Tesla to Wind Down Cybertruck Production - Interview with rebrand stategist Reilly Newman

I think it's very interesting. You know, you look at Tesla's history and their pattern of doing this, where, you know, Elon Musk in particular, his personality, he'll always come out with something that's over the top and then kind of pull back, right? We saw that with the Roadster originally, where it was something that was used to not only gain traction in the market, but start to get interest and build up kind of this awareness for the brand as a whole. And if you look at, you know, all the chips that Elon's been putting in place for Tesla, It's all going towards mass production and really creating these vehicles so that they can just be stamped out and, you know, massive amounts of volume. So it makes sense in a lot of ways is that the Cybertruck was a bit of a PR brand stunt. And then he's reducing back to really the Model Y, the 3, just really making it more standardized. Yeah, and supposedly they're also going to focus more on CyberCab. As far as the Cybertruck. Any reason or any driving factors on why the sales haven't been too good? I feel like it is a bold statement, right? The vehicle itself is something that is going to draw eyes. And it's a very, I guess, deliberate decision that would be needed by the consumer versus you see, you know, Model Ys and 3s everywhere because they are kind of just a dime a dozen now and people feel comfortable buying something that everyone else has. It's the original kind of just like. You know, social kind of confirmation of like, okay, it's okay to buy this because everyone else has it. It's like what Honda and Toyota, all of them have reached that level where it's a safe decision. The Cybertruck, not only I think it's very over the top as a vehicle, right, but also I think the negative stigma that's associated with Elon and specifically, you know, Tesla is really anchored on that vehicle itself. I would say it's interesting in the way Elon is playing politics is that I think the strategy of Tesla was to First deploy on the east and west coast, specifically California. California has 10% of population in America. So if he could sell it based off of tax incentives and get it into people who are more focused on electric vehicles and hybrids, that was it, you know, entry to the market. And now if he's focusing on that more conservative market of Republican voters, then you could see where this is becoming the new kind of forward, where it's the everyman. Uh, kind of vehicle to get around. And so I don't know if, if he would have nixed just based off of the political, uh, outcome this week, as much as more going, okay, he's optimizing for. You know, less parts, less complexities, because you just can't manufacture on that level. And if you look at anything he's done from the Raptor rocket to the design of, you know, the Tesla vehicle, he's always subtracting and getting it down to the bare bones so it can just be, you know, much more efficient to produce. Very good points. And lastly, as far as electric pickup trucks go, what is the consensus there? Yeah, I would say It's interesting that Ford stopped theirs because everyone I know who bought one of the Lightning F-150s, they really loved them. And so it's really interesting. I think they just couldn't make it math out for them in particular. But Rivian, I feel like, has a lot of great kind of brand principles in place where not only the product design, the vehicle is iconic, even with the headlights, they did a great job there, just the look of them. And now the R2s are rolling out. And actually, I think those are great. a size vehicle for a lot of people and you look at kind of the the slate that's starting to come out that's going to be a whole new pickup and I think there's another brand that's doing that too where it's like this dumbed down pickup truck and I feel like there could be definitely a market for that where you not only have like the Tacoma lovers who may also include like a ranger driver and stuff like that but then you do have the just get around pickup truck that people want with a smaller bed And I think the electric vehicle could be a good solution for that.