Tesla Cybertruck sells at auction for $400,000

09 October 2023

Tesla's Cybertruck was announced years ago, and it's still not being delivered to customers, although a bunch have already been produced, so it's only a matter of time now.

But what do you do if you desperately want one, and not just any Cybertruck, but one of the first ever produced, and don't want to go through Tesla's sales process? Oh, and you have a lot of money to spend? In that case, you simply buy one at an auction for a whopping $400,000.

That's exactly what someone did. The Petersen Museum in Los Angeles held an auction for what it described as a "low-VIN" Cybertruck, so presumably one of the first units ever produced. And the winning bid was, you guessed it - $400,000. That's about 4 to 5 times what the truck's retail price is expected to be, but the bragging rights of having purchased your early model at an auction are probably priceless.

Tesla does have a relationship with the Petersen Museum, as that was the location for the Cybertruck's public unveiling back in 2020, and it's had a Tesla-focused exhibition since then, but it doesn't look like the car maker was involved with this auction. That would mean that the museum plans to purchase one of the early units in order to give it to the winner.

The auction gala was hosted by famous car enthusiast Jay Leno and the admission fee was $1,700. The results haven't been officially announced yet, but over the weekend a lot of people who attended the auction posted about the winning bid on social media. The funds thus raised are expected to go to the museum, which operates as a non-profit, so most likely it will invest the sum in more exhibits for the future.