Bloomberg brands Cybertruck the 'Ford Edsel of the EV era' — 2025 sales crash 48% to 20,237

In a feature published July 22, Bloomberg compared the Cybertruck to Ford's Edsel — the car whose name became shorthand for automotive failure after its disastrous 1957 launch — warning Tesla's angular pickup risks going down as the biggest automotive flop of the EV era. It's a sharp reversal from 2019, when the truck's radical design and bulletproof-glass demo made it an instant sensation.

According to Bloomberg, Cybertruck's 2025 U.S. sales came in at 20,237 units, down 48.1% from 39,000 the year before — the single steepest sales decline of any EV sold in the U.S. Musk had told the truck's 2019 unveiling crowd to expect 250,000 deliveries a year; 2025's total came in at just 8% of that target.

Ford's Edsel aimed for 200,000 annual sales when it launched in 1957 but managed less than a third of that, cementing its place as one of the industry's most infamous failures. Bloomberg noted both vehicles drew huge hype for futuristic styling before the market rejected them — and argued Cybertruck's miss against its own target is proportionally worse than Edsel's.

The comparison lands one day before Tesla's Q2 earnings call, a pointed reminder that Cybertruck — pitched alongside Robotaxi and Optimus as a pillar of Tesla's next growth phase — has yet to become a volume seller. Some analysts note Cybertruck's share of Tesla's overall revenue remains small next to Model 3 and Model Y, limiting the near-term hit to results even as the narrative sting persists.