Bad newsTesla to Wind Down Cybertruck as Sales Fell Far Short of Musk’s Target
Elon Musk says Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production in Texas around the middle of next year. US sales were 20,237 in 2025, against the 250,000 a year he predicted at launch, and the truck cannot be sold on European roads.
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Tesla is preparing to stop building the vehicle its chief executive once said would make the future look like the future. Elon Musk said on X that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at its Texas factory around the middle of next year. The space is to go to its self-driving Cybercab, according to DW. Tesla’s shares rose 4.7 percent on Friday after the announcement, the BBC reports.
Musk did not say whether Tesla will stop making the truck entirely or move production elsewhere. The project’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, appeared to suggest it is being discontinued, writing that the Cybertruck lives on through the Cybercab. Musk replied “true” to a fan who called the truck discontinued, and added that the existing fleet will be on the road for a long time.
The sales gap
The numbers explain the decision. Tesla does not publish sales by model, so the figures come from the data firm Kelley Blue Book: 20,237 Cybertrucks sold in the United States in 2025, down from 38,965 in 2024. At the 2023 launch, Musk had predicted sales nearer to 250,000 a year. The 2025 figure is about 8 percent of that forecast.
Price is part of the story. The BBC reports that Musk promised a price people could afford and that the truck launched at $61,000 for the version with every option. In 2026 the Cyberbeast model costs $102,000. DW notes that the Ford F-Series, America’s best-selling pickup line, sold more than 800,000 vehicles last year, at list prices starting at less than half the Cybertruck’s.
The truck also arrived late and with problems. The BBC says the launch was beset by delays, and a 2025 recall affected more than 46,000 vehicles over concerns that part of a trim could fall off. Back in 2019 Musk said the truck had 146,000 orders while it was still in development. The sources do not say how many of those orders became sales.
No route to Europe
Tesla never opened the European market. DW says the truck’s size, weight and shape made it impossible to register for road use there, because EU rules place heavy weight on pedestrian safety as well as on occupants. Europe is where electric vehicles hold a much larger market share than in the United States, so that closed off the strongest market for electric pickups.
The truck’s appeal at home was narrower than hoped. The electric powertrain was probably a barrier in a market where buyers favour petrol and diesel pickups, DW says, and the design drew both devoted fans and widespread mockery.
What it costs
Neither source gives the cost of the programme to Tesla, and the company does not report model-level profit. DW observes that, depending on how fast the wind-down goes, the Cybertruck’s production run could prove shorter than its five-year development phase. Production of the Cybercab will take the factory space.
The wind-down comes in a week when Musk’s companies lost billions in market value after the US midterm elections, in which Republicans struggled despite his donations, DW reports. Friday’s share rise came after that slide.
What to watch
The open questions are the date the last Cybertruck is built and whether Tesla moves production elsewhere. Owners of the roughly 59,000 trucks sold in the US in 2024 and 2025 are also left with a vehicle whose future is uncertain. Musk’s answer so far is that the fleet will be around for a long time.
