Remember SpaceX Bought 1,000+ Cybertrucks from Tesla? A Visitor Pictured Them All Parked Together

If you have ever wondered just how many Tesla Cybertrucks Elon Musk's rocket company actually owns, a recent visitor to Brownsville, Texas just answered that question with a single photo, and the number on display is even bigger than most people guessed. The connection between these two companies runs deep, and we have covered how Tesla and SpaceX share synergy through Starship rockets that utilize Tesla motors and Cybertruck steel, a link that goes far beyond simple branding.

Fred Jones, a visitor from Omaha, was passing through Brownsville when he stumbled onto a sight that stopped him in his tracks, and before you keep reading, here is a question worth keeping in mind. If a private space company is quietly buying up a thousand or more electric trucks, what happens to the used Cybertruck market once those same trucks eventually get resold? Keep that question in mind, because we will return to it, and we want your answer in the comments below.

Fred shared his photo and a short caption in the Tesla Model Y public group on Facebook, writing, "We saw thousands or hundreds of Tesla trucks at Boca Chica SpaceX parking lots and driving around Brownsville, TX. Also saw many cars in bank car lots but guessing they were not being returned or repossessed." 

As of this writing, more than 610 people have liked his post and 239 have left comments, and the discussion that followed is just as interesting as the photo itself.

Why Are There So Many Cybertrucks At Starbase In The First Place?

This is not a brand new phenomenon either. We previously reported on a giant bronze statue of Elon Musk being towed by a Cybertruck through the streets of Brownsville, a stunt tied to the same Starbase facility where SpaceX is building the next generation Starship rocket. Starbase has become so central to the local economy that the company is now one of the largest employers in the region, and that explains why so many Cybertrucks are rolling around town rather than sitting in a showroom somewhere. SpaceX has folded the Cybertruck into its daily operations at the site, a pattern that lines up with our earlier report on a Cybertruck spotted hauling a SpaceX rocket booster ahead of a planned Starship launch.

Is The 400 Dollar Employee Lease Claim Actually True?

So why does SpaceX have so many of these trucks parked together. Part of the explanation comes from inside sources commenting on Fred's post. Jorge Velez, who says he works in the area and posted his own photo from his job site to back up his claim, wrote, "Space x employees lease them for 400 dollars a month. You'll see that if the license plate starts with an X it is an employee lease. Pretty good deal for them considering they probably charge for free there at Starbase." 

When someone asked Jorge where the chargers were in Fred's photo, he replied, "I am there in that area working. There's probably about 50 superchargers along that black wall behind the trucks." Torque News could not verify the exact 400 dollar lease figure through any public source, so treat that number as an unconfirmed claim from someone who says he works nearby, similar to how we flagged unverifiable claims in our story about Tesla no longer wanting Cybertruck owners to sell their trucks back to the company after used prices fell.

Other commenters backed up the charger detail, and one SpaceX connected user, Adam Peltier, added a twist to the free charging conversation, writing, "They upped the price but yes, we do charge for free." 

Another commenter, El Guero, explained the practical side of why so many Cybertrucks exist on site at all, writing, "We used them for work at starbase thats how we get around in the facility." This tracks with our deep dive into how Starship inspired Elon Musk to build the Tesla Cybertruck in the first place, since SpaceX has worked Cybertrucks into everything from technician transport to chase cars for rocket recoveries.

What Does This Mean For Tesla's Sales Numbers?

Here is what is actually happening behind the scenes, based on everything we know about how SpaceX uses these trucks.

• Employee leasing programs that let SpaceX workers drive a Cybertruck for a discounted monthly rate, which explains the special X prefixed license plates people keep noticing
• Fleet vehicles used for moving equipment and general transportation around the massive Starbase campus, a use case that lines up with our coverage of the stainless steel juggernaut and why the Cybertruck is reclaiming Tesla's market share despite controversy
• Free or discounted charging access through a private supercharger row, which several commenters confirmed exists along the back wall in Fred's photo
• A built in marketing benefit for Tesla, since seeing a fleet of trucks operating daily in a harsh rocket launch environment provides a kind of real world durability test no commercial could replicate

That last point matters more than people realize, and it ties directly into a bigger story we have been following. We reported that Tesla appears to be cancelling Cybertruck production soon as SpaceX and xAI absorb stranded inventory, with reports that those two Musk owned companies are purchasing hundreds or possibly thousands of trucks to help support quarterly sales numbers. That detail lines up almost perfectly with what Fred photographed in Brownsville, and it also lines up with our report on a local Tesla lot packed with unsold cars while the demo Cybertruck sat hidden around back.

Should Buyers Worry About A Flood Of Used Cybertrucks?

This brings us back to the concern raised by Paul Packer, a group member whose Facebook profile lists work with Polestar and Apple. 

Paul wrote, "Wait till the corporate lease on these ends and the market is flooded with used inventory. Why do you think we're starting to see CT's appear in the preowned section on the Tesla site. Tesla can also slowly upload inventory without ever revealing the total number of them." It is a fair point worth sitting with, especially since we have already documented several former Cybertruck owners sharing the staggering amount of money they lost reselling their trucks, with one owner describing 30,000 dollars gone in just two months.

Here are a few things worth watching if you are curious about where the used Cybertruck market goes from here.

• Watch the Tesla certified preowned section closely, since fleet returns tend to surface there in waves rather than all at once, a pattern we noticed when leftover 2024 Cybertrucks started clogging dealer lots with steep discounts attached
• Pay attention to mileage and condition, since fleet use vehicles often rack up miles faster than personal vehicles, similar to what we found when CarMax appraised a used Cybertruck and offered 25 percent less than the original purchase price after just 3000 miles
• Compare prices across platforms, since dealers and private sellers have shown wildly different offers for the same truck
• Remember that Tesla has changed its trade in and buyback rules more than once, so the policy around returning a Cybertruck keeps shifting under owners' feet

According to Electrek, reports have circulated that Tesla has stopped accepting Cybertruck trade ins altogether as unsold inventory piles up, which only adds more weight to Paul's concern about a future flood of used trucks hitting the market all at once.

The lesson here is a simple one. A single photo from a visitor in Brownsville opened up a much bigger conversation about how corporate fleets, employee leasing programs, and inventory management all work together behind the scenes of a company you might only think about as a car or rocket maker.

So here are our two questions for you. Do you think SpaceX's fleet purchases are propping up Cybertruck sales numbers in a way that misleads everyday buyers, and would you personally buy a used Cybertruck once you knew it may have spent its first year shuttling SpaceX employees around Starbase. Click the red Add New Comment button below and let us know what you think.

Return tomorrow, or check our Torque News Home Page for more interesting automotive news articles.

Images by Fred Jones and Jorge Velez from the public Facebook group, used for news-reporting purpose with credit.

About The Author

Armen Hareyan is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Torque News and an automotive journalist with over 15 years of experience writing car reviews and industry news. Now based in the Charlotte region (Indian Land, SC, he founded Torque News in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News on X, Linkedin, Facebook, and Youtube. Armen holds three Masters Degrees, including an MBA, and has become one of the known voices in the industry, specializing in the landscape of electric vehicles and real-world stories of actual car owners. Armen focuses on providing readers with transparent, data-backed analysis bridging the gap of complex engineering and car buyer practicality. Armen frequently participates in automotive events throughout the United States, national and local car reveals and personally test-drives new vehicles every week. Armen has also been published as an automotive expert in publications like the Transit Tomorrow, discussing how will autonomous vehicles reshape the supply chain, and emerging technologies in vehicle maintenance.