Tesla to Wind Down Cybertruck Production as Elon Musk Pivots to Robotaxis and AI

Tesla will stop making the Cybertruck at its Texas Gigafactory around the middle of next year, CEO Elon Musk said on Friday, as the company shifts its focus to autonomous vehicles.

“Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production,” Musk tweeted.

Responding to a user who called the Cybertruck the best vehicle Tesla has ever made, Musk replied: “True, but the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time.” “Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab,” Wes Morrill, the truck’s lead engineer, wrote in response to Musk’s post, thanking the truck’s owners and “everyone who contributed to making the future looking like the future.”

The stainless-steel pickup, first delivered to customers in late 2023, has struggled to win buyers. Tesla delivered 8,295 vehicles in its “other models” category, which includes the Cybertruck, in the third quarter, down 48% from a year earlier, Electrek reported. That puts the truck’s sales at roughly a tenth of the 250,000 units a year that Tesla built its production line to make, according to the outlet.

Musk has made the Cybercab, Tesla’s robotaxi, central to his push to turn the carmaker into an AI and robotics company. In April 2025, he said Tesla would launch its first robotaxi service in Austin using Model Y vehicles running its Full Self-Driving software, and begin building Cybercabs in Texas the following year.

Tesla began offering rides in the Cybercab, a two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals that was first unveiled in October 2024, in limited areas of Austin on September 3, Reuters reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said at the time that it was “evaluating the situation,” as federal rules typically require cars to have human controls. Tesla began producing the Cybercab in April, and had 45 of them registered in Texas as of the launch, according to the report.

At the 2024 unveiling, Musk said he expects the Cybercab to cost around $30,000, Auto Express reported.

Musk’s merger plans

The shift comes as Musk weighs combining Tesla with SpaceX, which absorbed his AI company xAI earlier this year. Last month, Musk said both companies’ boards had formed special committees of independent directors to evaluate a merger, which would reshape his AI empire by bringing rockets, satellites, AI models, robots and cars under one roof. A SpaceX filing has since confirmed that any combination would need sign-off from its “controlling shareholder,” Musk.

A merger would also create a Bitcoin treasury behemoth, combining SpaceX’s 18,712 BTC and Tesla’s 11,509 BTC for a total of 30,221 BTC, worth roughly $2.3 billion at current prices.

Both companies have also blocked their shares from being offered on the tokenized stock venue being built by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE owner ICE.