Tesla plans to wind down production of the Cybertruck at its Austin, Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027, chief executive Elon Musk announced this week.
The sales struggles of the highly touted Cybertruck have been well-documented – Tesla never came within a country mile of the projected 250,000 annual sales boldly predicted way back when. The move to wind down production doesn’t come as much of a surprise, then, and it also aligns with the company's wish to pivot towards expanding production of its Cybercab driverless robotaxi.
Calling the wind-down the “end of an era,” Musk, never one to shy away from bold statements, defended the controversial stainless-steel pickup as the “best vehicle Tesla has ever made.”
In a glass half-full statement, Chief Engineer Wes Morrill noted that the Cybertruck served as an important technology development platform and that its innovations would live on through the Cybercab project.
Commercial struggles and unfulfilled targets
Launched in late 2023 accompanied by bold promises that it would disrupt the lucrative North American pickup market, the Cybertruck earned itself tremendous public curiosity and early sales that were enthusiastic but which never led to sustained sales. Musk’s ambitious target of annual sales of 250,000 units remained a distant dream that never materialized.
While Tesla doesn’t publish sales figures for individual models, according to Kelley Blue Book data, the company sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in the U.S. in 2025, a drop of 48 percent from the 38,965 units delivered in 2024.
Several factors hindered the model’s mass-market appeal, starting with the political baggage Elon Musk accumulated in recent years in his alliance with U.S. President Trump.
On a global scale, the Cybertruck suffered from several other drawbacks:
Polarizing design –The angular stainless-steel exoskeleton proved contentious among traditional truck buyers and generally turned off many consumers.
Regulatory hurdles in global markets – The design also created significant regulatory hurdles in international markets like Europe, where strict pedestrian impact rules effectively blocked its approval.
Pricing – Frequent price adjustments pushed the vehicle well above its original 2019 prototype estimates. In Canada, the lineup ballooned to starting prices of $142,864 CAD for the dual-motor variant and $175,864 for the tri-motor Cyberbeast (excluding federal luxury taxes).
Quality issues – Early production units were plagued by build-quality inconsistencies and multiple recalls.
Stuttering sales in the electric pickup segment – Electric pickups across the industry have faced sluggish adoption in North America, where buyers remain loyal to conventional internal combustion trucks for range, towing and utility.
Reallocating capacity to autonomous fleet
Ending production in Texas frees up assembly space for the Cybercab, a steering-wheel-free two-seater central to Musk’s vision of transitioning Tesla into an artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous transport company. That said, the Cybercab remains a very low-volume model for now and has yet to prove it can gain enough popularity to fill production capacity at the Gigafactory in Texas.
Tesla didn’t specifically say it was ending production of the Cybertruck entirely. It declared only that it was ending production at the Gigafactory. But that facility is currently the sole facility outfitted with the specialized tooling required for the Cybertruck's stainless-steel body. And given the large existing inventory of the model and given that already-sluggish sales are on a downward trajectory, it would be very surprising to see the company invest in retooling another plant to take on production of a model that has only ever sold for a fraction of original estimates.
