Tesla is preparing to scale back its most talked-about vehicle. According to Elon Musk, the company will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year, freeing floor space for a larger build-out of the Cybercab, its two-seat robotaxi. Musk announced the shift in a post on X, framing it as a reallocation of manufacturing capacity rather than a simple cancellation.
- Capacity shift: The Texas plant, the only facility equipped to build the Cybertruck, will redirect space toward the Cybercab around mid-2027.
- Sales reality: Kelley Blue Book counted 20,237 U.S. Cybertruck sales last year, down 48% from 38,965 in 2024 and far below Musk’s early target of 250,000 units a year.
- Strategic pivot: Tesla is steering resources toward AI, robotics and autonomous ride-hailing, with the Cybercab already carrying paying passengers in Austin.
A retreat from the pickup that was meant to redefine Tesla
The Cybertruck arrived in late 2023 after years of delays, following a 2019 unveiling remembered as much for its angular stainless-steel body as for a window demonstration that cracked under thrown metal balls. Musk had predicted annual sales of 250,000 units when production began, and at one point floated a range of 250,000 to 500,000 vehicles a year.
The market never cooperated. Tesla does not break out Cybertruck deliveries, grouping them with the Model S, Model X and Semi, a category that fell 48% year over year in the third quarter to 8,295 vehicles. Kelley Blue Book’s model-level estimate puts U.S. Cybertruck sales at 20,237 last year, a 48% decline from 38,965 in 2024, with a further 28% drop from January to September of this year. The truck also accumulated 11 recalls since its debut, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some requiring physical repairs and others resolved through over-the-air software updates.
Pricing told a similar story. The Cybertruck was pitched at under $40,000 with up to 500 miles of range; it reached customers roughly two years late, at around $60,000 and with less range. The cheapest version now lists at $74,990 after a $5,000 increase in August. Musk’s political activity in 2024 and 2025 also turned the vehicle into a target for protests, a factor that did little to help an already polarizing product. European Tesla sales fell 49% in the first two months of 2025 even as overall EV sales grew.
“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,” Musk wrote on X, describing the move as the “end of an era” while calling the Cybertruck the “best vehicle Tesla has ever made.”
The Cybercab takes the floor
The Cybercab is a two-seater built specifically for autonomous ride-hailing. Tesla began offering paid rides with a small fleet in Austin in September, and the company has listed installed capacity of more than 125,000 units. About 570 of the more than 1,200 Tesla robotaxis operating in Texas are Cybercabs, with the rest mainly Model Y vehicles, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
The transition is not without friction. U.S. auto regulators are still examining whether Tesla properly self-certified the Cybercab against federal motor vehicle safety standards, and NHTSA opened an audit in September to review that certification. The Cybercab also remains a relatively small program, having only entered production earlier this year.
Inside Tesla, the change is being presented as continuity rather than surrender. Wes Morrill, the Cybertruck’s lead engineer, wrote on X that the pickup was “an incredible technology development platform” and that it “lives on through Cybercab.”
A pattern of trading the present for the future
The Cybertruck is not the first Tesla product to be displaced by the company’s robotics ambitions. Tesla previously stopped producing the Model S and Model X and used that capacity to build Optimus humanoid robots, part of a broader push that includes a $25 billion chip fab announced for Tesla, SpaceX and xAI.
That reorientation carries real financial logic: there is little sense in building a vehicle the market has rejected. But it also exposes a recurring pattern. Tesla has spent years selling the future — robotaxis, humanoids, autonomy — while its core car business cools, and the Cybercab has yet to prove it can become a durable business rather than another spectacular presentation. The Cybertruck was once supposed to change everything. It now stands as a reminder that, at Tesla, the distance between the announcement and the road is often measured in years and in unmet promises.