Auto File: Cybertruck’s short ride

HONDA MOTOR

Yesterday 16:00

By Nick Carey
Nov 10 (Reuters) - Greetings from London!  
Last week’s US midterm elections turned out to be a once-in-a-generation rout for Republicans and President Donald Trump, an outcome that will keep political pundits busy for a while.  
It was also a bad night for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who spent at least $445 million on federal races and got very little in return. Musk and his companies are now bracing for the impact of the Democratic wave in Congress.  
But it was news at the end of the week that Tesla is killing off the ill-fated Cybertruck that we’ll focus on today, as it has also been a flop on a scale not seen since the 1950s. 
Which brings us to today’s Auto File…   
Cybertruck’s short run 
Lucid gets more cash 
Honda’s new Ohio plant 
     
CYBERTRUCK'S EXIT RAMP 
Tesla’s decision to kill off the Cybertruck after just a few years marks a remarkable failure for the company, the likes of which are rare in the auto industry. 
You can read all about Tesla’s decision here.  
Musk said that Tesla would add an extra shift at its Texas factory to fill outstanding Cybertruck orders before the production line is dismantled — to make way for the company’s Cybercab robotaxi next year — adding that Tesla will have to refund deposits “for a lot of people” because demand for the vehicle far exceeds capacity. 
But the Cybertruck was widely considered a flop. It has been widely compared to the Edsel, a disastrous Ford vehicle launched in 1957 only to be killed two years later. 
Many things went into the Cybertruck’s failure, chief among them an angular design that restricted its sales to just a handful of markets and all but guaranteed failure.   
SERIES OF MISTEPS
Right from the moment Musk introduced the Cybertruck to the world in 2019, it seemed a shaky proposition.  
Boasting of its shatterproof windows, Musk had Tesla’s head of design throw metal balls at them — only to leave massive cracks in two of ‌them. 
True to form, Tesla experienced a series of delays in producing the Cybertruck, so instead of late 2021, deliveries started at the end of 2023.  
By the time the production vehicle was launched, its starting price had jumped to $60,990 from a promised price tag of $39,900 at the Cybertruck’s unveiling in 2019. 
The vehicle was also hit by a series of recalls that did not help.  
UNSELLABLE IN MANY MARKETS 
But ultimately, it was the Cybertruck’s design, widely mocked by critics, that was its undoing.  
Experts warned during the unveiling and then again after the Cybertruck’s late-2023 launch that its stiff stainless-steel exoskeleton could hurt pedestrians and cyclists, and damage other vehicles on roads — meaning it would be hard to get approved for European or other markets that follow Europe’s lead. 
Tesla went ahead with the design anyway. 
And it turned out the safety experts were right. The Cybertruck is sold in just a handful of markets, including Saudi Arabia.  
It was never approved for Europe or China; the world’s two biggest EV markets. 
Although Tesla had a rough patch in Europe after Donald Trump’s election, in part due to Musk’s embrace of the continent’s far-right parties, that has changed. 
According to industry group ACEA, EV sales in the European Union this year through September were up almost 49% versus the same period in 2025. Tesla’s sales were up 69%. With a design fit for purpose in the EU, the Cybertruck could have benefited from that huge increase in sales. 
In the US market, the Trump administration’s decision last year to kill a $7,500 EV tax credit only further worsened the prospects for an electric pickup with an unconventional design.  
According to Kelley Blue Book, Tesla sold only 20,237 Cybertrucks in the US last year, down 48% from 38,965 in ​2024. Not even large orders from Musk’s SpaceX in 2025 could prop the vehicle up. 
Perhaps with a different design, the Cybertruck might have succeeded. But no EV can succeed if it can’t be sold in Europe or China today and relies almost entirely on the US for its sales.
     
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Anthropic lowers its IPO sights 
SpaceX, Tesla shares hurt by midterms 
     
FRESH CASH FOR LUCID  
Lucid said it had received a $1.75 billion increase in a loan facility from its largest shareholder Saudi Arabia's Public ​Investment Fund (PIF), which would help fund the US EV maker for the next year. 
You can read all about it here. 
The PIF’s very deep pockets and patience are the main reasons that Lucid has not followed several other EV startups — Arrival, Lordstown et al — into the history books.  
Lucid has had to burn piles of cash to scale up, while also being hit by the end of the US EV tax credit last year. 
The latest increase boosts Lucid’s pro forma liquidity to $3.75 billion, which the company said should fund operations until production of its midsize vehicle begins in the ​second half of 2027. 
The company has lost over 90% of its market value since late 2021.  
Investors were not impressed with the latest increase to the loan facility, sending Lucid’s shares down 5%.  
     
HONDA PLANT FOR OHIO 
Honda is adding to its US production with a new plant in Ohio that will cost $3 billion and create 2,000 jobs. 
You can read all about it here. 
Like its fellow Japanese rivals, Honda is heavily reliant on the US market for sales, and the Trump administration's tariff threats have forced it to rethink its manufacturing footprint.  
That includes Canada. Although the US and Canada are working on a deal to ease tariffs on steel and cars, Honda has to hedge its bets.  
Canadian-built ​cars accounted for almost a quarter of Honda's US sales last year, so announcing a plant that will make up to 240,000 hybrids annually makes sense —– especially in a market where hybrids are taking off far more quickly than EVs. 
Honda said it will invest in Alabama to build a new V6 hybrid engine and ‌retool its ⁠Ohio engine plant to build a new four-cylinder engine.  
At the same time, Honda said it will invest over $600 million in its Canadian operations, a sign it hopes a trade deal is coming soon. 
     
FAST LAPS   
​Volkswagen’s premium Audi unit will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in state ​tax incentives and grants to build a $4 billion assembly plant ‌in the state of Georgia and is considering a second phase. 
Premium German automaker BMW got a boost to its shares despite cutting its financial ‌targets for a second time this year and reporting a quarterly profit slump, as it accelerates job cuts and restructuring. 
Toyota lifted its annual profit outlook as robust sales of hybrid ​vehicles helped it defy an industry downtrend, while also announcing an $89 billion plan to boost shareholder returns that sent its ‌shares soaring. 
Tesla misled tens of thousands ​of South Korean customers by marketing driver-assistance software that the company knows cannot be legally used in most of its vehicles in the country, according ‌to a complaint from an advocacy group. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. 
Uber forecast fourth-quarter profit below Wall Street expectations as a shortage of drivers, costlier fuel and the Middle East conflict choked ride-hailing growth from India and Brazil to Canada. 
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a recall query into Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo after numerous ‌incidents of its robotaxis passing stopped school buses. 
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(Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)