Tesla to End Cybertruck Production in Texas by Mid-2026

Tesla will stop building the Cybertruck at its Texas gigafactory around the middle of next year, CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X early Friday morning. The move clears production capacity at the Austin-area facility for the Cybercab, the two-seat robotaxi Musk has touted as crucial to the company's future.

The Cybertruck is built exclusively in Texas, alongside the Model Y and the Cybercab itself. Musk did not say whether Tesla would produce the truck at any other facility. That omission matters: without an alternative plant, Friday's announcement reads less like a pause and more like a quiet retirement of the model.

What did Musk actually say?

Musk framed the shutdown as a capacity decision: winding down Cybertruck output "would make room" for Cybercab production. He did not address inventory, existing orders, or the truck's commercial future.

When an X user called the update an "end of an era" and called the Cybertruck the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made," Musk pushed back on the finality. "True, but the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time," he said. That is a statement about vehicles already on the road, not a promise of new production.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. The company began Cybertruck deliveries in late 2023.

How far short did sales fall?

The gap between promise and reality is stark. Musk predicted before launch that annual Cybertruck sales would eventually total 250,000 units. Tesla does not disclose sales by model or region, so the market has to rely on outside estimates.

Cox Automotive put U.S. Cybertruck sales last year at 20,237 units — down 48% from 38,965 in 2024. In plain terms, Tesla sold fewer than 1,700 trucks a month in a country where full-size pickups routinely move six figures annually for a single model line. At that pace, Musk's 250,000-unit forecast would have required more than a twelvefold increase.

The truck's polarizing design built a niche following but never translated into mass-market demand. The takeaway: even Tesla's brand power could not overcome a design that split the buyer base.

What went wrong beyond demand?

The Cybertruck's specifications fell short of what Tesla advertised early on, and in some cases short of leading fuel-burning pickups. The truck also suffered repeated quality and production problems, including several recalls.

Musk once pitched the truck as a rupture with a century of tradition. "Trucks have been the same for a very long time," he said at the 2019 unveiling. "Like 100 years. Trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different." They tried. The market answered with a 48% sales decline in year two.

Why the pivot to the Cybercab?

Texas capacity is finite, and Tesla has chosen to spend it on the Cybercab rather than the Cybertruck. Musk has positioned the robotaxi as the automaker's most important product going forward — a claim that now carries the weight of the Cybertruck's failure alongside it.

The company has not disclosed Cybercab production targets, pricing, or a launch timeline in Friday's posts. Until it does, the swap replaces one unproven volume story with another, and investors have only Musk's word that the second attempt lands better than the first.