Update: Musk says Tesla will refund Cybertruck deposits, calls the truck a Cybercab trade-off

Elon Musk said on Monday that Tesla will refund Cybertruck deposits to "a lot of people" because it cannot build enough trucks before production stops in about eight months, according to TechCrunch, which quoted his post on X. We could not read the post itself, so the wording here is as TechCrunch reported it.

This updates our Saturday story on the extra shift and the Friday report on the wind-down. What is new: the deposit refunds, and Musk's explanation of why.

What Musk said

TechCrunch reports Musk argued the Cybertruck was not unprofitable. He said the "opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production." In plain terms: the same floor space and staff can earn Tesla more building the two-seat Cybercab robotaxi.

That is a different message from Saturday's, when Musk framed the end as a sell-down of orders that exceed capacity. Both can be true. A truck can sell and still lose the contest for factory room.

The number behind the number

TechCrunch says Musk once cited 1 million reservations and predicted about 250,000 Cybertruck sales a year. Tesla does not report Cybertruck sales separately, and TechCrunch puts industry estimates at roughly 71,000 trucks sold since deliveries began in November 2023. Our earlier story, citing the BBC and Kelley Blue Book, had 20,237 sold in 2025, down from 38,965 in 2024.

So the gap is stark. Even at the 71,000 estimate, that is about 7% of the reservation count Musk cited, and the estimate itself is not a Tesla figure. TechCrunch also notes that SpaceX bought $131 million of Cybertrucks from Tesla in 2025, per its S-1; we have not checked that filing ourselves, so treat the figure as TechCrunch's.

Who it actually hits

• A reservation holder: Musk's words suggest not everyone will get a truck. A refund returns your cash but not your place in line, so confirm in writing whether your order is on the build list or the refund list, and when.
• A contractor or fleet buyer planning a 2027 work truck: if the order may be refunded, start pricing other trucks now. A job that needs a vehicle in spring should not hinge on a slot Tesla has said it may not fill.
• Owners of existing trucks: Musk said last week the fleet would be supported long term. We still have not seen a parts or warranty commitment in writing.

The stock

Nasdaq's quote page showed Tesla at $377.85, up 5.48% for the day, at 11:51 AM ET on Monday. We did not find a source tying that move to the Cybertruck news, so we do not link the two. Tesla has also not filed anything on the wind-down that we could find.

Sources: TechCrunch (Nov. 9, 2026); Nasdaq quote data (Nov. 9, 2026, 11:51 AM ET); BBC News and Kelley Blue Book via our earlier reporting. This is market information, not investment advice.