Is Tesla’s Cybertruck About to Dethrone Ford’s Edsel as the Biggest Flop in Auto History?

For nearly 70 years, the Ford Edsel has held the dubious title of the auto industry’s most famous commercial failure. But if current trends hold, Tesla’s Cybertruck may soon steal that crown. Bloomberg recently made the comparison, and it’s hard to argue. Both vehicles paired bold engineering with polarizing looks and sky-high sales goals.

And both are now remembered more for what they tried to do than what they actually sold.

The numbers tell a brutal story. Elon Musk once floated the idea of building 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. , according to S&P Global Mobility data cited by Bloomberg. That puts the truck on pace for less than one-sixth of Musk’s ambition. Even last year, when Tesla moved roughly 20,000 units, nearly 19 percent of those sales went to companies controlled by Musk himself.

Without that internal boost, the tally looks even worse.

But dismissing the Cybertruck as a simple flop misses the bigger picture. Like the Edsel, which introduced a steering-wheel-mounted push-button transmission, the Cybertruck packs genuine engineering breakthroughs. Its steer-by-wire system makes a full-size pickup feel nimble, and its 48-volt electrical architecture reduces wiring weight and complexity.

Those aren’t gimmicks; they’re innovations that competitors will likely adopt. The problem? Both vehicles asked buyers to swallow radical styling and a price tag that ballooned far beyond initial promises.

Then there’s the Musk factor. For better or worse, the Cybertruck has become a rolling symbol of its controversial CEO, narrowing its appeal in ways the Edsel never faced. History has been kind to the Edsel, which is now celebrated for its ambition. The Cybertruck looks set to follow that same arc: a commercial disappointment that quietly reshapes how future vehicles are engineered.

Failure and influence aren’t opposites. They often travel together.