For the longest time the Ford Edsel, launched in 1957, held the record as the biggest flop automotive history, the measure used being the target sales compared to actual sales.. (Via Rob Beschizza)

Ford launched the Edsel in 1957 with projections of 200,000 units in its first year. It sold less than one-third of that target, and its vertical grille (mocked as resembling a toilet seat) became shorthand for corporate failure that has endured nearly seven decades.

But superachiever Elon Musk has beaten that record with his Cybertruck, launched in November 2023.

He projected the Cybertruck could reach 250,000 units annually and called it Tesla’s “best product ever.” In its first full year, the truck sold roughly one-sixth of that target. Per Bloomberg’s chart, Year 2 sales fell to well under 25,000, a steeper proportional miss than the Edsel’s.

Cox Automotive figures show the trajectory. Cybertruck sold 38,965 units in 2024, then 20,237 units in 2025, a 48.1% year-over-year decline. Q4 2025 volume was 4,140 units, down 68.1% from 12,991 a year earlier. Q1 2026 hit a record low of 3,519 deliveries, and only 7,133 Cybertrucks were registered in the U.S. through May 2026, per S&P Global Mobility data cited by Bloomberg.
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The truck posted the steepest sales decline of any EV nameplate in the U.S. in 2025. 
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The Cybertruck story is one strand in a broader unraveling. Tesla shares fell 17.81% in the week ending July 24, 2026, closing at $313.03. The single-session drop after earnings ran to 14%, sending the stock to an 11-month low.

Musk has tried to mask the disaster by requiring his other companies like Space X to buy the Cybertruck for their fleets. Those sales counted for 20% of the vehicles sold in the fourth quarter of last year.

In my opinion, the Cybertruck is the ugliest vehicle on the road. Nothing else comes close. It looks like what you would get if you crossed a dumpster with a DeLorean. Only hardcore Musk fanboys could love such a monstrosity or even be seen in it. I have never met anyone who actually owns one but have occasionally seen one the road near where I live. One of them has ‘TOYOTA’ written in large letters on the back. The owner is clearly making some kind of statement but I don’t know what it is. Regret over their purchase? Distancing from Musk? Thumbing their nose at critics?

The Edsel lasted just two years before it was pulled from production. The Cybertruck has lasted longer but I suspect that it is because it is Musk’s vanity project and he will not let it disappear however much money it loses.