Tesla to 'wind down' production of flop Cybertruck

Tesla owner Elon Musk said on Friday that the company would scale down production of the Cybertruck at its Austin factory in the coming year.

The South African entrepreneur said Tesla would be scaling back production of his futuristic but often-mocked pickup truck and amping up production of what he hopes will soon become a fleet of fully automated taxis.

"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 said on his X social media site.

The announcement follows a bruising week for Musk amid the US midterm elections , where Republicans struggled despite his major donations, with his companies losing billions in value by market capitalization as investors sought to ditch stock.

Why did the Cybertruck fail to attract customers?

Musk later responded to a complimentary user online who hailed the Cybertruck as the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made," and calling it an "end of an era" by saying: "True."

For years he had poured much of his enthusiastic marketing zeal into promoting the Cybertruck, saying during the 2023 launch "finally, the future will look like the future."

However the oversized body, straight lines and stainless steel and the post-apocalpytic vibe these created also met with widespread criticism and even mockery.

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