Tesla Halts Cybertruck Sales in Australia and New Zealand

Tesla has ceased production plans for the Cybertruck in the Australian and New Zealand markets, notifying reservation holders that their orders are cancelled. Emails sent to customers state that plans to build the vehicle for these regions have been discontinued, resulting in the voiding of orders. Refunds for deposits are scheduled to be processed within 30 days. To encourage existing customers to transition to other models, Tesla is offering a complimentary one-year subscription to FSD (Supervised) for those who place an order for a Model 3 or Model Y.

The cancellation effectively ends a wait that began for many customers in November 2019, when the initial deposit to reserve a vehicle was set at A$150. At that time, Tesla did not confirm regional reservation numbers, but a crowdsourced survey from 2020 indicated that Australia was the third-largest market for Cybertruck reservations, behind only the United States and Canada, accounting for approximately 3% of the total. By 2023, total reservations tracked for the vehicle had reached around 2 million.

The decision to cancel the vehicle for these markets follows a prolonged period of uncertainty. Tesla removed the Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with an option to get updates, but did not refund deposits at that time. Customers were left waiting for years. In 2024, a Cybertruck was sent to Australia for a display tour, and Elon Musk told shareholders that year that certification for other markets might be possible sometime the following year. That timeline passed without a right-hand-drive version of the vehicle being produced.

The primary obstacle to producing the vehicle for Australia and New Zealand has been engineering and certification costs. The Cybertruck is manufactured exclusively in left-hand drive, whereas these markets, along with the UK and Japan, require right-hand drive. Additionally, Australia mandates certification under its own specific design rules, representing a significant expense for a vehicle that is already facing demand issues in North America.

The financial justification for such an investment is also lacking. Tesla’s international Cybertruck deliveries have been confined to left-hand-drive markets, including South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The vehicle remains unavailable in the European Union due to pedestrian safety regulations. In Q3 2026, Tesla delivered 8,295 units in the "Other Models" category, which now almost entirely consists of Cybertruck production. This quarterly figure, estimated at 7,000 to 8,000 units, represents an annual production rate of roughly 30,000, far below the line's capacity of 250,000 units per year. This volume is not sufficient to justify the cost of re-engineering the vehicle for the Australian and New Zealand markets, which have a combined population of about 33 million.

Tesla's decision to close the order page in 2022 without communicating with customers, while the CEO continued to discuss future certification, left many waiting for a vehicle that would not be built for them. The Cybertruck that was eventually delivered in 2023 differs from the one reserved in 2019, featuring a higher price and less range than initially promised. Furthermore, US sales of the Cybertruck have declined significantly from approximately 39,000 units in 2024 to a fraction of that number currently. This situation indicates that the vehicle is now a niche product, primarily for the American market, and that international efforts are focused on selling existing left-hand-drive inventory rather than expanding production for right-hand-drive markets.