Tesla drops pickup plan for Australia and New Zealand
The automaker is cancelling Cybertruck orders in the two countries and refunding deposits collected over the past seven years.
By Lauren Collins ·
Tesla has cancelled plans to sell the Cybertruck in Australia and New Zealand, ending a reservation process that began in late 2019. The company notified reservation holders through emails sent to their accounts, stating that the program to produce the vehicle for those markets has been discontinued. According to the correspondence, any orders placed are now void and will be cancelled.
The cancellation brings a close to a long period of waiting for customers who placed deposits in November 2019. At that time, reserving the electric pickup required an A$150 payment. Tesla has stated that it will issue a full refund for any payments made toward these orders. The processing of these refunds is scheduled to be completed within 30 days.
Alongside the notice of cancellation, Tesla is offering a specific incentive to those who held reservations. Individuals who choose to order a Model 3 or Model Y vehicle instead will receive a one-year subscription to FSD (Supervised) at no cost. This offer is intended to guide customers who were waiting for the pickup toward other vehicles in the company's lineup.
The market for the vehicle in Australia appeared significant based on data collected outside of the company. A survey conducted in 2020 regarding reservations indicated that Australia ranked third in the world for interest in the pickup, following the United States and Canada. By 2023, tracking efforts suggested that total reservations for the vehicle globally had reached approximately 2 million.
Tesla's handling of the Australian market involved a long period of silence. The company removed the reservation page for the country in May 2022, replacing it with an option to receive updates, but did not refund the deposits held at that time. In 2024, a display vehicle was sent to the region for a tour, and Elon Musk told shareholders that year that certification for other markets might happen sometime next year. That deadline passed without a vehicle being released for those countries.
The inability to produce the vehicle for those markets stems from its design and manufacturing specifications. The Cybertruck is currently built only in a left-hand drive configuration, while Australia and New Zealand require right-hand drive vehicles. Additionally, sales in Australia require the vehicle to meet specific national certification requirements, a process that involves additional costs for development.
The decision also reflects the sales volume the company is seeing for this specific model. During the third quarter of 2026, Tesla delivered 8,295 vehicles in a category that includes this pickup, as production of other models in that grouping has ended. This figure suggests an annual production rate of roughly 30,000 units, which is far below the capacity of the assembly line built for 250,000 units per year.
The company has focused its international sales efforts for this vehicle on markets that use a left-hand drive configuration. Deliveries began in South Korea late last year and in the United Arab Emirates in January, followed by sales in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The vehicle remains unavailable in the European Union, largely due to regulations regarding pedestrian safety.
The cancellation of the program in Australia and New Zealand does not appear to be part of a larger strategy for the vehicle in those regions. The company is not likely to invest further in adapting the design for right-hand drive markets. The focus for international sales will remain on finding buyers for existing left-hand drive units.
Source: Electrek
