In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who has watched the Cybertruck's three-year journey from hype to recall, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on X Friday that the company is "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around the middle of next year. The reason? Not slumping demand, not the recalls, not the divisive design - but "to make room for increased Cybercab production." The vehicle that was supposed to reinvent the pickup truck is being evicted by a robotaxi with no steering wheel.

The Austin, Texas plant is the only Tesla facility known to assemble the Cybertruck, and the only one equipped to make the specialized components required to build it. Musk hasn't mentioned whether production will be moved elsewhere, but doing so would be arduous - especially for a car that has never sold well. Tesla doesn't break out individual Cybertruck sales figures, but even the highest analyst estimates place total deliveries at roughly 70,000 since its launch in 2023. That's significantly below the 250,000 that Musk once predicted would be sold annually. To put it in perspective, Tesla has sold more Cybertrucks in total than it hoped to sell in a single quarter, and that's the optimistic version.

The Cybertruck has been mired in controversy since it was introduced, from its divisive design (which isn't road legal in many parts of the world) to numerous recalls for faulty or outright dangerous components, and the fatal accidents it's been involved in. It's an unusually long and complicated history for a vehicle that has only been on the road for three years. If the Cybertruck does meet its demise in 2027, Tesla still has another ridiculous vehicle on the horizon to serve as its spiritual successor - because the company has never met a design that couldn't be improved by making it more angular and less practical.