing a camper across several states without worrying about range and charging access. The Cybertruck, on the other hand, appealed to a sense of individuality, innovation, excitement, but only a relatively small group of people were willing to pay for that experience at a high price point, especially as Tesla became a political target thanks to Musk’s involvement with DOGE. “I think price, product frustrations, Musk’s politics, and the changing meaning of owning one all need to be part of the discussion,” Edwards said. High gas prices sparked by the war in Iran, which have stuck around for months, are prompting people to purchase hybrids, though sales of electric vehicles have declined after the Trump administration’s elimination of federal tax credits last year. Krassner is also bullish on a new generation of range-extended electric trucks — EVs with a gas-powered generator — which could ease drivers’ range anxiety. In other words, America’s experiment with electrified pickup trucks isn’t over yet. “I’d say round one went to the gas truck,” Krassner said. “Round two hasn’t started yet.”