Tesla will stop making Cybertrucks by mid-2027, Musk says
Elon Musk has long touted that his infamous Cybertruck was sturdy enough to survive an apocalypse. Apparently, it wasn’t strong enough to survive its own reputation.
In a Thursday X post, the Tesla CEO announced that the company would be “winding down” Cybertruck production at its Tesla factory by mid-2027. He said the electric vehicle maker will instead ramp up production of its Cybercab, a robo-taxi product that’s facing its own issues. Tesla has logged at least 23 crashes since June 2025 in Austin, Texas, where its robo-taxis are undergoing a pilot program. Now federal regulators are demanding that the company testify under oath about its safety features.
The Cybertruck was once Musk’s darling, but issues with the car started before it even hit the roads. In 2019 when the vehicle was first unveiled, head designer Franz von Holzhausen cracked the driver-side window of a Cybertruck with a steel ball in what was supposed to be a live demo of the car’s bulletproof glass. It pretty much was all downhill from there.
Though Musk initially touted 250,000 Cybertruck preorders in late 2019, the company delayed its release when the COVID-19 pandemic hit due to supply chain issues. It wasn’t until 2023 that the car would finally be ready for purchase, but with a higher price and less towing capacity than previously advertised. Musk had initially pitched the Cybertruck at $40,000; however, the cheapest version of the truck, priced at $61,000, wouldn’t be available until 2025, TechCrunch reported at the time.
Musk himself was another problem. As he veered into right-wing politics backing former President Donald Trump in his bid for reelection, the conspicuous design of the Cybertruck became an easy target for people to project their frustrations with his politics onto. Musk would gain even more controversy in his role helming the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, where full government departments were axed along with thousands of workers. Musk championed the dismantling of USAID, a decision that a ProPublica investigation found directly led to deaths abroad.
The boxy, steel-clad truck, demanding attention as it squeezes through San Francisco one-ways, became symbolic of the ways in which Musk had inserted himself uncomfortably into the everyday lives of people across the world.
Contact Matthew Brown at [email protected] or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.
