Tesla’s polarizing pickup is heading to the scrap heap, leaving its biggest online boosters feeling betrayed and questioning Musk’s next big pivot.
Tesla’s polarizing pickup is heading to the scrap heap, leaving its biggest online boosters feeling betrayed and questioning Musk’s next big pivot.
The Cybertruck is heading to that shiny cyber-dumpster in the sky, leaving the folks who built online identities around Elon Musk’s polarizing pickup feeling bereft. Usually, Musk’s fanbase treads lightly around their idol’s mercurial decisions. This time, however, the truck’s demise has sparked rare backlash within the Tesla community — aimed squarely at the guy who signed its death warrant.
Troy Meekhof, who posts on numerous social platforms under the moniker “The Cybertruck Guy,” has been vocal about his disappointment in Musk’s decision to wind down Cybertruck production by the end of summer 2027. (The original plan was to start winding down production in the spring, but then Musk decided to extend it a few months.)
In a 33-minute video on YouTube, Meekhof argues that Tesla never fully committed to making the Cybertruck a success, citing a lack of advertising, confusing pricing changes, and the decision to shift focus before the truck could fully establish itself in the market.
“It feels like they didn’t try to make Cybertruck a success,” he said.
He also had choice words for Musk’s reasons for ending the Cybertruck’s short run to make room at Giga Texas for the fully autonomous Cybercab: “Cancelling all of your best products… in favor of an autonomous platform that remains both software and regulatory constrained… seems like an absolutely terrible idea,” Meekhof vented.
The Cybertruck wasn’t the only Tesla product to meet an untimely end — at least according to those with stakes (and often stock options) in the company’s success. Earlier this year, Tesla discontinued the Model S and Model X, two of its flagship vehicles. With the end of the Cybertruck, Tesla is now left with just the Model 3 and Model Y as vehicles you can actually buy. (The Semi is strictly a commercial vehicle, while the Cybercab’s availability as a consumer product remains dubious, at best.)
“Cancelling Cybertruck after all the years of getting it to production to ‘make room for CyberCab’ is a lame excuse,” @TeslaXplored wrote on X. “There are like 500 CyberCabs in one city that only Tesla influencers are riding in. Taking away consumer cars instead of building what the people want will be the end of Tesla!”
He added, “Very sad what happened to Tesla over the last 5 years.”
Meanwhile, at least one prominent aftermarket company is offering to step in and pick up the mantle. Unplugged Performance, which makes aftermarket accessories, said it would produce the Cybertruck and other vehicles on the truck platform under license, with investors funding the effort: “Worth a conversation?”
Musk, for his part, seems less interested in litigating the particulars of Cybertruck production and more intent on selling a vision of Tesla’s future centered around the Cybercab and humanoid robots. “Cybercab will do a majority of all passenger miles in any jurisdiction where it is not prohibited by law,” Musk wrote on X earlier this week. “Obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain.”
He also pushed back on claims that the Cybertruck was killed because it was unprofitable. “The Cybertruck order rate far exceeds our production rate,” Musk said. “We will try to make as many as possible before shutting down the line in about 8 months, but will have to return deposits for a lot of people.”
To be sure, Cybertruck sales have been disappointing over its entire production run. Musk initially theorized that Tesla could sell 250,000-500,000 Cybertrucks annually, but the actual numbers have been far below those projections. Last year, Tesla is estimated to have sold around 20,000 trucks; the company is on track to sell fewer than that this year.
Whether Musk’s autonomous utopia pans out or ends up joining the Cybertruck in the vaporware graveyard remains to be seen. For now, the stainless-steel wedge that was supposed to be the ultimate symbol of an indestructible future has become a monument to Musk’s shifting attention span — and a stark reminder to Tesla’s most loyal boosters that in Elon’s world, nothing should be taken for granted.