Seven Years of Deposits Void: Tesla Drops Cybertruck from Oceania

Tesla is ending its Cybertruck plans for Australia and New Zealand, telling reservation holders their orders are cancelled and their deposits returned.

The automaker has begun sending emails to affected customers informing them that production for these regions will not happen. Reservation holders in Australia first paid A$150 to reserve the electric pickup in November 2019, a wait of nearly seven years. Tesla has stated it will issue a full refund for any payments made, with processing expected within 30 days. The company is also offering a free one-year subscription to FSD (Supervised) to those who choose to order a Model 3 or Model Y instead.

The cancellation marks the end of a long period of uncertainty for Australian and New Zealand customers. While a 2020 crowdsourced survey indicated Australia was a significant market, ranking third for Cybertruck reservations behind the United States and Canada, Tesla never confirmed these figures. The company quietly closed its Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with an option to get updates, but did not process refunds at that time. Elon Musk told shareholders in 2024 that certification for other markets might happen "sometime next year," but no right-hand-drive version was developed.

The primary obstacle has been the vehicle's design and the low production volume. The Cybertruck is built only in a left-hand-drive configuration, while Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Japan require right-hand-drive models. Australia also mandates certification under its own design rules, an expensive step for a vehicle with declining demand. Tesla's international launches have been limited to left-hand-drive markets, including South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The vehicle remains unavailable in the EU due to pedestrian safety regulations.

Production figures suggest a right-hand-drive program for a small number of markets would not be justifiable. Tesla delivered just 8,295 units in a category that is now almost entirely comprised of the Cybertruck during the third quarter of 2026. This pace is far below the production line's capacity of 250,000 units annually. Developing a new version for Australia and New Zealand, which together have a population of about 33 million, is not supported by such volumes.

This decision confirms the Cybertruck's status as a niche product primarily for the American market. Tesla is unlikely to invest further in international expansion for the vehicle, focusing instead on selling existing left-hand-drive inventory in other countries. For those who have waited since 2019, the long process of reserving a vehicle that will not be built for them has finally concluded with a refund.