Tesla to Wind Down Cybertruck Production in Texas by Mid-2027

Tesla is pulling the plug on the Cybertruck, or close to it. CEO Elon Musk said Friday in a post on X that the company will wind down Cybertruck production at its Texas gigafactory around the middle of next year, according to a Reuters report.

The reason is space. Musk said the wind-down makes room for more output of the newly launched Cybercab, the steering-wheel-free robotaxi at the center of Tesla's autonomy plans.

What isn't clear yet is whether Cybertruck production moves to another plant or ends altogether. The Austin factory is the only known Tesla facility set up to build the truck's specialized components. Tesla didn't respond to Reuters' request for comment outside regular business hours.

Musk's own words were a mix of eulogy and reassurance. He called the truck the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made" and the wind-down the "end of an era." Replying to a fan on X, he wrote, "true," then added that "the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time." The BBC noted that the Cybertruck's lead engineer, Wes Morrill, wrote that it "was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab."

The numbers explain why this was coming. Tesla doesn't report Cybertruck sales on their own. It lumps the truck into an "Other Models" bucket, and that bucket is shrinking fast.

Tesla's "Other Models" category, where it files the Cybertruck, accounted for just 8,295 deliveries in the third quarter, down from 12,364 deliveries in the second quarter.

Compare that to the original pitch. Musk unveiled the truck as a rival to pickups from GM and Ford. Instead it ran into a sharp-edged stainless-steel design that limited its appeal outside the U.S., regulatory hurdles in parts of Europe, multiple recalls and repeated price changes.

The price drift tells its own story. Musk told analysts the truck had to be priced where people could afford it, and the fully loaded version ended up at $61,000. In 2026 the top Cyberbeast trim is listed at $102,000, per the BBC. One 2025 recall alone covered more than 46,000 trucks over trim that could fall off.

So what's actually happening is a reallocation of factory floor from a niche product to the one Musk wants Tesla to be judged on. He has said the Cybercab will eventually be the company's highest-volume vehicle and the backbone of a global robotaxi network. Tesla began offering paid rides in a small Cybercab fleet in Austin in September.

For investors, this is less a story about a truck than a story about where Tesla is spending its attention. Cutting a low-volume line to free capacity for a product with far larger theoretical volume is rational. A truck that gets folded into an "Other Models" line of 8,295 deliveries was never going to drive the valuation.

The stock was already under pressure. Tesla fell about 10.8% on Thursday as the AI and regulatory-risk selloff hit growth names across the market. CNBC reported Tesla was higher in premarket trading Friday.

The risk is that the Cybercab isn't ready to carry the load. Tesla still has to answer questions from the U.S. auto safety regulator about whether it properly self-certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal motor vehicle safety standards. A regulatory snag there would leave Tesla having trimmed one vehicle line before the next one is fully cleared.

There's also the sentiment angle. The Cybertruck was a symbol, for fans and critics alike. Retiring it quietly after three years won't change Tesla's earnings much. It could change how the market reads Musk's other big promises.

What to watch next: any word from Tesla on whether production moves elsewhere, the fourth-quarter delivery report to see how "Other Models" trends, and the NHTSA response on Cybercab certification. Cybercab ramp pace in Austin is the number that matters most.

If you hold Tesla, the thesis was never the Cybertruck. It's whether robotaxis scale on a timeline investors can believe. This news doesn't answer that, but it shows Musk is willing to clear the decks for it.

Bottom line: the Cybertruck era is closing, and Tesla's stock now rides almost entirely on the Cybercab.