Is it the end of the Cybertruck? Elon Musk announces factory will shift production

By Nora Redmond

Shares in Tesla climbed about 2% in premarket trading.

Tesla will wind down the production of its Cybertruck at the company's Texas Gigafactory from around the middle of next year, CEO Elon Musk announced in a post on X early Friday.

It is currently unclear whether this means the electric vehicle maker will be entirely phasing out the distinctively shaped pickup truck, as at the moment, the factory based just outside of Austin is the only one known to manufacture components for the car.

Tesla did not immediately respond to MarketWatch's request for comment.

Musk said that the shift was intended to increase capacity for Tesla's Cybercab production, the company's two-passenger robotaxi.

"Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab," Cybertruck's lead engineer Wes Morrill wrote in a response to Musk's post on X.

Morrill also said in a reply to a comment on X that Tesla will maintain spare parts for the model.

The announcement comes after demand for what was once touted as what would be the company's "best ever" product has dried up in recent years.

The automaker faced a lengthy series of setbacks including a number of high-profile recalls, including most recently in April for all 173 of its rear-wheel-drive Cybertrucks over fears that the wheels could fall off. In March 2025, Tesla recalled over 46,000 of the vehicles because of concerns that the car's trim could become dislodged.

The cost of the model also proved to be a surprise to many when Musk said in 2019, the year the Cybertruck was first unveiled, that it would be priced between $39,900 and $69,900. In 2026, the cheapest model retails for over $80,000.

Yet another hurdle the company faced was breaking into international markets as the car has not gained regulatory approval for sale in Australia, New Zealand or European Union countries.

Shares in Tesla (TSLA) have risen 2% in premarket trading on Friday after its stock faced a battering in Thursday's session, erasing $216 billion in market capitalization over just two days. Sister company SpaceX (SPCX) lost about $240 billion in value in the same period as investors began a so-called "Musk selloff" after the Democrats won control of the Senate and House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Tesla and SpaceX said they are exploring whether to merge, without Musk's input.

The world's wealthiest man had given more than $400 million to political action committees supporting the Republicans.

Now, questions remain over what a Democrat-controlled Congress may mean for the AI buildout and whether spending will be curtailed, and more specifically, what it could mean for his business empire.

-Nora Redmond

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11-06-26 0537ET