By Ananya Palyekar, Akanksha Khushi and Nick Carey
Nov 6 (Reuters) - Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at its Texas gigafactory around mid-2027, CEO Elon Musk said on Friday, after years of persistently
weak sales for a futuristic model once touted as a rival to legacy pickup trucks that ultimately only sold in just a handful of markets because of its heavy, angular design.
Musk said in an X post the production wind-down would enable the automaker to accommodate increased output of its newly launched Cybercab model, which the billionaire has made central to Tesla's robotaxi ambitions.
While it was not immediately clear whether Cybertruck production would be moved to another facility or phased out entirely, the automaker's Austin plant is the only known Tesla facility equipped to manufacture the model's specialized components.
In response to a user on X, Musk called the Cybertruck the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made" and the wind-down the "end of an era".
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
The US EV maker only began delivering the Cybertruck to customers in late 2023. According to Kelley Blue Book, the company only sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in the US last year, down 48% from 38,965 in 2024. Before the pickup truck launched, 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."
"It will no doubt only be a rounding error on Tesla's balance sheet, but the statistics speak for themselves."
'CYBERTRUCK WON'T GO, CAN'T GO'
Right from its unveiling in 2019, the Cybertruck was a controversial choice for Musk. Its angular design was mocked by pickup truck purists and safety experts predicted it would be hard to gain approval for sale in key markets like Europe.
The unveiling event itself was marred when Musk tried to prove with a sledgehammer that its windows were shatterproof - only to leave massive cracks in two of them.
During Cybertruck's official launch in 2023, 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 vehicle has struggled to meet those expectations.
Automotive analyst 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.
"All of them lost the competition because electric pick ups aren't popular in the US," Munoz said.
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," former Aston Martin CEO 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.
Musk has said he sees it as Tesla's main autonomous model supplying a global network of robotaxis.
After years of delays to 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.
"Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab," Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill said on X.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Jochelle Mendonca, Janane Venkatraman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
