Tesla found a way to move more Cybertrucks: Sell them to the Trump administration

The Trump administration is set to buy $400 million worth of “Armored Tesla” vehicles — later amended to “armored electric vehicles” — this year, according to State Department documents. That’s good news for Tesla, which has struggled to sell as many cars as it would have liked.

Last year the company had more than a million reservations for the Cybertruck, which came out in the beginning of 2024, but few of those turned into sales. CEO Elon Musk hopes to sell up to 500,000 a year; last year Tesla sold fewer than 40,000 Cybertrucks in the US. That was enough to make it the bestselling electric pickup in America, but that’s a low bar considering relatively few people buy electric pickups (regular pickup sales were in the millions). Additionally, Q4 Cybertruck sales were down 22% from Q3, suggesting sales momentum didn’t pick up later in the year.

Enter the US government, where CEO Elon Musk has cozied up to President Trump. The billionaire is in charge of cutting costs in the US government, but apparently not when it comes to paying himself and his companies.

Let’s do some rough math: let’s assume that $400 million would buy 4,000 $100,000 Cybertrucks. (The base model is around $80,000, and we’ll assume the armoring and add-ons would take it up $20,000.) We’re also assuming the money goes to Tesla as was initially stated, and to Cybertrucks, which are much more apt for armor than, say, a Model 3.

That’s 10% of last year’s total Cybertruck sales in one fell swoop! That’s also more Cybertrucks than the company sold in the US in all of January — the month it became eligible for the $7,500 federal credit — according to data from Wards Auto. Tesla sales, which the company had said would “return to growth” after falling last year, aren’t looking great so far in 2025, as they’ve been dropping around the world.