Musk’s Companies Are Under the Spotlight After the Midterms. Tesla is Now Winding Down Cybertruck Production.

Tesla is winding down Cybertruck production after declining sales and a need to focus on ramping up Cybercab production.

Cybertruck sales fell 19.7 percent in the third quarter this year, from 5,385 sales in 2025 to 4,323. For the year, sales were down 28 percent, from 16,097 in 2025 to just 11,586 this year, according to Cox Automotive.

In a post on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote that the company "will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production."

The Cybercab is part of Tesla's push into fully automated vehicles. According to Tesla the vehicle is "Designed for full autonomy without a steering wheel or pedals."

In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it was auditing Tesla's self-certification that the Cybertruck met federal safety standards. Tesla responded to the agency on October 30, and the results of the audit are pending.

"NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles. But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed," said NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison. "Our approach of balancing innovation with safety oversight will allow the United States to maintain its global leadership in AV innovation."

Cybertruck sales never reached the level the company had hoped for, based on the capacity it had set aside. In its third-quarter earnings update, the company still listed potential production capacity of the Cybertruck at 125,000 units annually.

In 2025, the high point of Cybertruck sales, the company sold about 25,771 units. Electrek reported that number was somewhat inflated because SpaceX bought 1,279 Cybertrucks in the fourth quarter of 2025. According to the website, Musk's companies in total accounted for 1,339 of U.S. registrations in the fourth quarter, or about 19 percent of the total for the quarter.

Cybertruck enthusiasts reacted strongly to the news. The Cybertruck Guy on X wrote: "Cancelling (sic) all of your best products in favor of an autonomous platform that remains software and regulatory constrained, going into a governance era that opposes Tesla, seems like a f****** terrible idea. Tesla has lost the plot".