Cybertruck Called the Biggest Flop in Automotive History, as Tesla Shares Plummet

Quick Read

• TSLA fell 18% successful a week aft Q2 EPS of $0.33 missed statement and escaped currency travel swung to antagonistic $1.09 billion.

• The Cybertruck sold one-sixth of Musk's 250,000-unit yearly projection and posted the steepest income diminution of immoderate U.S. EV nameplate successful 2025.

• Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Tesla didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) investors got a brutal reminder past week that ambitious targets tin curdle into cautionary tales. A Bloomberg study published July 22, 2026 argued the Cybertruck has eclipsed the Ford Edsel arsenic the car industry's benchmark commercialized flop connected a target-versus-actual basis. Hours later, Tesla posted a Q2 net miss, and the banal logged its worst week since 2022.

The Edsel Yardstick

Ford launched the Edsel successful 1957 with projections of 200,000 units successful its archetypal year. It sold little than one-third of that target, and its vertical grille (mocked arsenic resembling a toilet seat) became shorthand for firm nonaccomplishment that has endured astir 7 decades.

Elon Musk acceptable a higher bar. He projected the Cybertruck could scope 250,000 units annually and called it Tesla's "best merchandise ever." In its archetypal afloat year, the motortruck sold astir one-sixth of that target. Per Bloomberg's chart, Year 2 income fell to good nether 25,000, a steeper proportional miss than the Edsel's.

An Accelerating Decline

Cox Automotive figures amusement the trajectory. Cybertruck sold 38,965 units successful 2024, past 20,237 units successful 2025, a 48.1% year-over-year decline. Q4 2025 measurement was 4,140 units, down 68.1% from 12,991 a twelvemonth earlier. Q1 2026 deed a grounds debased of 3,519 deliveries, and lone 7,133 Cybertrucks were registered successful the U.S. done May 2026, per S&P Global Mobility information cited by Bloomberg.

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The motortruck posted the steepest income diminution of immoderate EV nameplate successful the U.S. successful 2025. Tesla's net materials database the Cybertruck alongside Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, Cybercab, Semi and Roadster, but it has not appeared arsenic a maturation operator successful the past 4 quarterly reports.

The Stock Rout

The Cybertruck communicative is 1 strand successful a broader unraveling. Tesla shares fell 17.81% successful the week ending July 24, 2026, closing astatine $313.03. The single-session driblet aft net ran to 14%, sending the banal to an 11-month low.

The Q2 study explains the reaction. Revenue reached $28.24 billion, up 25.52% year-over-year, connected grounds deliveries of 480,126 vehicles. Adjusted EPS of $0.33, missing the $0.5367 consensus. Operating income slid 56.88% to $398 million, escaped currency travel swung to antagonistic $1.09 billion, and operating expenses surged 47% to $4.35 cardinal connected AI infrastructure, R&D and stock-based compensation. Full-year capex is guided to implicit $25 cardinal for Optimus, Cybercab and AI information centers.