Tesla Stock Is Down. Don’t Blame Cybertruck.

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Tesla

stock is down a little Wednesday. The reason might be a report from The Verge which pointed out Tesla has removed a few key digits from its Cybertruck webpage. That revelation, however, is old news.

Tesla (ticker: TSLA) stock is down 1.6% in early trading. The

S&P 500
is flat. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 0.3%.

Tesla’s Cybertruck webpage no longer includes the year 2022 when a potential buyer clicks the “order now” button. A few months back Tesla added language that Cybertruck orders could be configured in 2022. Now the website says Cybertruck orders can be configured when production nears.

Investors might fear the change signals a delay for Tesla’s pickup truck. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment about Cybertruck production.

The Cybertruck language change, however, happened as far back as early December. The Tesla

Twitter

-verse noticed long ago. The removal of 2022 isn’t a new thing.

Still, there seems to be something to the Cybertruck explanation, even if the current report is referencing an old change.

Ford Motor

(F) stock is up 3.8% in Wednesday trading. Ford is launching its all-electric F-150 Lightning in the first quarter of 2022. Deliveries of that EV are imminent. Less competition from Cybertuck would be a good thing for that model.

But

Rivian Automotive

(RIVN) also has an electric truck on sale. That stock, however, is down 5.2%. Investors might have expected that stock to get a bump from Cybertruck delay-theories, just like Ford shares, but isn’t.

That means that ongoing growth stock volatility is as big deal as in Tesla’s stock decline as any Cybertruck confusion. The

Nasdaq Composite Index
is down 0.9%, underperforming the other indexes.

Cybertruck, of course, is an important vehicle for Tesla. Trucks account for about 20% of new-vehicle sales in the U.S. What’s more, Tesla has racked up about a million reservations.

The truck is due to be produced at the Austin, Texas, facility that is about to start up. That plant will also make the Model Y.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]