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Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

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Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#41
post #16
post #4

My witty retort would have been, “yeah, well, people bought the Pontiac Aztek, too.”, except Tesla has sold almost as many Cybertrucks in the 3rd quarter as Pontiac sold Azteks in an entire peak sales year.

Was it the Aztek that had really rabid fans? It was one of those boxy ones. Never could figure out if they actually had really good reasons for it or were just trying to justify having bought an Aztek.

If you look at an Aztek today it doesn't stand out as unusual at all.

It feels like the Aztek was ahead of its time and many mid-size SUVs have since caught up with its aesthetic.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#42
post #39

The reason theyre selling is likely due to a US small business tax loophole that allows you to write off things like range rovers and escalades as a business expense. coupled with US electric vehicle incentives state and federal, and its a pretty sweet deal on the most electric SUV per weight and length you can buy. Honestly I fully expect to see these things crisping in the sunlit parking lot of a predatory auto len…

Literally every cybertruck I see has been fully wrapped with some business logo on it. I’m not sure I’ve yet seem one that wasn’t bought as a tax write off.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#43

Anecdata, but in the Bay Area I see a Cybertruck almost every time I go out. At the beginning of the year it was once per month. Now there are two or three Cybertruck owners in my immediate neighborhood. I don't like the look, personally, but my kids love it.

Sure, I'm in the Bay Area too. I see Rivians daily. Had an F-150 lightning pull up next to me yesterday. Every once in a while I'll see a Luicd whatever. Can't remember the last time I've seen a Cybertruck (on the road or broken down). In the past week I've seen a couple Hummer EVs. Hell I've seen more running Vinfasts than running Cybertrucks.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#44

I see multiple Cybertrucks every day driving around LA. I'll admit the design has grown on me, and we need more mainstream vehicles challenging the boring design "norms". I would love to see a cross between the Model Y and Cybertruck in the future.

I find Kia/ Hyundai designs more pleasing and “out of the box” than most other automakers. Of course they have some failures like the Ioniq 6 sedan, the thing looks like the hate child between a 911 and an MB C300.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#46
It is honestly baffling to me how many people have such strong opinions on the Cyber Truck. I don't personally like the aesthetic, but the majority of the reason I wouldn't get one is that I really don't like Teslas interior design/control scheme (which, much like apple, has lead a lot of manufacturers to copy them). I hate the 100% touch screen thing that they have decided on. But like...also, I just won't buy one. The fact that the car isn't my ideal one does not require me to despise it, or really care about it at all. There are a lot of cars that I don't like for one reason or another.

I mean, I guess I do get it: politics have poisoned people's brains and the fact that they don't like Musk's politics means that they have to have extremely strong opinions on everything connected to him, but it just doesn't seem worth the emotional effort.

And while I personally wouldn't ever buy one, it also is not surprising to me at all that a lot of people are buying them. I have no illusion that my personal tastes reflect the broader tastes of the car-buying public (if they did, then I would find it much easier to find a car that conforms to my preferences).

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#48
Its the design.

The memefication of reality is happening right under our eyes, and the Cybertruck is the perfect vehicle for it.

Expect more such memetic design across everything. From people to products, the meme is the atomic unit of attention. Beauty is a secondary goal; to sprout memes is how you win in twenty twenty four - and beyond.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#49

The weird thing I’ve seen is in almost all the online forums I visit, like Reddit, YouTube comment sections, parts of twitter, hacker news, the cybertruck is universally panned. Yet when I drove a cybertruck, the number of onlookers who approached me inquiring about the car with excitement is unmatched with even a Lamborghini that I once rented. Shows how much of a bubble the internet alone is. MKBHD got the ratio’s…

I feel this is also selection bias. People approaching owners in public are unlikely to be aware of what an engineering disaster the thing is, what with all the issues with quality control, slow delivery, and very slow repairs/maintenance from Tesla, or the funnier stories where owners have had their trucks brick entirely due to getting the thing washed, whereas in the comment sections you're referencing, those topics are usually the topic of conversation. And, I mean, even if the people approaching owners do know about that stuff... I dunno, I find it hard to picture myself walking up to a complete stranger and shit-talking their new toy to their face. And not just because I'm a nice person, but because too many people in this country are emotionally unstable and armed, and as funny as I think Cybertrucks and their owners are, I'm not prepared to get killed for a joke.

And to put this even further: most people even in America are not "car people" and therefore don't know shit about cars, where they come from, what goes into them, etc. My parents are great examples of this. They've owned something like 4 of the 10 worst cars of the new millennium list put out by Forbes, but like, an awful car in 2024 is still generally fine for an undemanding casual user. Sure, people buy tons of trucks here, but the vast majority of them aren't used for anything more strenuous than hauling a dozen bags of fertilizer, and my Corvette can handle that. A Cybertruck is a terrible truck, but most people don't do truck shit with the trucks they buy, and it's a perfectly middle-of-the-road SUEV. I think it's a bad option if that's what you're after, chiefly because you're gonna spend a LOT of money on tires you don't really need to, and the panels aren't aligned right, and if anything goes wrong with it you're liable to spend months playing vehicular ping-pong with your Tesla dealership, and it's (IMO) ugly as sin... but you do you. Assuming it doesn't have some kind of catastrophic failure that an unfortunate number do, you'll probably have a fine experience.

The videos of it struggling to move in snow and "bravely" fording a creek of 5 inch deep water are funny as hell to see, because it's shocking what Cybertruck owners think "hard going" in a truck is. They'd probably lose their minds seeing some of what I've seen modified trucks crawl up, through, and across in the course of off-road competition if they think driving through a fast stream makes the Cybertruck a feat of engineering, but again, most people who buy these things aren't driving through a blizzard at 90mph to get medicine to the good children of the village so they live to see Santa come Christmas morning. They're going across town to the Good Denny's, or to the local mall for shopping, or to their kids soccer game. And on that journey, a Cybertruck and virtually any vehicle you can buy new right now, will suffice. Just don't get it wet.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US

#50
post #39

The reason theyre selling is likely due to a US small business tax loophole that allows you to write off things like range rovers and escalades as a business expense. coupled with US electric vehicle incentives state and federal, and its a pretty sweet deal on the most electric SUV per weight and length you can buy. Honestly I fully expect to see these things crisping in the sunlit parking lot of a predatory auto len…

How is buying a company vehicle a "tax loophole"?
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