Cybertruck Buyers Face Deposit Refunds Before Production Ends

Tesla expects to return deposits to many Cybertruck buyers before the truck’s production line shuts down in about eight months, Elon Musk said in a new update, despite the company’s plan to add an extra manufacturing shift to work through its backlog.

The warning makes the trade-off facing customers clearer: Tesla is trying to build more trucks before the switch to Cybercab, but Musk now says a lot of orders still will not make it through.

“The Cybertruck order rate far exceeds our production rate,” he wrote, adding that Tesla would have to “return deposits for a lot of people.”

His earlier November 7 update put the planned dismantling of the Giga Texas line around June or July 2027. At that point, he said Tesla would add another shift in an effort to complete the orders in time. The latest post does not announce a delay to that changeover.

Musk also pushed back on the idea that the shutdown is being driven by an unprofitable truck. In his account, Cybertruck’s manufacturing complexity carries an opportunity cost, and the value of producing additional Cybercabs outweighs keeping that line running.

That is Musk’s explanation of the decision, rather than a new financial disclosure. He did not provide a Cybertruck profit figure, an order count or the number of buyers likely to receive refunds.

Asked why Tesla did not simply build more factory space, Musk pointed to the difficulty of building a high-volume factory. “Prototypes are trivial by comparison,” he wrote in a November 9 reply beneath his Cybertruck refund announcement.

The update also leaves practical questions for customers unanswered, including when refunds would begin and how Tesla would decide which orders get a build slot. For anyone still waiting, an order is not a guarantee of delivery before the line closes.

If you have a Cybertruck on order, would you keep waiting or take a refund?