Musk ends Cybertruck, refunding many deposits for robotaxi bet

Cybertruck production ending in eight months

Elon Musk announced Monday that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production by the middle of next year. The company will try to make as many as possible before shutting down the line.

Many deposits will be returned

Musk said the number of Cybertrucks ordered far exceeds Tesla's production rate. The company will have to return deposits for a lot of people before the line closes.

“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.”

Opportunity cost favors the Cybercab

Musk said Tesla is shutting down Cybertruck production not because it is unprofitable, but because the opportunity cost of its complexity is vastly outweighed by Cybercab production value.

“the opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production.”

Cybertruck sales have plummeted

Cybertruck sales fell forty-eight percent to twenty thousand two hundred thirty-seven units from thirty-eight thousand nine hundred sixty-five between two thousand twenty-four and two thousand twenty-five.

Model Y and Model 3 vastly outsell Cybertruck

Through the third quarter of this year, Tesla sold an estimated eleven thousand five hundred eighty-six Cybertrucks.

Customers criticise the shift away from vehicles

Tesla fans accused the company of neglecting existing customers as Musk chases a future where consumers do not own their own vehicles.

“Watching the decisions Tesla is making recently has just left me puzzled as a consumer. We went from having lots of choices in vehicles. To those being whittled down.”

Doubts about robotaxi replacing personal cars

X users pushed back on Musk's vision of individualized mass transit. One user argued that people will not give up personal cars for a ride-share service and robotaxis will not become America's daily transport in…

“The problem is no one is going to want to give up their personal cars for a ride share service. Are you going to annihilate uber? Yup. Are you going to be every Americans daily transport via Robotaxi anywhere in the near future? Nope.”