Tesla voids 250,000-unit capacity plan for Australia as Cybertruck sales sit near 8,000 per quarter

Tesla has officially cancelled its Cybertruck program for Australia and New Zealand, notifying reservation holders on 23 October that their orders are void. The decision ends a wait of nearly seven years for customers who paid initial deposits as early as November 2019. The company stated that all payments will be refunded within 30 days, a process that begins immediately for the roughly 2 million total reservations tracked globally.

The cancellation follows a period of quiet disengagement from the region. Tesla closed the Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with a button to receive updates, but did not issue refunds at that time. In 2024, the company shipped a single truck to Australia for a display tour. Elon Musk told shareholders that year that the vehicle might be certified for other markets the following year, but no right-hand-drive version was ever produced.

The primary barrier to entry has been the vehicle's left-hand-drive configuration. Australia and New Zealand require right-hand-drive vehicles, a specification that would necessitate a costly redesign and new certification. Tesla’s limited international rollout has so far been restricted to left-hand-drive markets, including South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The truck remains blocked from the European Union, largely due to pedestrian safety concerns.

Financial data from the third quarter of 2026 suggests the model is no longer a volume driver for the company. Tesla delivered 8,295 units in the "Other Models" category, a segment now dominated by the Cybertruck after the end of Model S and X production. Analysts estimate quarterly sales at 7,000 to 8,000 units, or approximately 30,000 annually. This figure falls well short of the 250,000 units the production line was designed to handle.

In an effort to retain customer interest, Tesla is offering a free one-year subscription to FSD (Supervised) to reservation holders who place a new order for a Model 3 or Model Y. The emails arrived one day after the company reported its third-quarter earnings. The move appears designed to convert lapsed interest into sales of right-hand-drive vehicles that Tesla currently manufactures for the region.

Australia represented a notable share of early demand, with a 2020 crowdsourced survey placing it third globally, behind the United States and Canada, accounting for about 3% of all reservations. Despite this early interest, US sales have declined sharply from a peak of approximately 39,000 units in 2024. The combination of weak demand in North America and the high cost of adapting the truck for right-hand-drive markets has led to its withdrawal from the region.

The cancellation affects a combined population of about 33 million people across Australia and New Zealand. While the specific number of active reservations in the region was not confirmed by Tesla, the global tracking data indicates a massive initial interest that has not translated into physical deliveries. The company has not announced a timeline for when it might revisit the market with a redesigned vehicle.