With over a million reservations for the Cybertruck, Tesla anticipated that demand would attract not just genuine fans but also opportunistic flippers aiming to profit from resales. To counter this, Tesla introduced a no-resale clause requiring Cybertruck owners to pay the company a hefty $50,000 penalty if they sold the vehicle within the first year of ownership. However, this clause has proven to be more bark than bite.
Despite Tesla’s attempts to deter resellers, Cybertrucks quickly began appearing on popular car sales platforms, often listed at double their original price. The clause, intended as a deterrent, turned out to be largely ineffective as Tesla rarely enforced the penalty, with only a few flippers reportedly banned from future Tesla purchases. Most sellers reaped significant profits with little consequence.
In one peculiar case, a Cybertruck owner approached Tesla, asking them to buy back his truck because it didn’t fit in his garage. Tesla refused and, adding insult to injury, prohibited the owner from selling it on the used car market. The outcome of this case remains unclear as the owner eventually deleted his social media post expressing his frustration with Tesla’s response. It’s possible that Tesla may have relented, leading to the post’s removal.
The story took an even stranger turn when Tesla quietly removed the no-resale clause altogether. This change, which occurred less than a month after the garage incident, went unnoticed until recently, when a Cybertruck owner shared his updated contract on social media. Other owners quickly confirmed that the no-resale clause had been absent from their contracts since June.
The removal of the clause may have been inconsequential, as the resale market for the Cybertruck was already saturated. Prices had started to decline even before the clause was lifted, signaling that resellers were struggling to turn a profit. With the clause gone, the flood of Cybertrucks on the market is expected to increase further, driving prices down even more.
As production ramps up at Giga Texas and Tesla exhausts its pool of buyers for the initial Foundation Series models, the resale market for the Cybertruck is poised to collapse. With cheaper models soon to hit the market, the value of used Cybertrucks is likely to plummet. For those considering purchasing a Cybertruck now, the smart money would be on waiting, unless they’ve figured out a way to make the truck pay for itself in the interim.
Tesla removed the resale clause in June
