While the early adopters paid a pretty penny for the Tesla Cybertruck, you can now get it for a (slightly) more reasonable price tag.
Ever since it finally hit the market late last year, the new Tesla Cybertruck has been the subject of, well, let’s say heated debate and discussion. It’s always been a polarizing take on what a modern “truck” should be, but scores of folks still lined up to buy Tesla’s most unconventional vehicle to-date. In fact, pretty much everyone who really, really wanted a Cybertruck now has their hands on one, to the point where the automaker now has a problem on its hands. As demand softens, Tesla can no longer find ready buyers willing to pay the premium price tag to get on the early bandwagon…so it’s turning to lease offers to shift greater volumes.
Now, the news of Tesla bringing in a lease option to help shift Cybertrucks isn’t new, as it’s been doing that for the past few weeks. The latest development, however, is that it’s now offering more appealing lease terms (at least on paper) to woo prospective buyers. That said, even if you’re toying with the idea of a Cybertruck — given the comments on most of our CT videos, I know most of you are not — you may want to take a few other notices recent reports into consideration before you pull the trigger.
So, what is the new lease pricing for Tesla Cybertruck models?
Right now, the Tesla Cybertruck comes in two flavors: the dual-motor model or the triple-motor Cyberbeast. Pricing has held firm over the past few months at $79,990 for the former and $99,990 for the latter, though if you don’t want to buy one outright there is a lease option. Keep those cash prices in mind as we walk through the leasing terms below.
Lease deals now start off at $899 a month for 36 months, down $100 from November, with a 10,000 annual mileage allowance. That’s for the base all-wheel drive model, as the Cyberbeast is available for that $999/month figure. In either case, though, you’ll have to cough up $7,500 as a down payment to get that rate, or pay well over $1,000 each month if you want to avoid putting down any up-front cash.
Tesla also offered lease buyouts on the Cybertruck for the first time, though you’ll still have to pay a hefty price when your three-year term is up. If you lease the All-Wheel Drive model, you’ll have to pay $54,930 plus taxes and fees, including a $350 lease purchase fee, at the end of the 36-month deal. So, if you factor in the $39,864 you’ll pay under Tesla’s new lease scheme ($899/month plus the $7,500 down payment), your final price would come out to $95,144, plus taxes and fees.
Go for the Cyberbeast, and you’ll wind up shelling out $43,464 in lease payments, plus pay $67,510 for a buyout if you actually wanted to keep it on the other end. In total, you’d spend $110,974 for a Cyberbeast before you even get into sales taxes and other fees. Keep in mind I haven’t even brought up the “D” word (depreciation) yet…so your Tesla Cybertruck will be worth considerably less than either amount you ultimately pay if you decide to buy it this way.
The Tesla Cybertruck has also suffered a few issues since its launch.
Remember the earlier mention of notices and recent reports? This year alone, the new Tesla Cybertruck has undergone six separate recall campaigns, averaging one every 2-3 months. Those include (with their NHTSA recall numbers):
- Incorrect front size on warning lights (Recall no. 24V-051 – January 30, 2024)
- Unintended acceleration from trapped pedal (Recall no. 24V-276 – April 17, 2024)
- Front windshield wiper can fail (Recall no. 24V-456 – June 19, 2024)
- Improperly adhered trunk bed trim can detach (Recall no. 24V-457 – June 19, 2024)
- Rearview camera image may not display (Recall no. 24V-718 – September 26, 2024)
- This is especially problematic with the Cybertruck, as drivers have to rely on the rearview camera to maneuver the truck while parking.
- Inverter fault may cause loss of drive power (Recall no. 24V-832 – November 5, 2024)
It’s not just the recall campaigns, either. Tesla had to go back to the drawing board with its aero wheel covers — the ones that affixed directly to the specially designed Goodyear all-terrain tires — because they were chewing into the sidewall.
There may be a new issue on the horizon as well. Two recent videos on TikTok (here and here) garnered millions of views and raised eyebrows about just how durable the Cybertruck’s alloy wheels actually are. While one video has a tagline that Tesla’s wedge-shaped truck has “concrete wheels”. It doesn’t, of course, but you can see where the poster’s coming from when he gets in close to the shattered wheels, wonders whether the wheels are some sort of special alloy, and even shows one corner where the back-left wheel seems to have snapped clean off the Cybertruck.
The most obvious culprit for the damage is some kind of impact with a curb or something equally hard, but we don’t get much context for what actually happened — just the aftermath. Nevertheless, the person who posted the videos wonders whether this is an issue that should warrant another recall. At the moment, its unclear whether this sort of extensive wheel damage is a potential catastrophe waiting to strike thousands of Cybertruck owners, but this specific failure is certainly a dramatic one.
Tesla seems to be slow-rolling production, too.
Earlier in the year, CEO Elon Musk touted the Cybertruck’s “record” production figures, saying the company would ultimately build 2,500 trucks a week. On the company’s mid-year earnings call, he also stated Tesla did, in fact, crank out Cybertrucks at the volume of 1,300 each week, while aiming to round off the year with a capacity of 125,000 units.
Fast forward a few months, and it appears Tesla has already saturated the market with as many examples of the Cybertruck as buyers are willing to snap up. A report from Business Insider on Monday cited an internal memo telling workers at the Austin, Texas Gigafactory not to report in for work until Friday. The company did tell workers they would still receive normal-time pay, while it also shortened production line hours back in April. However, even when workers return to the plant on Friday, not all will actually return to the Cybertruck production line, with Tesla saying it would notify those employees separately to Monday’s wider email blast.
According to that report, workers have faced inconsistent scheduling since at least October, suggesting the automaker is slow-rolling its production to reach an equilibrium with lower-than-anticipated demand.
“When I started at Tesla you could expect to get overtime pay,” one longtime Tesla worker told BI. “Now I feel lucky to get 40 hours.”
Tesla does not specifically report Cybertruck sales, so it’s not entirely clear how many the company has actually sold to date. Based on some industry analytics tools using registration data to extrapolate delivery numbers, Tesla has supposedly sold about 28,250 Cybertrucks through the end of September. Earlier recall campaigns, like the rearview camera recall in September, also cite 27,185 affected trucks, so the company has at least sold that many.
With the general sentiment toward the Tesla Cybertruck and the cooling EV market generally, it seems the 125,000-plus annual production target isn’t currently achievable at current prices. It’s unclear at the moment whether the lease deals will soak up some of the current excess capacity, or whether pricing will drop to try and spark more demand.
Given all the information we currently have, it seems fairly likely Tesla will have to slash prices for cash buyers and lessees to get folks to bite. So, whatever you think of the current lease offers, you may still get a better deal if you hold off for a bit.
After a bit more than six months and 10,000 miles, we’re actually getting rid of our Tesla Cybertruck for another EV. We go through all the reasons why and what we think of the truck after the time we’ve owned it in the video below. (And if you’re totally uninterested in EVs…thank you for reading this far, and we did also just pick up a Chevy Silverado 2500HD Trail Boss too.)
