Only 173 People Bought Tesla’s “Cheap” Cybertruck. Now Its Wheels Are Falling Off.
Tesla’s Cybertruck was supposed to be the truck that changed everything, apocalypse-proof, bullet-resistant, and priced so aggressively that Ford and Chevy would need smelling salts. Fast-forward six years from that promise, and a recent recall document has revealed a number so astonishing it almost feels like a typo: 173.
One hundred and seventy-three.
That’s how many people bought the “affordable” rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck before Tesla quietly killed it. And now, in a twist that borders on parody, those same trucks are being recalled because, I wish I were joking, the wheels could literally fall off while driving.
Let’s unpack how we got here, because this story isn’t really about a recall. It’s about what happens when ambition collides with reality, when marketing promises get hollowed out by accountants, and when a company learns, very publicly, that you can’t strip away everything people love about a truck and expect them to show up with a checkbook.
173 Cybertrucks. That’s It. That’s the Entire Production Run.
Here’s the thing about Tesla: the company hates telling you how many of each model it sells. It lumps the Cybertruck in with the aging Model S and Model X under the vague umbrella of “Other Models” in its quarterly reports, making it almost impossible to know what’s actually moving and what’s gathering dust on dealer lots.
But sometimes, the truth sneaks out through a side door.
In April 2026, Tesla filed a recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for certain Cybertrucks equipped with 18-inch steel wheels. The document listed the number of potentially affected vehicles: 173. That number, according to the NHTSA filing, represents the entire population of rear-wheel-drive Cybertrucks ever built.
Think about that for a second. Tesla, one of the most valuable automakers on the planet, launched an entire trim level of its flagship pickup, marketed it as the affordable entry point, and sold fewer units than there are seats in a regional flight. Then it erased every trace of the model from its website as if it never happened.
The $39,900 Dream That Never Materialized
To understand why 173 is such a catastrophic number, you have to remember what was promised.
When Elon Musk rolled the Cybertruck onto a stage in November 2019, he made a specific claim: the entry-level, single-motor rear-wheel-drive version would start at $39,900. Not “around forty grand.” Not “we’re targeting that range.” Thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars. That’s Honda Ridgeline money. That’s “I’ll take two” territory.
The mid-tier dual-motor version would be $49,900, and the tri-motor beast would top out at $69,900. Over a million people put down $100 refundable deposits based on those numbers.
Fast-forward to 2025. The $39,900 truck? Never built. The cheapest Cybertruck you could actually buy was the RWD Long Range, which launched in April 2025 at $69,990 — a full $30,000 more than promised, and that’s before destination charges pushed it past $72,000.
You’d think, at that price, you’d be getting something pretty special. You’d be wrong.
What You Actually Got for $69,990, And What You Didn’t
The RWD Cybertruck wasn’t just a cheaper version. It was a gutted version.
For a discount of roughly $10,000 compared to the All-Wheel-Drive model, about 12.5%, Tesla removed:
- An entire motor (AWD vs. single rear motor)
- Adaptive air suspension (replaced with basic coil springs)
- The powered tonneau cover over the bed
- All bed power outlets (no 120V or 240V, meaning no powering tools or campsites)
- The rear light bar (one of the truck’s signature design elements)
- The rear passenger touchscreen
- Half the speakers (7 instead of 15)
- Leather seating (cloth instead)
That’s not a value trim. That’s a truck with its personality surgically removed. Towing capacity dropped to 7,500 lbs (from 11,000). Zero-to-60 went from a neck-snapping 4.1 seconds to a leisurely 6.2. The range was fine at around 350 miles, but you were essentially buying a Cybertruck-shaped shell with none of the features that made the Cybertruck interesting in the first place.
As one member of the Cybertruck Owners Club forum put it bluntly when the trim disappeared: “It was too expensive, given all the deleted features. I’d rather have a used AWD.”
He wasn’t alone. Almost nobody disagreed with him. And the sales numbers, all 173 of them, proved it.
Five Months, 173 Sales, One Quiet Demise
The RWD Cybertruck barely had time to introduce itself. It appeared on Tesla’s online configurator in April 2025. By September 12, 2025, it had vanished. No press release. No announcement. Just a quiet deletion from the order page.
When asked, Tesla’s own customer service chatbot offered this robotic non-explanation: “As of September 12, 2025, the Cybertruck Long Range Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) has been removed from the configurator in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.” Asked why? “It couldn’t give a reason.”
