Tesla Drops Cybertruck in Australia and New Zealand After Seven Years
Reservation holders in the region are receiving refund notifications as the automaker halts production plans for its electric pickup in the right-hand-drive markets.
By Lauren Collins ·
Tesla has officially ended its plans to bring the Cybertruck to Australia and New Zealand. The automaker sent emails to reservation holders today, confirming that their orders have been voided. All deposits collected over the last seven years will be refunded in full. This decision closes the chapter on a vehicle that many in the region had waited years to see on local roads.
The correspondence, which began circulating on social media platforms and Reddit this morning, is brief and direct. Tesla stated that after careful consideration, the production of the Cybertruck for these two markets has been discontinued. Consequently, the company can no longer fulfill the reservations. Customers will receive their money back within 30 days. To sweeten the deal, Tesla is offering a free one-year subscription to Full Self-Driving (Supervised) for those who switch to a new Model 3 or Model Y.
This move effectively converts lapsed Cybertruck interest into sales for vehicles that Tesla already manufactures in right-hand drive configurations. The emails arrived just one day after Tesla released its financial results for the third quarter of 2026. The timing suggests a strategic cleanup of the order book before the next reporting period.
Australian customers first paid a deposit of A$150 in November 2019 to secure a spot in line. That means many have waited almost seven years for a truck that will now never arrive. Early crowdsourced data from 2020 indicated Australia was the third largest market for reservations, behind the US and Canada, representing about 3% of the global total. While Tesla never officially confirmed these regional figures, tracking sites estimated the global reservation count reached around 2 million by 2023.
The uncertainty has been a long time coming. Tesla quietly shut down the Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with a button to get updates. At that time, no refunds were issued, leaving customers in limbo. In 2024, the company shipped a single unit to Australia for a display tour. Elon Musk told shareholders that year that certification for other markets might happen the following year. That year passed, but no right-hand-drive version ever materialized.
The core issue remains the vehicle's design. The Cybertruck is currently built exclusively in left-hand drive. This creates a significant barrier for markets like Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Japan, which require right-hand drive. Australia also has its own specific design rules that require costly certification. For a truck that is already facing soft demand in North America, this investment has become difficult to justify.
International launches so far have only occurred in left-hand-drive regions. Deliveries began in South Korea late last year and in the UAE in January. Configurator options have since opened in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The vehicle remains blocked from the European Union, primarily due to pedestrian safety concerns.
Financial data underscores the challenge. Tesla reported delivering 8,295 units in the "Other Models" category for Q3 2026. Since production of the Model S and Model X has ended, this category is now almost entirely the Cybertruck. Estimates place quarterly sales at 7,000 to 8,000 units, an annual pace of roughly 30,000. This is far below the production line's capacity of 250,000 units per year. Such volumes make it hard to approve the cost of re-engineering the truck for two markets with a combined population of only about 33 million.
The decision confirms that the Cybertruck is evolving into a niche product, primarily for the American market. Tesla appears unlikely to invest further in expanding its global footprint beyond existing left-hand-drive buyers. For Australian customers, the wait is over, and their money is on its way back.
What happens next is clear for the brand: Tesla will focus on selling the existing left-hand-drive inventory and refining its core vehicle lineup. The right-hand-drive markets will continue to wait for a different solution, if one ever arrives.
Source: Electrek
