Alas, Poor Cybertruck, We Hardly Knew Thee

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If you felt a ripple in the space-time continuum yesterday, yes, the rumors are true. All too sadly true. The Tesla Cybertruck EV, introduced to motorists in 2019 with great fanfare and a sales goal of up to 250,000 units per year, is slated to cross the rainbow bridge into the dustbine of automotive history sometime next year. Not to worry, Tesla fans. Rumor has it that Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi will pick up where the Cybertruck left off — oh, wait. Hold, please…

The Cybertruck EV: A Has-Been That Never Was

Tesla is notoriously shy about releasing sales figures, but there are ways to reach an approximation. Earlier this year CleanTechnica calculated that the Cybertruck barely scraped by 2025 with just 17,012 units delivered. Even so, just one year earlier Tesla CEO Elon Musk was still pitching the 250,000 Cybertrucks-per-year goal.

Even though it is soon to be gone, the Cybertruck will never be forgotten. Much in the same way as the Edsel, “Cybertruck” will linger on as shorthand for a fabulously hyped product without an audience.

The Cybertruck was promised as a full sized, five-seat electric pickup truck with ample storage room. Tesla delivered on the zero emission angle, of course, and the five seats, too. However, the automaker failed to deliver on pickup truckyness in any substantive way (see entire CleanTechnica archive here).

So…don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Multiple electric pickup trucks are taking up the space left by the Cybertruck, including the forthcoming Ford Fathom alongside offerings from Rivian, Slate Auto, and other automakers.

Cybercab Rumored To Squat In Home Abandoned By Cybertruck

Elon Musk himself announced the untimely death of the Cybertruck in a post on his social media site X earlier today.

“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 stated somewhat blandly, perhaps expecting his audience to appreciate the good news about “increased Cybercab production.”

If so, Musk was probably disappointed to hear from X users like Ben McCombe, who skipped over the implication that the Cybercap would occupy more space in the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Instead, he zeroed in on the Cybertruck in a particularly pithy comment:

“Installed tooling to build 125k Cybertrucks a year.

“Sold 70k over 3 years.

“Spent $2bn on research and development.

“Made just $100m in gross profits from sales.

“Net project loss of $1.9b”

Ouch!

About That Cybercab…

Tesla’s stock tanked on November 3 and the following two days, after Democratic candidates dominated the all-important mid-term elections in both Houses of Congress, and in statehouses across the country including Tesla’s home state, Texas. The power shift all but guarantees a more vigorous application of federal and state regulations governing Tesla’s products and operations.

Still, the automaker scored a partial recovery just a few days later. Tesla stock was swinging upwards as of mid-day on November 6, with Musk’s Cybercab announcement possibly factored into the partial recovery. However, those incoming lawmakers are going to be taking a close look at the Cybercab, and so far the picture is not pretty.

One sign of trouble emerged on September 3, when Musk failed to appear at a long-anticipated Cybercab launch event in Texas. The very next day, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration went out of its way to let everyone know that it is investigating Tesla’s self-certification for the Cybercab under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

“The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that it has opened an Audit Query (AQ) to investigate Tesla’s certification that its new Cybercab meets all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS),” NHTSA announced on September 4.

…And The “Flying” Tesla Roadster…

NHTSA initially gave Tesla until September 30 to respond to a list of 21 questions about the Cybercab self-certification, then extended the deadline to October 30.

Anyone eager to learn how automakers go about self-certifying new models under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act will be sorely disappointed, unless they are privileged to read the documents Tesla finally submitted. “The tricky part is that in its public response, Tesla offered one whole sentence. ‘The entirety of this file is confidential business information,’” Carscoops reported earlier today.

So close and yet so far. While the Cybercab investigation is still bubbling away on the backburner, Tesla has also set itself up for a whole ‘nother round of investigations related to its newly unveiled “flying car,” part of a suite of high-end sports cars modeled after the original Tesla Roadster.

The Roadster reboot was slightly clouded by the release of a new documentary on Elon Musk’s rise to both automotive and political power, but just slightly. The automotive press went nuts over the spectacle of the new Tesla Roadster Rocket going airborne for a few seconds, then safely landing on all four tires with an assist from SpaceX-designed thrusters.

Whether or not that actually counts as a flight or just a thruster-enhanced jump, the Federal Aviation Administration has already stated that the Rocket does not meet its definition of an aircraft.

As of for the question of whether or not the vehicle can be used on public roads, that’s something for the NTHSA to weigh in on. On Tesla’s part, though, the automaker has reportedly stated that the Rocket is not designed for use on public roads. That seems to cut NTHSA out of the picture, though some industry observers have suggested that the agency could adopt a framework that encompasses vehicles with thrusters.

Musk himself has suggested that anyone who purchases the thruster-equipped Roadster can make it fly on a purpose-built tack on Tesla (or perhaps SpaceX) property, presumably in Texas.

The land use issue opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms regarding Musk’s operations in Texas. If anything, the offer of an off-road Rocket track seems could to let Tesla off the hook for the actions of any rambunctious Rocket driver who insists on trialing the car on public roads.

For the record, “Musk” the movie opened initially in Los Angeles and New York City on October 9. A wide release on hundreds of screens was scheduled for October 16, but the film’s distributor, Bleecker Street,” abruptly pulled back on the plan under new ownership. On October 27, representatives for the film contacted CleanTechnica to clarify that the “Musk” documentary was still showing on scores of screens around the country even after the dial-down. Either way, if you missed it in theaters, you can catch the whole thing — including the Cybertruck debacle and so much more — streaming as of today, November 6, on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and YouTube along with cable services.

Photo: Cybertruck via CleanTechnica archive. by Carolyn Fortuna.