Tesla Joins Ford In Stopping Production of Its EV Pickup Truck

Both the Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning are presently taking a production pause due to lack of consumer interest in EV pickup trucks. 

As we have been reporting this year, battery-electric pickup trucks are failing in the U.S. marketplace. The latest evidence comes from Business Insider, who reports that they have an internal Tesla memo stating that the Tesla Cybertruck pickup production will be paused for three business days. BI also states that “Tesla shortened production hours for the Cybertruck line earlier this year,” and “Factory workers on the Cybertruck line said their schedule had been inconsistent since late October.” You can jump directly to this source here. 

How bad are Cybertruck deliveries? Since it launch in 2023, Tesla has never mentioned Cybertruck in a quarterly delivery report. 

Ford was the first pickup truck manufacturer to pause production unless you count Lordstown Motors, who went bankrupt, and Bollinger, who canceled its pickup truck model. Ford’s EV pickup truck pause is expected to be much longer. Reports are that the Lightning will be out of production from November to January. Barron’s and other publications are attributing the pause in production to a lack of demand for the EV truck.

Despite the apparent failure of EV pickup trucks in the American market, brands are continuing to roll out their EV pickups because a product launch has years of momentum behind it. In 2025, full-size EV pickups like the Lightning, Rivian R1T, and Cybertruck will outnumber conventionally powered models. Here is a quick rundown of the expected field of players after January of 2025. 

• Rivian R1T - On sale since September 2021
• Hummer EV Pickup - On sale since December 2021
• Ford F-150 Lightning - On sale since May 2022
• Chevrolet Silverado EV Pickup - On sale since Q3 2023
• GMC Sierra EV Pickup - On Sale Since Q3 2024
• Ram EV Pickup Truck - Promised “Early 2025”

Electric vehicle deliveries are now primarily leases, not outright purchases. Multiple trusted sources now peg the rate of EV leses at a whopping 80%. This is a fact that was confirmed to us in communications with the CEO of Hyundai. Manufacturers have piled massive incentive packages and discounts on top of huge government subsidies to keep the EV bandwagon moving. In the latest news, Tesla reduced its special year-end Cybertruck lease pricing to help move unwanted inventory.

Battery-electric pickup trucks are not the only subsegment of the "EV market" that is failing. 2024 was the year that the affordable EV died in America. You can read our 4-part series detailing that here. 

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John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading. 

Image of Cybertruck courtesy of Tesla, Inc.