Tesla will wind down production of the Cybertruck at its Gigafactory in Texas around the middle of next year, chief executive Elon Musk has said, ending the run of the polarising stainless-steel pickup truck to make room for the company’s self-driving Cybercab.
Musk announced the decision on Friday in a post on X, his social media platform. “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,” he wrote.
The Austin plant is the only factory that builds the Cybertruck, and it was not immediately clear whether production would move to another site or stop altogether. But the truck’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, appeared to confirm that the vehicle had reached the end of the line, writing on X: “Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab.” Musk himself called the moment the “end of an era”.
A truck that never met its own forecast
The Cybertruck was unveiled in 2019 and first delivered to customers in late 2023 after years of delays. At Tesla’s 2023 shareholder meeting, Musk said his “reasonable guess” was that the company would eventually be making 500,000 Cybertrucks a year. Sales never came close.
According to estimates from Kelley Blue Book, Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks in the United States in 2024. That figure fell to 20,237 in 2025, a decline of 48 per cent. The slide has continued this year: Tesla sold 11,586 Cybertrucks in the first three months of 2026, compared with 16,097 in the same period last year, and sales have fallen 28 per cent so far in 2026, according to data from Cox Automotive, Kelley Blue Book’s parent company.
Tesla does not report Cybertruck sales separately in its public filings. The company has reported sales of its “other models” — everything except the best-selling Model 3 and Model Y — at fewer than 37,000 this year, a figure that also includes the discontinued Model S and Model X.
| Period | Cybertruck sales (US, estimated) |
|---|---|
| 2024, full year | 38,965 |
| 2025, full year | 20,237 |
| Q1 2025 | 16,097 |
| Q1 2026 | 11,586 |
Sources: Kelley Blue Book / Cox Automotive estimates, via USA Today and Business Insider. Tesla does not disclose Cybertruck sales in its own filings.
The Cybertruck’s angular, stainless-steel body made it one of the most recognisable vehicles on the road — and one of the most argued about. Either way, it never became the mass-market pickup Musk had promised, and it arrived as the wider electric-vehicle market was cooling.
Why sales fell
The Cybertruck’s decline mirrors a broader slowdown in American electric-car sales. Carmakers sold 725,888 electric cars in the first nine months of 2026, according to Cox Automotive data released in October, down 30 per cent from the more than one million sold in the same period last year, after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit was eliminated by President Donald Trump and Congress.
The Cybertruck in particular launched during the height of the 2024 presidential campaign, when Musk was vocally supporting Trump, and the vehicle became a symbol of that alignment for some buyers — and a reason to look elsewhere for others.
What replaces it: the Cybercab
The vehicle taking the Cybertruck’s place on the Austin production line is the Cybercab, a small two-seat car with no steering wheel and no accelerator or brake pedals, designed from the outset to drive itself. Tesla says it is a “purpose-built fully autonomous vehicle” and that rides will be ordered through a phone app, much like Uber or Lyft — except that no human driver will be behind the wheel when the car arrives.
Documents Tesla submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency in May show the Cybercab will have a fully electric motor, all-wheel drive, 219 horsepower, a 48 kWh battery and a range of about 418 miles. It went into production earlier this year, and some units are already in service as taxis as part of Tesla’s autonomous driving test fleet.
Musk has said Tesla will soon be making the Cybercab in greater numbers than all its other vehicles combined, and that the robotaxi will be a big part of the company’s “overall shift to an autonomous future”. The robotaxi service currently operates in seven cities — four in Texas and three in Florida — and Musk told investors in April that Tesla planned to expand it to “a dozen or so states” by the end of the year. That is behind competing services such as Alphabet-owned Waymo, and Tesla has yet to break out the profits or revenue from the service in its quarterly reports.
“Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab.”
— Wes Morrill, Cybertruck lead engineer, on X
A wider pivot away from selling cars
The Cybertruck decision is part of a broader reshaping of Tesla’s factories around autonomy and robotics. Musk has made clear that the future of Tesla will be providing rides through its still-nascent robotaxi service and selling humanoid robots, not selling electric vehicles. At the company’s other US auto plant, in California, Musk halted production of its two most expensive models, the Model S and Model X, to make room for production of Optimus, the humanoid robot the company intends to sell.
Both of those bets remain, for now, more promise than reality: the robotaxi service has struggled to win regulatory approval from local governments, and Optimus robots are not yet available for sale.
What is not yet known: Tesla has not said how long it will keep selling the remaining Cybertrucks, or whether production will move to another factory rather than ending outright. Morrill has indicated on X that Tesla will maintain spare parts for the model, according to MarketWatch, but the company has not published a formal end-of-production or support timeline.
What happens to the Cybertruck next
Musk has previously hinted that the Cybertruck line itself may not disappear entirely, but change shape. On Tesla’s January earnings call he said the line would transition to “just a fully autonomous vehicle”, suggesting an autonomous Cybertruck could be useful for local cargo delivery within a city. For now, though, the message from Austin is clear: the factory floor that built the stainless-steel truck will be given over to the car with no steering wheel.
Frequently asked questions
When will Cybertruck production end?
Around the middle of 2027, according to Musk’s post on X. Production will wind down at Gigafactory Texas in Austin, the only plant that builds the truck.
Why is Tesla ending the Cybertruck?
Sales have fallen sharply — down 28 per cent so far in 2026, according to Cox Automotive — and Tesla wants the factory capacity for the Cybercab. Musk has said the company’s future lies in autonomous rides and humanoid robots rather than selling electric cars.
What is the Cybercab?
A two-seat, fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, ordered through a phone app. EPA documents show a 48 kWh battery, about 418 miles of range and 219 horsepower. It went into production earlier this year and some units are already operating as taxis.
Will Tesla still support existing Cybertrucks?
Tesla has not published a formal support timeline. The truck’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, has indicated on X that the company will maintain spare parts for the model.
Could the Cybertruck come back?
Possibly in a different form. Musk said in January that the Cybertruck line could transition to “just a fully autonomous vehicle”, potentially for local cargo delivery. No such vehicle has been announced.
Key takeaways
- Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around mid-2027 to make room for increased Cybercab production, Elon Musk announced on X on 6 November.
- Cybertruck sales have fallen 28 per cent so far in 2026, according to Cox Automotive, after dropping from 38,965 in 2024 to 20,237 in 2025.
- The Cybercab is a two-seat car with no steering wheel or pedals; Tesla says it will soon build more Cybercabs than all its other vehicles combined.
- The move is part of a wider Tesla pivot from selling electric cars to robotaxis and humanoid robots, with Model S and Model X production already halted to make room for Optimus.
- What remains unclear is whether Cybertruck production moves elsewhere, how long remaining stock will be sold, and how quickly the robotaxi service can expand beyond its current seven cities.
What to watch next: how quickly Tesla retools the Austin line for the Cybercab, whether the robotaxi service reaches the “dozen or so states” Musk promised by the end of the year, and whether Cybertruck sales stabilise in its final months of production — or fall further as buyers wait for what comes next.
