We knew this, right... People are putting small depostis to preorder trucks in hope to lock in low prices before inflation forces everyone to increase prices.
4th Gear: Electric Truck Buyers Are Putting Deposits On Everything
A new study has confirmed what the rest of us always suspected: If you take refundable deposits for your fancy new electric truck, people will throw down their money without necessarily intending to actually buy the vehicle. From Automotive News:
Electric truck consumers are using refundable reservations to pre-order more than one EV and keep their options open, according to a new survey conducted by battery health analysis firm Recurrent.
The study, released Monday, surveyed more than 200 consumers who had at least one pending EV reservation between April and May and found purchasers tended to over-order electric trucks due to concerns over whether the manufacturer would actually fulfill the purchase. Eighty-nine percent of Tesla Cybertruck reservations overlapped with another truck pre-order, and 100 percent of Ford F-150 Lightning and Chevrolet Silverado EV pre-orders customers had also reserved another vehicle, according to the results.
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The study found that nearly 50 percent of consumers who had reserved either the Tesla Cybertruck or another vehicle intended to redeem the pre-order.
Electric cars don’t seem to follow the same trend, but EV truck buyers simply seem to want an EV truck — regardless of who actually builds the thing. The market is truly a race to reach buyers, and one in which Tesla is falling further and further behind.