Musk says many Cybertruck buyers will get deposits back as production ends, arguing ‘opportunity cost’ is vastly outweighed by new robotaxi
In an early Monday post on X, he said the number of Cybertrucks ordered “far exceeds our production rate,” which means many buyers will be out of luck following the CEO’s announcement Friday that Tesla would be “winding down” the electric truck’s production by the middle of next year.
Key points
- After sidelining the Cybertruck as he bets Tesla’s future on the autonomous Cybercab, Elon Musk now says customers still waiting for their electric truck may not get one after all.
- “We will try to make as many as possible before shutting down the line in about 8 months, but will have to return deposits for a lot of people,” Musk said Monday.
- A cult following To be sure, the Cybertruck has still amassed a cult following for its unique design despite, or sometimes because of, the association with Musk, whose rightward shift once made him a close adviser of President Trump and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The news comes as some fans of the boxy and futuristic-looking Cybertruck said on social media that they were putting in new orders or upgrading their existing Cybertruck orders before the vehicle ends production.
Additional details
- In recent years, Tesla has discontinued other models like the Model S luxury sedan and Model X SUV, narrowing its consumer vehicle lineup as Musk increasingly shifts the company’s focus to autonomous vehicles, but also humanoid robots.
- Other X users complained that the company was cutting out customers whose needs aren’t met by other vehicles in Tesla’s lineup, while others said Tesla should be expanding vehicle production not cutting it.
- When the vehicle was first announced in 2019, Musk hailed it as Tesla’s best product “ever.” He later predicted Tesla would make between 250,000 and half-a-million units of the vehicle per year.
- When Tesla unveiled the Cybercab concept in 2024, Musk portrayed the vehicle as “a little lounge” rather than a car in the traditional sense.
- But many of his preferred candidates lost, following a surprisingly strong showing for the Democratic Party in the midterms last week.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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