Lucas Bell 
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has undoubtedly changed the automotive industry. Tesla Motors is at the very heart of the push towards electrification that we are experiencing today, and is arguably responsible for getting the ball rolling as it stands, as well. Tesla Motors is also unlike any other automaker that exists presently, and has no problem embracing this reality. In an effort to meet their end of year sales targets, the company has just sent out emails to current Tesla Cybertruck reservation holders pestering them to lease a new, different product from the automaker.
The contents of this email were first reported by the folks over at Electrek, who have published the message in full. The email was sent to a portion of the 600,000+ people who have already placed a $100 deposit on a Tesla Cybertruck model, and contains a not-so-subtle suggestion. The automaker notes that the wait times for the upcoming pickup are still rather long, and urges customers to lease one of the company’s current offerings for a 24 or 36 month period in the interim.
It is worth noting that the Tesla Cybertruck is slated to begin production in late 2021, with deliveries of the all-wheel drive models expected to begin in 2022. The email further notes that the more affordable single-motor models won’t be arriving to customers before 2023. While these are long times to wait, only single-motor truck buyers potentially have enough time to fit another lease in before their truck arrives.
It is clear then that Tesla’s newfound concern doesn’t really have anything to do with the wait times buyers are currently facing. This is made apparent when you consider that Tesla still needs to sell over 180,000 units this quarter to meet their year-end goal of 500,000 sales. Electrek noted that this figure represents an increase of 40,000 sales over last quarter, which is quite a few cars. Perhaps Elon and his team believe that Tesla buyers are so enthralled by the brand that they are willing to buy a car they don’t want because he asked them to. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that more than a few reservation holders hop on this brand-loyalty exercise.
Whether you call it clever marketing or shameless panhandling, Tesla does business in a way that other automakers simply can’t. Whether or not this email push helps Tesla meet their sales goal, you can’t say they didn’t try everything. We just wonder if any of these reservation holders will be upset when the Tesla Cybertruck debuts looking nothing like it did at the infamous launch event.
