Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared this update on his social media platform X on Friday, limiting his announcement to a single sentence: “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.” Now he has postponed it for a few months.

Some of Tesla’s most ardent supporters are now protesting the automaker’s pivot from enthusiast brand to ‘Uber competitor’. An online petition with more than 5,000 signatures as of yesterday calls on Tesla to reconsider plans to end production of the 3-year-old truck.

“For me, and countless others, the Cybertruck represents the daring, forward-thinking vision that makes Tesla a trailblazer in the industry,” wrote Troy Meekhof, who started the petition and is also known as ‘the Cybertruck Guy’. “Tesla should expand ‘human-first vehicles’, ” he added.

Polarizing vehicle

This means production of the polarizing electric pickup will end in Texas after just four years. In July 2023, Tesla celebrated the start of production. However, the model never gained traction in the mass market.

Tesla does not release registration figures for the Cybertruck, instead grouping its sales under ‘other vehicles’. This category has always accounted for only a fraction of Tesla’s total sales, which are dominated by the Model Y and Model 3.

In this year’s third quarter, the Cybertruck amassed 4,323 sales, according to data from Cox Automotive. From January through September, sales totaled 11,586 units.  Industry estimates put the vehicle’s overall deliveries at roughly 70,000. According to Cox Automotive, 72,702 units have been sold in total, 54% of them in 2024

At the beginning of the year, Tesla tried again to ramp up sales by significantly reducing the list price. The manufacturer introduced a new base Cybertruck model with all-wheel drive, priced from $59,990. This represented a substantial discount: previously, the cheapest Cybertruck cost $79,990.

This made the electric model from the Texas factory the most affordable yet. Although Tesla briefly offered a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck RWD for $70,000, it discontinued the variant in September 2025 because demand was too low. One thing is clear: the Cybertruck never came close to the $40,000 base price Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally promised.

Price was always an issue

Price has always been the crux of the issue: the price-to-performance ratio was unconvincing. According to an earlier Electrek report, Tesla was selling only about 5,000 vehicles per quarter at the time of the price cut, less than 10% of the original forecast of over 250,000 units per year.

The manufacturer is also said to have had large inventories at times. In October 2025, it emerged that Musk had instructed his other companies, like SpaceX, to take the unsold Cybertrucks off Tesla’s hands.

In addition to the new base model of the Cybertruck, Tesla also reduced the price of the top-of-the-line Cyberbeast variant by $15,000 in February, from $114,990 to $99,990. This reduction exactly reversed the $15,000 price increase Tesla had applied to the Cyberbeast in August 2025.

Around the same time Elon Musk announced that Cybertruck production would wind down in mid-2027, Tesla stopped taking orders for the entry-level Dual-Motor All-Wheel Drive version, leaving only the Premium and Cyberbeast trims available to order on the automaker’s website.

Additionally, the automaker has raised prices on the remaining models. The Premium AWD model now starts at $92,490, up from $89,990, while the top Cyberbeast now costs $102,490, up from $99,990.

Furthermore, the “unbreakable” Cybertruck, which has defied baseball attacks and gunshots, has drawn heavy criticism for panels falling off, rust, and malfunctions in various vital parts.

Meanwhile, two Swiss companies are working to make the Tesla Cybertruck compliant with European market requirements. The companies, Werk.lab and Revoltaris, aim to adapt the Tesla Cybertruck technically so it can pass Swiss type approval. Whether these plans will survive the announced end of production in Texas remains to be seen, as does whether the Cybertruck will get another chance at a different production location.

Juggling with numbers

At the launch of the Cybertruck, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about producing 250,000 per year. When he launched his newest product in 2024, the Cybercab robotaxi, he promised a yearly production of… 2 million, eventually evolving into 4 million per year.

Until now, Tesla has registered only 1,244 robotaxis in Texas, its new home state. Most of them are still Tesla Model Y vehicles with the autonomous software built in. Cybercabs have been in use in Texas since September 2025.

For sure, Cybercab production will outpace Cybertruck production, but nobody knows by how much. Elon Musk, considered beging the richest man in the world, seems to have other worries in the near future.

After the mid-term election in the US, a real catastrophy for the Republicans, despite $500 million in support from Musk alone, his fortune is estimated to have been reduced by more than €100 billion, and the man will be facing several jurisdictional and parliamentary investigations about his activities for the Trump administration since 2025. Maybe he will be leaving for Mars sooner than estimated…