Earlier this week, a car auction broke all popularity records, ending with a Tesla Cybertruck selling for $244K to a Porsche dealer. We now have more info about who sold the truck and why. However, the more interesting part is that Ford also bought a Cybertruck for a similar amount, and it's testing it at its proving grounds near Detroit.
Despite some discrepancies between what Tesla promised and what was delivered, the Tesla Cybertruck is still the most revolutionary car model the auto industry ever built. This made it a guaranteed target of economic espionage, with many carmakers wanting to dissect it and extract useful information from it. However, getting hold of a Cybertruck was difficult, considering that Tesla's no-resale clause prohibits owners from flipping the truck.
This doesn't mean reselling the Cybertruck is impossible if you want to. It's just that you won't be able to pocket the money, as Tesla gets all the profits from the sale but no less than $50,000. Still, people found creative ways to go around this rule. One is using a lease contract for the amount asked instead of selling the truck outright. After a year, the new owner gets full ownership for no additional costs. This way, the sale is registered after the one-year rule, and Tesla gets nothing.
Another way is to sell the Cybertruck to a third party and pay Tesla the minimum of what is due, which is $50K. After that, the electric pickup is free of all burden and can be sold and resold as one sees fit. It appears that the Cybertruck sold at auction earlier for $244K followed such a route. According to John Clay Wolfe, the owner of Give Me The VIN, the company that sold it, the truck was earlier bought for $210,000, allegedly from the original owner.
Wolfe admitted this was not the first Cybertruck his company bought and would not be the last. Wolfe admitted that he sold another Cybertruck quietly the day before the auction concluded. We don't know who bought that truck, but we have proof that one Tesla Cybertruck was spotted charging at Ford's proving grounds near Detroit the other day. Rumor has it that Ford bought it for $250,000 and intends to test the heck out of it. Not only that, but Elon Musk reacted to the news, saying that the price paid was "worth it."
Since the Cybertruck at Manheim auction was bought by a Porsche dealer, it's safe to assume that carmakers left and right have started the hunt for Cybertrucks and are trying to reverse-engineer them. Elon Musk is well aware of this, especially as he thinks Porsche still needs to up its EV game to match the company's "combustion skills." "When they take it apart, they (Porsche) will discover a lot of new technology," Musk wrote on X.
It's unclear whether Musk's company will go after the original owners of these Cybertrucks. It's not just the monetary penalties at stake but also Tesla's reputation. If it shows that it can't enforce the no-resale clause, it's worth no more than the paper it is written on. Paying a fine to Tesla may not be the worst thing to happen to a Cybertruck owner. Flippers risk being prohibited from ever buying a Tesla vehicle.
After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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