Martin Eberhard, one of the original cofounders of Tesla — who actually started the company and didn’t retroactively bestow himself a title giving that impression, unlike a certain billionaire — isn’t too pleased with his baby’s newest crowning jewel: the Cybertruck.
In comments made in a recent interview with YouTuber Kim Java spotted by Electrek, Eberhard vented his frustration with Tesla’s recent direction — which is when the highly heterodox pickup truck caught a stray.
“I am actually disappointed that Tesla canceled its low-end car program,” he said in the interview. “Because that’s what the world needs — not a truck that looks like a dumpster.”
Eberhard cofounded Tesla with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Musk joined the next year after investing $6.5 million in the startup, and became chairman of the board.
They were hardly ever on good terms. The first major blow was dealt by Musk, who sacked Eberhard as CEO in 2007, eventually stepping into the role himself. Eberhard clapped back by suing Musk in 2009 for libel and defamation, and later settled out of court. As part of that settlement, Musk was allowed to call himself a cofounder of Tesla.
There’s still bad blood between the two, and Eberhard has occasionally been publicly critical of Musk. In 2023, for example, Eberhard took a dig at Musk’s alleged hot temper and hair-trigger firings.
“I’m a believer of treating employees with respect, and I’m not into random firings and things like that,” Eberhard said in an interview with Business Insider, ruminating about how he would run things instead. “So maybe the culture inside the company would have been a little bit nicer.”
His latest criticism is one echoed by many of Tesla’s investors and even its fans: that it’s sat on its promise of delivering an affordable, $25,000 EV. Proponents argue this would unlock millions of more customers that were reluctant to buy EVs due to their price and rescue the company’s faltering sales.
Recent comments from Musk, however, have all but confirmed reports that Tesla is abandoning the idea, despite teasing it for years. And in retrospect, the Cybertruck should’ve been a clear death knell. It’s in every respect a giant F-U to sensible, frugal-minded buyers. It’s large, heavy, expensive to maintain, and infamously unreliable. When it launched, it cost an eye-watering $100,000, and cheaper versions that have since been released are still well within the luxury SUV price range with the tradeoff of being a downgrade in every way possible. And with its staggeringly poor sales, which in the second quarter collapsed by more than 50 percent from the year before, Eberhard may be getting the last laugh.
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