Tesla May Build a Smaller All-Electric Truck Amid Cybertruck’s Failure

Tesla had planned for 250,000 Cybertrucks to be built annually by about this time, but they’re only selling at a rate around a tenth of that. And with EVs swooning in general, the carmaker might be getting ready to turn the page. That could be with a new, smaller, all-electric truck, according to recent comments from a company executive.

Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said at an event on Saturday in California for the company’s investors that it had been considering a smaller truck for some time. Tesla has been thinking about it more in the context of its recently reinvigorated autonomy ambitions, which in the future might include a smaller truck to transport not just humans but also things.

“We always talked about making a smaller pickup. I think in the future, as more and more of the robotaxi comes into the world, we look at those options and we think about, OK, that kind of service is useful not just for people, but also for goods,” Moravy said. “We’ve definitely been churning in the design studio about what we might do to serve that need for sure.”

A small, autonomous Tesla truck might not be what some are hoping for, which would be a small, affordable truck, but Moravy’s comments also show that the company is thinking well beyond the Cybertruck, a car has been a failure only compared to the automaker’s ambitions for it.

The Cybertruck has previously outsold competitors like the Ford F-150 Lightning, and, for a car with such unorthodox looks and with such baggage attached, might even normally be considered a minor success. But Tesla had hoped to sell up to half a million Cybertrucks per year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at one point, suggesting a product that was supposed to compete with full-size trucks from Ford, Chevy, and Ram that collectively sell millions annually. That hasn’t happened.

Another problem is that Tesla observers assume that much of the sales have gone to early adopters and superfans of the brand, with not much momentum left to carry the vehicle as it gets older by the day and hasn’t become more than a niche product. Tesla’s competitors have also simply gotten better, including Rivian, leaving the Cybertruck in a gray area of no longer being novel and not being very useful, either.

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A smaller truck from Tesla could be one solution, and perhaps even become a more sustainable business proposition. But the car maker has to build it first.