Musk says Tesla will refund some Cybertruck deposits, defends decision to end production

Tesla will shut down Cybertruck production in roughly eight months and refund $1,000 deposits to many reservation holders, CEO Elon Musk said in an X post Monday. Musk wrote that the "Cybertruck order rate far exceeds our production rate" and the company will try to build as many trucks as possible before the line stops, but "will have to return deposits for a lot of people." Each deposit is $1,000, according to Yahoo Finance, and Tesla's website currently shows delivery windows of January 2027 to March 2027 for the Premium All-Wheel Drive model priced at $92,490 and the Cyberbeast at $102,490.

The decision follows Musk's announcement late last week that Cybertruck production would end mid-2026 to focus factory space on the Cybercab robotaxi. Musk defended the move Monday, saying "this is not a case of Cybertruck being unprofitable, as has been misreported by legacy media, but rather that the opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production." TechCrunch reported Musk plans to use the factory space to build more two-seater Cybercabs.

Industry estimates show the Cybertruck fell far short of early projections. Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book estimated about 71,000 Cybertrucks sold since deliveries began in November 2023, while Tesla had built capacity at Giga Austin for 250,000 per year. Musk had previously claimed over 1 million preorders and predicted annual sales of 250,000. Yahoo Finance noted unsold Cybertrucks were "stuffing parking lots" and Tesla had cut back shifts before the cancellation announcement.

Some sales came from within Musk's business ecosystem. TechCrunch reported SpaceX purchased $131 million worth of Cybertrucks in 2025 according to its S-1 registration statement, and xAI bought $430 million worth of Tesla Megapacks for data centers before merging with SpaceX. Yahoo Finance suggested new orders may have piled up after news broke that the Cybertruck would be canceled, creating a backlog for a product that "seemingly didn't sell well."

It remains unclear how many deposits Tesla will ultimately refund or whether the company can fulfill existing orders before the production line shuts down. Musk did not specify a timeline for the refunds or address how many reservation holders are affected.