Tesla is refunding Cybertruck deposits while Musk defends decision to kill it

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is defending the failed Cybertruck and the company’s decision to pull the plug on it, claiming the order rate far exceeds the company’s production rate.

Now, for context, Musk said that Tesla would officially shut down production of the Cybertruck to make way for production of the automated Cybercab. However, Musk came out and said that the Cybertruck’s production line would be shut down in eight to nine months, rather than immediately.

The Cybertruck order rate far exceeds our production rate. 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.

This is not a case of Cybertruck being unprofitable, as has been misreported by legacy media, but rather that the opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2026

Alongside this, Musk posted that the Cybertruck wasn’t unprofitable; instead, Tesla was ending production because the “opportunity cost of the complexity of [the] Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production.” Right.

What Musk is essentially saying is that Tesla isn’t bleeding money by producing Cybertrucks (probably wasn’t all that profitable, but it was profitable enough to survive), but that the money would be better spent building Tesla’s latest venture: the Cybercab.

According to TechCrunch, industry experts speculated that about 71,000 Cybertrucks have been sold since the trucks first started being delivered to customers in November 2023 — much lower than the projected 250,000 annually that was first predicted by Musk when the truck launched, and way lower than the Pontiac Aztek (a major sales flop in itself), which sold 119,694 units in its lifetime.

Now, Musk added that the company will try to manufacture as many as possible before shutting production down, and that they will have to refund deposits to many people. That could be a fair amount, considering sales could jump as it goes out of production. However, I doubt it’ll be enough to rectify the truck coming back at any point.

Source: Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Via: TechCrunch