Bloomberg: Cybertruck surpasses Ford Edsel as biggest flop in automotive history

Author: AJ Tiarsmith Read Time: 3 min

TSLA: -2.08%

Quick Read

• TSLA fell 18% in a week after Q2 EPS of $0.33 missed consensus and free cash flow swung to negative $1.09 billion.
• The Cybertruck sold one-sixth of Musk's 250,000-unit annual projection and posted the steepest sales decline of any U.S. EV nameplate in 2025.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) investors received a stark reminder last week that ambitious targets can quickly become cautionary tales. A Bloomberg report published July 22, 2026, argued that the Cybertruck has surpassed the Ford Edsel as the auto industry's benchmark commercial flop on a target-versus-actual basis. Hours later, Tesla posted a Q2 earnings miss, and the stock recorded its worst week since 2022.

The Edsel Yardstick

Ford launched the Edsel in 1957 with projections of 200,000 units in its first year. It sold less than one-third of that target, and its vertical grille—mocked as resembling a toilet seat—became shorthand for corporate failure that has endured for nearly seven decades.

Elon Musk set a higher bar. He projected the Cybertruck could reach 250,000 units annually and called it Tesla's "best product ever." In its first full year, the truck sold roughly one-sixth of that target. According to Bloomberg's chart, Year 2 sales fell to well under 25,000—a steeper proportional miss than the Edsel's.

An Accelerating Decline

Cox Automotive figures illustrate the trajectory:

• 2024: 38,965 units sold
• 2025: 20,237 units sold (a 48.1% year-over-year decline)
• Q4 2025: 4,140 units sold, down 68.1% from 12,991 a year earlier
• Q1 2026: Record low of 3,519 deliveries
• Through May 2026: Only 7,133 Cybertrucks registered in the U.S., per S&P Global Mobility data cited by Bloomberg

The truck posted the steepest sales decline of any EV nameplate in the U.S. in 2025. Tesla's earnings materials list the Cybertruck alongside the Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, Cybercab, Semi, and Roadster, but it has not appeared as a growth driver in the last four quarterly reports.

The Stock Rout

The Cybertruck story is one strand in a broader unraveling. Tesla shares fell 17.81% in the week ending July 24, 2026, closing at $313.03. The single-session drop after earnings reached 14%, sending the stock to an 11-month low.

The Q2 report explains the reaction:

• Revenue: $28.24 billion, up 25.52% year-over-year, on record deliveries of 480,126 vehicles
• Adjusted EPS: $0.33, missing the $0.5367 consensus
• Operating income: $398 million, down 56.88%
• Free cash flow: Negative $1.09 billion
• Operating expenses: $4.35 billion, up 47% due to AI infrastructure, R&D, and stock-based compensation
• Full-year capex guidance: Over $25 billion for Optimus, Cybercab, and AI data centers

Short sellers booked $4.3 billion in mark-to-market gains from the single day's selloff. The decline cost Musk roughly $130 billion in personal net worth.

What to Watch

Shares are down 30.39% year-to-date. Prediction markets imply consolidation in the $300 to $330 range through month-end, against an analyst consensus target of $402.76. Whether the Cybertruck earns a legacy similar to the Edsel remains to be seen.