Tesla will charge customers of its new Cybertruck a hefty penalty for reselling their vehicle within the first year of ownership, according to a recently added section of the vehicle’s order agreement.
“You agree that you will not sell or otherwise attempt to sell the Vehicle within the first year following your Vehicle’s delivery date,” says Tesla in a new “For Cybertruck Only” section of its customer agreement.
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The clause states that resellers of the Cybertruck, Tesla’s long-awaited electric pickup truck slated to begin delivery on Nov. 30th, could be barred entirely from purchasing Tesla vehicles ever again. Tesla also threatens legal action against resellers, seeking injunctive relief of at least $50,000. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker asks anyone who wants to dump their Cybertruck to sell it back to Tesla or receive written consent from the company before selling it to a third party.
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The last thing Tesla wants is for customers to be flipping Cybertrucks, according to Wedbush Securities Tech Analyst Dan Ives on Bloomberg Radio Monday. This decision is all about the estimated 750,000 people with reservations for the Cybertruck, says Ives, and ensuring that people on that list don’t cancel because they got one secondhand. It’s expected to be years until Tesla can meet those reservations, and a thriving resale market could cause a meaningful wave of cancellations.
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“That was really a big part of the black eye that we saw at Rivian,” Ives said. “Reservations continued to get kicked down the road and others eventually canceled.”
It seems Tesla is trying to keep profits in-house and limit the lucrative resale market that’s popular in the car world. The move could be to drive up sales of the Cybertruck, as Tesla lost 20% of its valuation last month in a shrinking EV market.
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The Tesla CEO unveiled a prototype of the Cybertruck in 2019 and has been teasing its release ever since. The futuristic-looking truck has a bulletproof, stainless steel body and is “waterproof enough” to cross rivers like a boat, among a long list of claims that only seem beneficial during an apocalypse. The electric truck weighs 7,000 pounds according to Musk, making it about as heavy as a Ford F-150, but can accelerate from 0-60 in under 3 seconds.
Tesla includes a stipulation that anyone who wants to sell their Cybertruck can only sell it back to Tesla at a discounted price. If Tesla declines to purchase your vehicle, for reasons unspecified, only then can you sell it to someone else.
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Cybertruck’s supply chain lead, Mustapha El Akkari, left Tesla to work at Rivian this summer, one of many bumps in the road that stalled the release of the company’s premiere pickup truck. Production on the truck has reportedly been a nightmare for Musk, who is famous for his manufacturing expertise. The billionaire said Tesla “dug our own grave” with the Cybertruck on its recent earnings call, and noted mass production of the truck will not begin until 2025.
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