Tesla voids seven years of Cybertruck orders in Australia and New Zealand

A$150. That is the deposit amount that Tesla will now refund to thousands of customers in Australia and New Zealand after officially cancelling the Cybertruck for the region. The move concludes a wait that began in November 2019, meaning many reservation holders have been holding their funds for nearly seven years.

Tesla sent emails to affected customers on October 23, 2026, stating that plans to produce the vehicle for the two markets have been discontinued. The company confirmed that all reservations are now void and that full refunds for any payments made will be processed within 30 days. This announcement came just one day after the automaker reported its third-quarter 2026 earnings.

To soften the blow, Tesla is offering a free one-year subscription to its Full Self-Driving Supervised feature for those who order a new Model 3 or Model Y. This strategy appears designed to convert lapsed pickup truck reservations into sales of sedans and sport utility vehicles that the company already manufactures in right-hand-drive configurations.

The core obstacle for the Cybertruck has always been its design. The vehicle is built exclusively in left-hand drive, whereas Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Japan require right-hand-drive vehicles. Australia also mandates certification under its own specific design rules. For a truck facing demand challenges in North America, the cost of re-engineering the platform for right-hand drive was likely too steep.

Market data supports the decision to pull out. Tesla delivered only 8,295 units categorized as Other Models in the third quarter of 2026. Since production of the Model S and Model X has ended, this figure is almost entirely composed of Cybertrucks. Analysts estimate this represents a sales pace of roughly 30,000 units annually, far below the production line’s capacity of 250,000 units per year.

The truck has found success in left-hand-drive markets such as South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. However, it remains blocked in the European Union due to pedestrian safety concerns. With the combined population of Australia and New Zealand at approximately 33 million, the volume does not justify the investment in a new right-hand-drive version.

Australia had been a significant market on paper, with crowdsourced surveys in 2020 placing it third in global reservations behind the US and Canada. Despite this, Tesla quietly closed the Australian reservation page in May 2022 without refunding customers at the time. The company had previously shipped a display unit to the region and suggested certification for other markets could happen the following year, but that deadline passed without a right-hand-drive model arriving.

The cancellation confirms that the Cybertruck is evolving into a niche product primarily for the American and other left-hand-drive markets. While some customers may have already cancelled their pre-orders due to changes in price and range, this official end to the program provides closure for those who waited through years of uncertainty and delayed timelines.