Tesla's Cybertruck is one of the most American vehicles currently made, with 90% of its parts originating from the US, Canada, or Mexico, and assembly done at Tesla's sprawling Gigafactory in Texas.
This means that the Cybertruck has been eligible for the federal made-in-US EV tax credit since inception, but since it was priced above the government's eligibility threshold, early adopters had to pay the $100,000+ sticker tag without any subsidies.
Last quarter, Tesla ceased the exclusive Foundation Series unit production, and started shipping regular dual- and tri-motor Cybertrucks. This move essentially lowered the Cybertruck prices by $20,000, slipping the dual-motor version below the $80,000 threshold, and making it eligible for the government's $7,500 EV tax credit that has been available to Tesla's other vehicles for a while.
Inevitably, the IRS has now included the Cybertruck in its list of electric vehicles that qualify for the full government EV tax credit amount since the beginning of the year.
Officializing the Cybertruck tax credit eligibility, however, has brought additional pain to those early Cybertruck buyers who are now on the hook for tens of thousands of losses on their purchase. With a reservation list that was 2.5 million people long, and tight initial supply of Cybertrucks, the price on the second-hand market actually shot up way above MSRP just about a year ago. Tesla even forbade owners to resell it for several quarters and only loosened the restrictions when it had enough production capacity to meet demand.
This coincided with the filling of the initial orders, as the reservations list for the expensive pickup quickly dried up, and those who bought the cheaper dual-motor Foundation Series trim for $100,000+ now have to face a starting price of just $70,500 with the tax and referral credits.
A case in point is one owner who put $115,000 into their Cybertruck with the California sales tax and Tesla's destination fee, as well as the matte black wrap, and has now complained they have no buyers at $89,000.
Not surprisingly, as even if one adds FSD and other options and accessories that come with the Foundation Series trim to the price of the current AWD Cybertruck, they will only come up to $86,000 for a brand-new truck.
Not that the Foundation Series trim on sale isn't in an as-new condition as it only has 2,800 miles on it, and has already depreciated drastically with more than twenty grand, all the while there may be a much cheaper RWD model launched later this year.
The owner will probably have to write off at least $40,000 if they wanted to get rid of it quickly, decimating the resale value of the Cybertrucks that early adopters bought off Tesla's reservations list. Their only hope is to wait for the Trump administration that is rumored to abandon the EV tax credit altogether and thus bring the starting price of the Cybertruck back to the $80,000 level.