It was supposed to be bulletproof. Or at least, ball-proof.
Back in 2019, Tesla's big Cybertruck debut turned into a PR faceplant when chief designer Franz von Holzhausen hurled not one, but two steel balls at the vehicle's so-called "armor glass"—shattering both windows onstage.
After the first hit, CEO Elon Musk laughed it off, saying, "Well, maybe that was a little too hard." Then came the second throw—this time at the rear window. Same result. The audience laughed, and Musk added, "It didn't go through."
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The truck, priced at $61,000, was left looking like it had already survived a demolition derby, and Tesla's stock dipped more than 5% the next day. But now, nearly six years later, von Holzhausen isn't calling it a fail.
In an interview with Tesla Club Austria last week, he described the smashed windows as "a great meme" and said the incident weirdly worked in Tesla's favor. "We don't do marketing," he said, "but it turned into a great marketing moment."
More importantly, von Holzhausen insists it wasn't a total failure. "The ball didn't go through the window, so… you're still safe," he said. It cracked, yes—but stayed intact enough to technically deliver on the safety pitch.
"Elon was amazing," von Holzhausen said.
"Just thinking about what that moment could have been… he rolled with it and we turned it into something positive."
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The team didn't panic. They pivoted.
The moment was so iconic, Tesla even started selling T-shirts featuring the broken-glass silhouette. Musk played into the chaos, tweeting: "Guess we have some improvements to make before production haha."
Within days, Musk claimed over 200,000 Cybertruck orders had rolled in. Even if some folks were laughing, they were still buying.
Tesla groups Cybertruck deliveries under its "other models" category, lumped with Model S and X. In Q2 2025, Tesla sold only 10,394 units of these "other models"—down from over 21,500 in the same period last year. That's a 52% decline.
Digging deeper, S&P Global Mobility records show roughly 7,100 Cybertrucks were registered in Q1. According to Electrek, based on Tesla's delivery report, Cybertruck sales are currently about 5,000 units per quarter, equivalent to roughly 20,000 units per year.
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Tesla's engineering leadership, though, is signaling that the company hasn't stuck strictly to full-size trucks. At an "X Takeover" event in San Mateo, California on July 26, Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy said the company has long considered building a smaller pickup. He told attendees:
"We always talked about making a smaller pickup. I think in the future, as more and more of the Robotaxi comes into the world, we look at those options… We've definitely been churning in the design studio about what we might do to serve that need, for sure."
That doesn't confirm a new model is on its way—but it does show Tesla hasn't ruled out a more compact, globally friendly option.
Yet, asking whether the shattered armor glass had an impact? Hard to see that as anything but a sideshow. The steel ball incident grabbed attention and sparked orders—but in 2025, what matters more are the numbers.
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