Photo: TeslaTesla · BreakingLate last week, Elon Musk posted on X that 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 called it the best vehicle Tesla has ever made, and “the end of an era.”
It is a remarkable ending for the most talked-about vehicle of the decade. When it was unveiled in 2019, we wrote that it already had 200,000 pre-orders. Seven years later, Tesla has sold roughly 70,000 of them in total, by Digital Trends’ count.
The numbers
The gap between the promise and the reality is the whole story. Musk forecast between 250,000 and 500,000 a year. In its best year, 2024, the Cybertruck sold about 38,965 in the US, according to Kelley Blue Book. In 2025 that roughly halved, to 20,237. Through the first nine months of 2026 it sold 11,586, running 28 percent behind the same stretch of 2025.
How it got here
Along the way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration logged 11 Cybertruck recalls, some fixed with over-the-air updates and some needing physical repairs. The design that made it famous also made it divisive, and the price that eventually arrived was a long way from the one people reserved at.
What replaces it
The Cybercab is a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals. It entered production earlier this year, and Tesla started charging for rides in a small Cybercab fleet in Austin in September. According to Texas DMV figures cited by Fox Business, about 570 of the more than 1,200 Tesla robotaxis registered in Texas are Cybercabs. Musk has said the Cybercab is mainly for Tesla’s own ride service rather than for private buyers.
It is the same pattern as earlier this year, when Tesla ended the Model S and Model X and gave their production lines to the Optimus humanoid robot. Tesla is clearing its factories of low-volume cars to make things it believes matter more. The Cybertruck’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, put it simply: the truck “lives on through Cybercab.”
If you own one, or still want one
Morrill said Tesla will keep making spare parts and servicing the Cybertruck, so owners are not being left behind. Production continues until roughly mid-2027, and Musk has said Tesla will build as many as it can before then. It is not yet clear whether the truck could move to another factory; Giga Texas is the only Tesla plant set up to build it.
For what it is worth, the truck itself is good at a lot of things. The current all-wheel-drive version is EPA-rated at 325 miles in our EV Range Chart, and its Powershare system can run a home during a blackout. Its successor, if there ever is one, will have a very hard act to follow on looks alone!
Want an electric pickup that is not going anywhere? The Silverado EV and Rivian R1T both make our ranking of the longest-range electric cars. Or read about Ford’s Fathom pickup and home backup power.
Sources: Fox Business and Reuters, Digital Trends, Newsweek, Kelley Blue Book sales estimates, NHTSA. Photos: Tesla.
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