Cybertruck Production Halted for Australia and New Zealand

Tesla has terminated its plans to offer the Cybertruck in Australia and New Zealand, notifying reservation holders on October 23 that their orders are void and deposits will be returned. The company confirmed that refunds will be processed within 30 days. This cancellation ends a reservation period that began in November 2019, when customers in the region first put down A$150 to secure a spot for the electric pickup.

The company stated in its notification that, "After careful consideration, plans to produce Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand have been discontinued." In an effort to retain customers, Tesla is offering a complimentary one-year subscription to FSD (Supervised) to any reservation holder who chooses to order a Model 3 or Model Y instead. The move to cancel production for these markets follows Tesla's third-quarter earnings report.

Australia represented a significant portion of early interest in the vehicle. A crowdsourced survey conducted in 2020 placed the country third in global reservations, behind only the United States and Canada, accounting for approximately 3% of the total. By 2023, crowdsourced tracking indicated that total Cybertruck reservations had reached roughly 2 million. Tesla had previously closed its Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with a button to receive updates, but it did not refund customers at that time.

The primary obstacle to bringing the Cybertruck to the region is that the vehicle is manufactured solely in left-hand drive. Australia and New Zealand, along with other markets such as the UK and Japan, require right-hand-drive configurations. Additionally, any vehicle entering Australia must undergo certification under local design rules, a process that requires significant investment.

Tesla has not launched the Cybertruck in right-hand-drive markets to date. Its international deliveries have been limited to left-hand-drive countries, with recent launches in South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The vehicle is currently blocked from the European Union primarily due to pedestrian safety regulations.

Production volumes may also be a factor in the decision. In the third quarter of 2026, Tesla delivered 8,295 units in the "Other Models" category, which is now almost entirely comprised of Cybertruck sales following the end of Model S and Model X production. This quarterly figure suggests a production pace of roughly 30,000 units per year, a small fraction of the 250,000-unit annual capacity the production line was designed for.

Tesla's Cybertruck sales in the United States declined from approximately 39,000 units in 2024 to a fraction of that amount currently. The Cybertruck that was eventually delivered in 2023 differs from the original 2019 reservation, as it has a higher price point and less range than initially promised. Any potential version for Australia would require a right-hand-drive conversion and additional import costs, making it even more expensive for consumers in the region.