Tesla to end Cybertruck production next year and convert the line to the Cybercab
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Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at its Gigafactory in Texas around the middle of next year and convert the line to build the Cybercab, its two-seat autonomous taxi, chief executive Elon Musk said on the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Cybertruck sales fell 19.7 percent in the third quarter. Mr. Musk had set an early goal of 200,000 trucks a year; production never approached it. The vehicle, launched in late 2023 after years of delay with an angular stainless-steel body, was never sold in Europe, where it does not meet pedestrian-safety standards. Even before the launch, Mr. Musk told an earnings call in 2023: “We dug our own grave with Cybertruck,” citing “enormous challenges” in raising output and earning money on it. Mr. Musk did not say whether Tesla would build the truck elsewhere; doing so would probably require heavy investment in the specialised tooling its steel shell demands.
The decision continues a reorganization of Tesla’s lineup. The company ended production of the Model S sedan and Model X sport-utility vehicle this year, leaving the Model 3 and Model Y as its volume sellers; they accounted for 478,000 deliveries in the third quarter. The Cybertruck line’s conversion to the long-promised Cybercab puts the company’s factory capacity behind a vehicle that is not yet in production.
Regulators have added pressure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is auditing the Cybertruck’s retractable door handles after complaints of doors opening or failing to open in crashes; Tesla responded to the agency on Oct. 30 and audit results are pending, The New York Times reported.
Wall Street has treated the wind-down as arithmetic rather than sentiment. The Cybertruck carried a high unit price but low volumes, and analysts at several firms had modeled its discontinuation since spring. Fortune noted the change arrives as Tesla’s overall vehicle business contracts and its promised robotaxi rollout remains limited to a handful of cities.
The company reported the conversion would begin after final Cybertruck orders are filled. A federal safety audit result and the Cybercab’s production start date are the next disclosures investors await.