Tesla is killing off the Cybertruck.

The Tesla Cybertruck was a shambles from the very start. When Elon Musk unveiled it in late 2019, his claims were laughable from day one, because the on-stage demo failed. The “armoured glass” windows smashed on the very first throw. Then they smashed again on the second. Hilarious.

Add to that the utterly shocking looks, admired only by the truest Tesla fanboys, and this was never going to be a successful vehicle.

Frankly, the Cybertruck is just another Elon failure, propped up by the success of the company’s mass-market Model 3 and Model Y.

Promised for 2021, the Cybertruck didn’t make it into production until late 2023. Musk promised a US$39,900 starting price, but the cheapest it was ever sold for was $59,990, and that price lasted just 10 days. Its claimed 500-mile range never became a reality, and payload came in at 2,500 pounds, not the 3,500 originally claimed.

But none of that is why it’s being discontinued.

Failure is why.

Sure, Elon says it’s to make room for more of his silly little two-seat “Cybercabs”, cars that aren’t a patch on the market-leading self-driving vehicles from Waymo. But if the Cybertruck were selling anywhere near as well as Tesla hoped, it would build another factory for the Cybercab. It isn’t selling.

After the 2019 unveiling, Musk claimed 250,000 pre-orders within a week. In October 2023, on an earnings call with investors (just think about that for a minute), he said there were more than 1 million refundable reservations, and that “demand is off the charts”.

If that’s true, and it’s a big if, why has Tesla only sold around 70,000 Cybertrucks?

According to Cox Automotive’s US figures, Tesla sold 38,965 in 2024, the truck’s first full year. That slipped to 20,237 in 2025, and in the first three quarters of this year it’s just 11,586.

Oh, and Elon’s own companies were taking a good chunk of the supply. SpaceX bought 1,279 of the 7,071 Cybertrucks registered in the US in the last quarter of 2025.

Closer to home, it was never coming anyway. On 23 October, Tesla emailed Australian and New Zealand reservation holders to say plans to produce the Cybertruck for our market had been discontinued, and their reservations would be cancelled.

Whichever numbers you believe, whether that’s registrations, Cox Automotive’s estimates or Elon’s reservation claims, the fact is this vehicle was a flop.

Good riddance to an eyesore.