Author: Friday, Shenchao TechFlow
Shenchao Guide: S&P Global Mobility registration data shows that SpaceX purchased 1,279 Cybertrucks in Q4 2025, accounting for 18% of all U.S. registrations during the same period.
Including purchases from companies like xAI, Musk's enterprises collectively absorbed approximately 19% of the quarter's sales. After stripping out related-party transactions, Cybertruck registrations for the quarter actually plummeted by 51% year-over-year.
Musk's companies are becoming the largest buyers of the Cybertruck.
According to a Bloomberg report on April 16, U.S. vehicle registration data provided by S&P Global Mobility shows that 7,071 Cybertrucks were registered in the U.S. in Q4 2025. SpaceX alone purchased 1,279 of them, representing over 18%. xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink purchased an additional 60 units during the same period, totaling 1,339 vehicles, accounting for about 19% of the total Q4 registrations. Based on the starting price of approximately $70,000 at the time, the total value of these related-party transactions likely exceeded $100 million.
Sam Fiorani, Vice President of Global Vehicle Forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Bloomberg bluntly: "Tesla's Cybertruck is losing buyers." Tesla, Musk, and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
After Removing Related-Party Purchases, Cybertruck's Actual Drop Reaches 51%
If the purchases by Musk's companies are excluded, Cybertruck registrations in Q4 would have plummeted 51% year-over-year.
Electrek began tracking this phenomenon in October last year, when photos already showed large numbers of Cybertrucks being delivered to SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas. Cybertruck chief engineer Wes Morrill had confirmed on social media that SpaceX was using Cybertrucks to "replace the support fleet." A documentary by the YouTube channel NASA Space Flight also captured rows of Cybertrucks parked inside SpaceX facilities.
Related-party purchases continued after Q4. According to the same dataset, Musk's companies registered an additional 158 vehicles in January 2026 and 67 in February.
From Nearly 40,000 Annual Sales to 20,000, Cybertruck Achieves Only 8% of Target
According to Cox Automotive data, the Cybertruck sold approximately 38,965 units in the U.S. for the full year 2024, making it the best-selling pure electric pickup truck in the U.S. that year. However, full-year 2025 sales plummeted to approximately 20,300 units, a decrease of 48.1% year-over-year, achieving only 8.1% of the 250,000 annual production target Musk promised in 2019.
The situation worsened entering 2026. Only 3,519 units were delivered in the U.S. in Q1, a record low since deliveries began, representing a 45.1% year-over-year decline. Although Tesla introduced its lowest-priced version ever starting at $59,990 in February, the first deliveries are not scheduled to begin until June, and current order estimates indicate delivery timelines stretching into 2027.
Related-Party Transactions Raise Governance Concerns
The controversy surrounding this transaction focuses on transparency. SpaceX is not a public company, so these purchases do not require public disclosure like fleet orders from Hertz or Uber. From an external perspective, a private company is absorbing the unsold inventory of a public company, and both companies share the same CEO.
There are precedents for business交叉 (crossover) between Musk's various companies: xAI uses Tesla Megapack batteries, Grok is integrated into Tesla vehicles, and Tesla and SpaceX are collaborating on chip projects. However, the large-scale sale of a slow-moving model to affiliated companies controlled by the same CEO remains rare in the automotive industry.
Tesla is facing the prospect of a third consecutive year of annual sales decline, having been overtaken by BYD last year to lose the title of global electric vehicle sales champion. Its stock price has fallen by about one-fifth since hitting a historical high in mid-December last year. Whether the $60,000 Cybertruck can truly activate external demand is the most critical test ahead.
