I was scrolling X when the notification hit: a new Cybertruck price, suddenly real. I pictured a buyer at a delivery center, staring at a truck and a decision that felt oddly moral. You can hear the argument already—value or values.
At the lineup: The new all-wheel-drive Cybertruck lists for $59,999 (€55,799)
I read Tesla’s post on X and felt the sales pitch tighten: “This is our most affordable Cybertruck yet,” they said, and marketed it as “tough as nails with ultra-low cost of ownership.” You get the price; you also get the branding muscle of Tesla and the personal brand of Elon Musk.
How much does the Cybertruck cost now?
The headline model now starts at $59,999 (€55,799). Tesla also cut the top-tier Cyberbeast by $15,000 to $99,990 (€92,991). Those numbers land softer than Musk’s original promise of a $39,000 (€36,270) base price back in 2019.
At the reveal: Musk promised $39,000 and deliveries in 2021, but reality arrived later
I remember the 2019 unveiling; I remember the spectacle. The truck didn’t reach customers until late 2023, and when it did the price tags were much higher than the early headline.
Why did Cybertruck deliveries slip and prices climb?
Production delays, shifting specs, and ambition met reality. Then the market changed. Tesla’s overall deliveries fell to 1,636,129 vehicles in 2025, and Cybertruck sales—38,965 units in 2025—were far below Musk’s 250,000-per-year projection. Cox Automotive, Reuters, and Tesla’s own filings all trace that slowdown to a mix of supply, incentives, and demand.
At the checkout: Politics moved from background noise to purchase friction
I’ve seen buyers stall over less. The simple observation: the public profile of a founder can become a factor at point of sale.
Researchers at Yale and the National Bureau of Economic Research estimate that Musk’s political activity cost Tesla at least 1 million vehicle sales between October 2022 and April 2025. A separate Nature analysis found liberal buyers cooled on Tesla and, in some cases, EVs broadly. Meanwhile, Musk’s public support for Donald Trump and his short-lived leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made the brand polarizing.
The consequence: people who once bought a Tesla because of product appeal now faced a small moral audit before swiping a card. That’s where bumper stickers entered the market—an odd little industry of protest sales. One seller told MarketWatch he was doing about $100,000 (€93,000) a month selling anti-Elon stickers with phrases like “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”
At the garage: Price cuts can fix short-term math but not reputational math
I’ve watched pricing play its part before: reduce the sticker, revive curiosity, and hope momentum follows. Tesla’s move is exactly that.
Dropping the entry price to $59,999 (€55,799) is a clear invite to a different buyer—someone who had been waiting for a more sensible price point. Cutting the Cyberbeast by $15,000 to $99,990 (€92,991) is an attempt to clear the top end. But a price change is a bandage on a broken leg: it hides the fracture without fixing it. The other persistent wound is the founder’s public image—the sticker turned into a neon scar on the car’s story, visible from the curb.
Did Elon Musk’s politics hurt Tesla sales?
Short answer: research suggests yes. Multiple academic studies and industry reports point to measurable declines in buyer interest tied to Musk’s political moves. The effect isn’t symmetric: conservative interest didn’t boom enough to offset losses among liberal buyers, leaving a net negative impact for Tesla and the EV category in some markets.
At the purchase counter: What you’re actually buying
I talk to buyers, and the same trade-offs come up: value versus personal alignment.
If you’re buying the new Cybertruck at $59,999 (€55,799), you’re buying a design statement, a set of features, and the economic math of an electric pickup. You’re also buying the weight of the owner’s relationship to Musk’s public actions. That dual purchase is now explicit enough that sellers of anti-Elon decals found a market for people who wanted distance from the founder without walking away from their vehicle purchase.
Platforms like X, coverage from CNBC and Reuters, and analyses from Yale, NBER, and Nature have all shaped the conversation that follows every price change. Tesla’s public relations team can tweak messages on X; analysts can publish fresh numbers; sticker makers can print new slogans. The transaction now includes social context as much as financing options.
So when you see the $59,999 (€55,799) sticker and consider ordering, ask yourself: are you buying the truck, or the story attached to it?