Tesla  (TSLA)  stock may have surged yesterday, but that doesn’t mean it’s all good news for Elon Musk. On the contrary, negative headlines are still piling up as the company falters.

Once known as the undisputed leader of the electric vehicle (EV) sector, Tesla has struggled since the year started, largely thanks to Elon Musk’s polarizing actions. Even after the CEO announced he would be stepping back from his role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), share prices haven’t garnered any sustainable momentum.

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Recently, Tesla revealed that its sales in China are down more than 8% on a year-over-year (YOY) basis while demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) continues to rise. This indicates that the company’s share of an important market is slipping at a highly vital time.

Now Tesla has more bad news from the U.S., as a new rival celebrates a major milestone.

Elon Musk has cause to be worried as a fast-growing Tesla rival continues making progress.

Image source: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

The ‘anti-Tesla’ is coming for Musk’s market share

Less than two weeks ago, news broke that Tesla had an unexpected new rival, a startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Slate Automotive had been quietly pioneering low-cost electric pickup trucks for years, but has finally entered the market with a splash.

Related: Tesla faces big threat from rivals in key market

The company produces customizable electric pickup trucks with the traditional design at a sticker price of only $25,000. This low price decreases even more with the federal EV tax credit.

So far, demand for these vehicles is extremely high. Slate just reported that over the weekend of May 10, it exceeded 100,000 reservations. These figures haven’t led to sales yet, but they show that many people are very interested in owning a Slate Automotive electric truck before the vehicle has been released.

At first glance, this might seem like worse news for Rivian than Tesla. After all, the trendy startup also produces electric pickup trucks with a traditional design. 

But as TechCrunch has reported, Slate’s trendy model is a perfect contrast to Tesla’s Cybertruck, since it is “affordable, deeply customizable, and very analog,” and doesn’t even come with an infotainment screen.

This comes at a time when Tesla is facing a significant Cybertruck demand problem. As TheStreet has reported, photos have shown hundreds of Tesla’s futuristic trucks sitting idly at its Texas gigafactory facility, as well as in random parking lots in other states.

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Musk spent years hyping up the Cybertruck, touting it as the vehicle of the future, even as it encountered multiple production delays. 

Despite the initially high reservations when Tesla finally released it, though, it is clear that supply is far exceeding demand, presenting Tesla with a major problem at a time when it is already having trouble selling EVs.

High demand for the anti-Tesla truck tells a critical story about the industry

With demand for Slate’s affordable, sleek truck option increasing steadily while Cybertruck sales have slowed, it isn’t hard to see the writing on the wall. Consumers are more interested in an affordable electric truck than in spending a lot of money on Musk’s futuristic vision.

This could be because many consumers have opted against buying any Tesla vehicle lately, a clear response to Musk’s political affiliations. But it also suggests that truck buyers are looking for a traditional-looking model, one that can actually function as a typical pickup truck.

Tesla recently attempted to rebrand the Cybertruck as a vehicle for the typical working person, but as TheStreet reports, this initiative has not gone well, and experts predict it will continue to fail. People who require a truck for work clearly don’t want to switch to a Cybertruck, especially given its high price tag.

Slate Automotive is making significant progress and is already garnering a following before releasing any trucks. The last thing Musk needs right now is another competitor, but now he has one that is backed by one of his biggest rivals.

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