Tesla Starts Humiliating Prospect of Returning Cybertruck Deposits It Couldn’t Deliver On

After failing to secure a strong foothold during the midterm elections, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the electric vehicle manufacturer would begin phasing out production of the controversial Cybertruck. At a tweet earlier this week, Musk suggested the company was reallocating resources to increase production of the Cybercab at its Texas Gigafactory sometime in the middle of next year.

Despite the Cybertruck's dismal sales performance, Musk stated that orders "far exceed" the company's production capacity, prompting the need to "return deposits for a lot of people." However, this claim is likely misleading. If the pickup truly enjoyed such high demand, Tesla would have no reason to suspend its growth. It is more probable that Musk is using exaggerated rhetoric to portray the pickup as a highly sought-after product, which is clearly not the case.

Musk's statement appears to confuse deposits with orders, which is deceptive, especially considering that the company had no trouble selling $131 million worth of Cybertrucks to itself earlier this year. Numerous deposits probably never resulted in actual sales as potential buyers were deterred by the truck's overwhelming issues.

In 2019, when the Cybertruck was first introduced, Tesla declared it had received 250,000 preorders. However, the company only delivered over 70,000 units — a stark contrast to Musk's ambitious promise of producing a quarter million trucks per year. It is unclear at the moment how many orders are still pending and how many of the $100 deposits Tesla will have to refund.

Nevertheless, this marks a humiliating conclusion to one of the most disastrous automotive flops in history. Musk also denied that the Cybertruck was "unprofitable," but claimed that the "opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production." Social media users were not impressed by this claim.

One user commented, "LOL — no company shuts down a profitable product," while another suggested, "Just admit the Cybertruck has been one of the all-time stinkers and move on. People might start to respect you a bit more." In reality, there is little interest in purchasing the Cybertruck. The vehicle has quickly become a representation of the widespread frustration directed at the near-trillionaire.

Apart from the truck attracting vandalism and scorn, it has also been plagued by numerous technical issues and has been recalled in the US an astounding eleven times during its brief production period.