Even the chatbot was embarrassed.
The math is brutal. Five months on sale. Conservatively, about 150 days. That’s roughly 1.15 trucks sold per day — globally. For context, Ford sells an F-150 roughly every 30 seconds.
And Now the Wheels Are Literally Falling Off
As if selling 173 trucks in five months weren’t humbling enough, the universe decided to add a safety recall for dramatic effect.
The NHTSA campaign number 26V255 addresses a defect in the brake rotor stud holes on those 18-inch steel wheels exclusive to the RWD model. Here’s what happens, translated from engineer-speak into English:
When you hit a pothole hard enough, or take a corner with some enthusiasm, the holes in the brake rotor where the wheel studs pass through can start to crack. Keep driving, and those cracks can grow. Eventually, the wheel stud separates from the hub entirely. At which point, your wheel is no longer attached to your truck.
The NHTSA’s official language: “Higher severity road perturbations and cornering may strain the stud hole in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If cracking propagates with continued use and strain, the wheel stud could eventually separate from the wheel hub.”
“Road perturbations.” That’s potholes. Normal driving conditions. The kind of thing your local municipal road crew serves up on a daily basis.
Now, to be fair, Tesla and the NHTSA estimate only about 5% of the recalled trucks, roughly nine vehicles, will actually have the defect. There have been no reported crashes or injuries, just three warranty claims that “may be related.” Tesla is replacing the rotors, hubs, and lug nuts with a redesigned version, free of charge.
But the symbolism here is hard to ignore. The truck that couldn’t sell because it had been stripped of everything that made it special? The one that was supposed to be the affordable gateway to Tesla’s boldest vehicle? Its wheels can fall off. You can’t make this up.
Cybertruck Sales Are in Freefall
The RWD disaster didn’t happen in a vacuum. Cybertruck sales overall are troubling.
In the first quarter of 2025, Tesla delivered 6,406 Cybertrucks — a 50.8% drop from the 12,991 delivered in Q4 2024. For the full year 2025, Tesla sold approximately 16,000 Cybertrucks. Musk once projected 250,000 to 500,000 units annually.
That’s not a miss. That’s a chasm.
The Ford F-150 Lightning moved about 10,000 units in Q3 2025 alone. The Cybertruck’s main rival isn’t just outselling it; it’s lapping it while the Cybertruck fumbles with its shoelaces.
And it’s not just about product. The Cybertruck has become a lightning rod for controversy. Protests, vandalism, graffiti, owners have reported being flipped off, having their trucks keyed, and worse. Some analysts argue the political baggage attached to Musk has actively repelled the progressive early adopters who might otherwise have been the Cybertruck’s core audience.
Why This Actually Matters (Beyond the Memes)
It’s easy to point and laugh. And yes, there’s something darkly comedic about an “apocalypse-proof” truck whose wheels might detach on the way to the grocery store.
But the RWD Cybertruck’s failure is more than a punchline. It’s a case study in what happens when a company loses touch with its customers.
Tesla’s logic seemed to be: “We’ll strip the truck down, drop the price by $10,000, and people who couldn’t afford the AWD version will flood in.” But truck buyers, even electric truck buyers, are practical. They use their vehicles for work, for towing, for camping, for life. Take away the air suspension, the bed outlets, and the covered bed, and you haven’t made a cheaper truck. You’ve made a worse one. And $10,000 isn’t nearly enough of a discount to justify losing all of that.
To Tesla’s credit, it might be learning. In early 2026, it quietly introduced a new stripped-down AWD variant at $59,990 that kept the front motor, the tonneau cover, and the bed outlets, things people actually want, while slashing the price. Early indications suggest that one is actually selling.
But the damage to the Cybertruck’s reputation is real. Ten recalls in under two years. Body panels held on with glue that fails. Accelerator pedals that get stuck. Lightbars that fly off on the highway. And now, wheel studs that crack under normal driving.
At some point, “apocalypse-proof” stops being marketing and starts being a dare.
What do you think? Is the Cybertruck having a rough patch, or is this a product that was fundamentally misjudged from the start? Drop a comment below, I read every single one, and I’d love to hear from actual truck owners (electric or otherwise) about what you value in a pickup.
And if you’re cross-shopping electric trucks right now, check out our in-depth comparison of the Cybertruck AWD, Rivian R1T, and Ford F-150 Lightning, we break down real-world range, payload, and which one actually does truck things best.
Comments
Post a Comment