--- title: "Tesla Starts Humiliating Prospect of Returning Cybertruck Deposits It Couldn’t Deliver On" description: "Musk said that the number of orders for the Cybertruck \"far exceeds\" its capacity to build them and \"return deposits for a lot of people.\"" date: "2026-11-10" modified: "2026-11-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/tesla-cybertruck-returning-deposits" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" --- # Tesla Starts Humiliating Prospect of Returning Cybertruck Deposits It Couldn’t Deliver On ![A color treated photo of a parking lot of Cybertrucks.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* Hot off the heels of a devastating defeat in his attempts to influence the midterm elections, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that his EV maker would begin winding down production of its widely-reviled Cybertruck. In a [tweet]() last week, Musk said that the company was looking to "make room for increased Cybercab production" at its massive Gigafactory in Texas in the "middle of next year." Despite [sales circling the drain for years now](), Musk said that the number of orders for the pickup "far exceeds" the company's capacity to build them — meaning, he claims, that Tesla has must "return deposits for a lot of people." The basic laws of economics dictate that Musk is fudging the details. If demand for the brutalist pickup was really that high, and the company was really able to produce enough for all of them, it would obviously be doing so instead of nixing the entire line. Put simply, the billionaire is almost certainly engaging in some tricky rhetoric to make it sound like buyers are lining up around the corner for one — which couldn't be further from the truth. Musk appears to be equating deposits with orders, which seems disingenuous at best, considering capacity to build them didn't appear to be a problem when he sold [$131 million worth of Cybertrucks]() to himself earlier this year. Countless deposits likely never converted into actual sales as potential buyers realized the sheer amount of problems the truck had. In 2019, when the vehicle was first announced, Tesla claimed it had received 250,000 preorders. Considering the EV maker only ever delivered just over 70,000 of them — a far cry from the quarter million trucks a year Musk once [promised]() — the number of people getting cold feet likely grew quickly in the four years it took for the company to get production going. As of right now, we don't know how many orders — if any — are outstanding and how many [$100 deposits]() Tesla will have to issue refunds for. But it's certainly a humiliating end to [one of the biggest flops in automotive history](). Musk also [refuted]() that the Cybertruck was "unprofitable," but suggested that the "opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production." People on his social media platform didn't buy the claim. "LOL — no company shuts down a profitable product," one user [replied](). "Just admit the Cybertruck has been one of the all time stinkers and move on. People might start to respect you a bit more." In reality, barely anybody actually wants to buy one of the trucks. The Cybertruck has quickly become a physical manifestation for all of the pent-up hatred directed at the almost-trillionaire. Beyond the truck becoming a major target for vandalism and open mockery, the vehicle has also been haunted by near-constant technical issues and has been [recalled in the US a whopping eleven times]() over its short production run. **More on the Cybertruck:** [*The Death of the Cybertruck Proves That Elon Musk Can’t Actually Predict the Future*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [The Cybertruck Is Now the Cheapest Tesla]() - [Tesla Winding Down Cybertruck Production After Dismal Sales]() - [Extremely Beat Up Tesla Cybertruck Spotted on Public Street]() - [Tesla Admits Its Cybertrucks Lose Their Value Insanely Fast]() - [Cybertruck Manufacturing Is a Disaster, Tesla Insiders Say]() - [Tesla Is Apparently Delaying the Disastrous Cybertruck Another Year]() - [Tesla Engineers Hated the Cybertruck So Much They Started Secretly Designing an Alternative]() - [Elon Musk Admits He Worried “Nobody Would Buy” Tesla’s Cybertruck]()