Elon Musk says Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production next year after years of persistently weak sales for a futuristic model once touted as a rival to legacy pickup trucks.
The move is a major retreat from what has been one of Mr Musk's pet projects.
Mr Musk said the move would let Tesla make more of the Cybercab, a robotic taxi he has made central to the automaker's autonomous-vehicle ambitions, but one that has yet to prove itself commercially.
It has been a bruising week for Mr Musk, as his record political spending of nearly half a billion dollars yielded little in US midterm elections, with most of the Republican candidates he backed losing their races.
Combined, his companies were on track to lose more than $180 billion in market capitalisation for the week.
While it was not immediately clear whether Cybertruck production would move to another facility or be phased out entirely, the automaker's Austin plant is the only known Tesla facility equipped to manufacture the specialised components for the heavy, angular model.
In response to a user on X, Mr Musk called the Cybertruck the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made" and the wind-down the "end of an era".
Tesla has been shifting its focus to robotics and autonomy, a transition analysts say comes at the expense of the electric-vehicle business it helped pioneer as Chinese rivals gain ground.
The US EV maker began delivering the Cybertruck to customers in late 2023.
According to automotive data platform Kelley Blue Book, the company only sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in the US last year, down 48% from 38,965 in 2024.
Around the start of production in 2023, Mr Musk had predicted annual sales of 250,000 units.
"It doesn't make sense to keep it going when it's not meeting its targets," said former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer.
"Every rational auto guy would say the same."
Mr Musk's SpaceX was one of the model's biggest customers last year and bought Cybertrucks worth $131 million from Tesla in 2025 at list price, according to its IPO filing.
'Cybertruck won't go, can't go'
Right from its unveiling in 2019, the Cybertruck was a controversial choice for Mr Musk.
Pickup truck purists mocked its angular design, and safety experts predicted it would be hard to gain approval for sale in key markets like Europe.
The unveiling event was marred when Mr Musk tried to prove its windows were shatterproof by having metal balls thrown at them—only to leave massive cracks in two of them.
During Cybertruck's official launch in 2023, Mr Musk touted it as a futuristic competitor to pickup trucks from General Motors and Ford, saying "finally, the future will look like the future".
But the model has struggled to live up to those expectations.
Tesla has issued 11 recalls for the Cybertruck since it went on sale in late 2023, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Some vehicles required physical repairs, while others were fixed with over-the-air software updates.
Automotive analyst Felipe Munoz said that although the Cybertruck has been called a failure because of its poor sales, electric pick-ups from Ford and others have also flopped in the US market.
But Cybertruck's sharp-edged stainless-steel design limited its prospects in markets like Europe, where EVs are more popular.
Regulatory approval was impossible for Europe because of rules there concerning pedestrian impact.
"Anywhere where you have crash regulation that takes into account pedestrian impact, that Cybertruck won't go, can't go," Mr Palmer said.
Musk's new bet
The Cybercab, which has butterfly doors and no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors, is one of Musk's key bets in his push to turn Tesla into an AI and robotics company rather than just an automaker.
Mr Musk has said he sees it as Tesla's main autonomous model supplying a global network of robotaxis.
After years of delays to Mr Musk's self-driving targets, Tesla began offering paid rides in a small fleet of Cybercabs in Austin in September.
However, the automaker still has to answer the US auto safety agency's questions on whether it has properly self-certified Cybercab to demonstrate compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit in September to review the basis for that certification.
"Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab," Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill said.
However, the Cybercab is unlikely to make up for lost Cybertruck volumes soon.
The two-seater robotaxi is still a small program, with production beginning only earlier this year.
Tesla has listed an installed capacity of more than 125,000 units.
About 570 of the more than 1,200 Tesla robotaxis operating in Texas are Cybercabs, with the rest mainly Model Y vehicles, according to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
