Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production around the middle of 2027. The stainless-steel pickup that was supposed to take on America’s bestselling trucks is being put out of our misery to make room for a two-seat taxi.
“Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production,” Elon Musk wrote on X
. The Austin plant is the only factory that builds the Cybertruck, and Tesla has announced no plans to make it anywhere else.
The Cybertruck did one thing brilliantly, and that was to make people look. Tesla managed that even at the unveiling in 2019, when a demonstration of the truck’s toughened glass resulted in two cracked windows. The harder job was persuading pickup buyers to spend their own money on one.
Two years late, $21,000 dearer and well short of 500 miles
Tesla originally said production would start in late 2021. By the time the first customers got their keys in November 2023, Tesla was quoting $60,990 for the eventual entry-level model, more than 50% up from the promised $39,900 at the unveiling. Not that you could buy the entry-level model, as that wouldn’t arrive until 2025, leaving those keen to drive a Cybertruck needing to find $80,000 — double the original price tag.
Tesla also promised more than 500 miles of range for the top-spec truck. At launch, the longest-range Cybertruck was rated at 340 miles. Tesla’s answer was to offer an optional $16,000 auxiliary battery that would take up space in the load bed. It took deposits, then cancelled the option in 2025 and refunded them. Selling pickup buyers some of their range back at the expense of the space they bought the truck for was quite a pitch.
The bits that needed a rivet and better glue
The windows turned out to be the least of it. In April 2024, Tesla recalled 3,878 Cybertrucks because the accelerator pedal pad could come loose and jam against the interior trim. The fix included securing the pad with a rivet. Tesla also recalled early trucks because their oversized windscreen wiper could stop working.
Then came a recall covering more than 46,000 trucks in March 2025. The adhesive bonding a stainless-steel trim panel could fail, allowing the panel to detach while driving. For a truck whose entire identity was wrapped up in its stainless steel strength, that was a particularly awkward piece to leave on the road.
The Cybertruck never officially went on sale in the UK. One of its more memorable appearances here came in January 2025, when Greater Manchester Police stopped and seized one in Bury. The owner has since got their Cybertruck back, but it remains banned from UK roads.
A quarter of a million a year looked good on paper
In 2023, Musk talked about building 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. Estimates put Tesla sales at around 39,000 in the US in 2024, then 20,000 in 2025. In the first nine months of 2026, sales fell another 28% to fewer than 12,000. Add those periods together and you get around 71,000 trucks, equivalent to less than four months of output at the rate Musk envisaged.
Cybertruck development costs were estimated at $2bn, while Tesla’s latest investor update lists production capacity at more than 125,000 a year. Even in its best full year, US sales came to less than a third of that figure. The factory had room for plenty more Cybertrucks, but the market had other ideas.
A pickup earns its keep by carrying kit, pulling a trailer and getting back to work the next morning. The Cybertruck could do those jobs, but its strongest selling point was always that everyone would know whose truck had just pulled up. That’s a decent brief for a publicity stunt. It’s an expensive one for a production line.
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